Celine Grant voted vice president of the Recycling Association

Celine Grant has been voted by members of The Recycling Association to become its vice president. The voting took place at its annual AGM. Celine, who is currently commercial director of Re-Gen Waste, will take over from Craig Curtis as president in 2024.

A succession for president was put in place following decisions made by the board of The Recycling Association. At the moment, Celine is a board member of both The Recycling Association and its trading company IWPP.

Celine commented: "I'm absolutely delighted to be the first vice president of The Recycling Association in many years. In particular, I want to use my vice presidency to encourage more women to be active in the recycling industry.

"I look forward to working with Craig and The Recycling Association's chief executive Simon Ellin over the next two years ahead of succeeding Craig in 2024."

The Recycling Association president Craig Curtis added: "Celine brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to the board of The Recycling Association and the wider industry.

"She was a very popular choice to be vice president, and I look forward to collaborating with her to improve the recycling industry over the next couple of years."

Wastesavers HWRC shops diverting more than 620 tonnes per year

Wastesavers, a charity based in South Wales, has released figures which reveal that its shops, at seven HWRC sites and one high street Reuse Centre, diverted 620.7 tonnes of reusable items last year (2021-22).

The HWRC shops are run in partnership with Blaeneau Gwent, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, RCT and Torfaen local authorities, and two more shops are planned to open this year.

In total, 300,000 items were recorded being diverted by the shops last year, a figure that Wastesavers predict to grow as more shops are opened.

The partnerships between Wastesavers and the local authorities enables profits to be shared with the councils. The charity revealed that this helps reduce waste disposal costs whilst generating an income that  is reinvested in the organisation's charitable activities.

Wastesavers CEO Penny Goodwin said: “These figures are amazing and indicate how shops at HWRC’s can make a significant contribution to council diversion targets.

“Wales is currently on target to reach its 70 per cent recycling rate but we are already moving beyond recycling and up the waste hierarchy to promot[e] reuse. Every HWRC should have a shop.”

Alun Harries, Charity Manager with Wastesavers, also commented: “We see this as a route to employment and reducing social isolation as well as addressing recycling targets.

“More than 30 per cent of our paid charity staff were previously volunteers at these shops and we work closely with local charities to help people in need.”

Reconomy announces plan to turn banners into bags

Reconomy has partnered with signage and advertising company Out of Hand and recycling business MYgroup to recycle printed banners into litter picking bags. The project will supply charity Surfers Against Sewage with bags to use in their beach clean up events.

An initial pilot of the plan used exhibition graphics recovered and processed into 50 litter picking bags, which will be tested when Reconomy, MYgroup and Surfers Against Sewage team up for a beach clean up later this year.

According to the three companies, converting around 34 tonnes of PVC graphics into over 40,000 litter picking bags per year would produce more than a year’s supply for the Surfers Against Sewage volunteers across the UK.

Printed banner materials provide a specific challenge to recycling and finding sustainable routes to the various plastic polymer types and inks that are used to create the finished product.

Katie Robinson, Textiles Specialist at MYgroup said: “At MYgroup, we always look to take on the challenge of recycling and remanufacturing difficult materials to give them a second life; PVC is a durable, weatherproof and long-lasting material and ideal for outdoor banners etc., but with display campaigns tending to be short-lived, they quickly become obsolete and are problematic to recycle through traditional methods.

“Surfers Against Sewage needed a sustainable solution for their litter bags and Out of Hand wanted to reduce their waste banner material. With a little ‘out of the box’ thinking MYgroup and Reconomy have solved both issues reusing valuable secondary resources and avoiding the production of more virgin products.”

Fly-tipping duo caught dumping hundreds of kilos of rubbish

A Redbridge resident recently reported hundreds of kilos of rubbish being dumped illegally in the borough and assisted in a successful court prosecution against the offenders.

Mike Lunangu, of Gosterwood Street, Deptford and Nkame Mayasi, of Enfield, were given court imposed fines and costs totalling £2620 after the fly-tip, on Blacksmith Close, was traced back to them.

A witness spotted the pair unload hundreds of kilos of rubbish by a bin enclosure designated for use by residents living on a private residential estate on Blacksmith Close.

Metal and concrete were amongst the rubbish that the duo dumped, all of which was later removed via the estate’s managing agents who were alerted to the fly-tip.

The witness reported the incident to Redbridge Council, with this being followed by an investigation by Redbridge’s Enforcement Team which led to Lunangu and Mayasi being identified as those responsible.

The pair were summoned to Barkingside Magistrates Court and charged with fly-tipping. On Tuesday 26 April, both men appeared at court and pleaded guilty to fly-tipping. They were each sentenced to a fine and ordered to pay court and council costs, and pay compensation, totalling £1,310.        

Sarah Foster, Redbridge Council’s Operational Director for Civic Pride, said: “Redbridge is our home and we all deserve to live in a clean and safe environment. Anyone coming into our borough thinking they can just dump their rubbish and go, should think again.

“This latest successful prosecution stems from a local witness coming forward and working with our council enforcement teams to bring this pair to justice. It should serve as a warning to other potential offenders that as a community we won’t tolerate this kind of dreadful, selfish behaviour.”

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