Old televisions, washing machines, videos, blenders, in fact any Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE) has been collected and recycled for free in Reading, Basingstoke and Deane throughout July.

This is part of a trial which was carried out by specialist recycling company WeCollectWaste (who are owned by WasteCare) in conjunction with Tesco, Reading Borough Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council with the aim of increasing public awareness about WEEE recycling.

All types of WEEE was collected direct from manned reception points at Tesco's car parks in the town every Sunday during July. In addition WeCollectWaste.com offered an online service for the collection of large items directly from households.

Peter Hunt, Chairman of WeCollectWaste said: “We know that there is a lot of old electrical equipment in people’s garages and cupboards across the country, we want to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle these items responsibly. Therefore, we have been trialling schemes where we take our service straight to them.”

"The trial, combined with local radio advertising has demonstrated that there is a demand for an easily accessible service. We now intend expanding the online doorstep collection service across the country whilst we look to develop local campaigns to promote WEEE recycling."

Waste collection and recycling company WasteCare has purchased a site in Birmingham that adjoins their original site on Willenhall Lane in Bloxwich.
The acquisition has increased WasteCare’s capacity in Birmingham as the site has now doubled in size. The new site will be the main hub for WasteCare’s ClothCare operation which was recently announced. This is a specialist cloth supply, collection and recycling service for the printing industry.
Peter Hunt, chairman of WasteCare said: “We will now be able to offer even more services in and around the Birmingham area, we have great plans for expansion in the future.”

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) has launched a £2m loan fund for mixed plastic packaging recycling in the UK.
The Mixed Plastics Loan Fund (MPLF) aims to support UK reprocessing of plastics including yoghurt pots, margarine tubs and plastic food trays. At the moment, 90 per cent of mixed plastic packaging ends up in landfill and MPLF will help potential investment in reprocessing capacity.
The fund will be open to applications until 31 December, anyone interested in applying for the funding should visit the Wrap website at www.wrap.org.uk

WeeeCare has started a radio campaign that will run throughout July to inform the local public about a free collection service for their waste electronics. Click here to listen.
Old televisions, washing machines, videos, blenders, in fact any Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE) will be collected and recycled for free in Basingstoke throughout July.

This is part of a trial which is being carried out by specialist recycling company WeeeCare in conjunction with Tesco and Basingstoke and deane borough council.

All types of WEEE will be collected direct from households and from Tesco car park’s in the town every Sunday during the month. This is part of a drive by WeeeCare to highlight the waste collection and recycling services that are available to the general public.

Peter Hunt, Chairman of WeeeCare said: “We know that there is a lot of old electrical equipment in people’s garages and spare rooms across the country, we want to make it as easy as possible for people to dispose of these items responsibly. Therefore, we are taking our service straight to them.”

If the trial is successful it could lead to further specialist WEEE collection services being set up by the firm across the country.

ClothCare is a new specialist recycling service for rags, wipes and cloths used in the printing industry. The company supplies, collects and recycles cloths to the industry, providing an easy to use and environmentally friendly service.

WasteCare has been providing recycling services to printers for 30 years. Now, through a partnership with Print Cloth Ltd, ClothCare has been established.

ClothCare imports the best quality cloths made from natural cotton. The cloths are distributed in 10kg bags to anywhere within the UK. Used cloths are collected and returned for recovery free of charge.

The bespoke process quality checks every item before 100 per cent of the oil and solvent is removed from the material. The recovered hydrocarbons are treated and blended to produce a fuel for energy recovery. The wipes are further screened and the best are picked for re-use. The remainder are processed to make Pro-Fuel. There is absolutely no waste produced from this process.

For as little as 7p each the cloths are delivered ready to use, guaranteeing lint free absorbency. After use they are collected free of charge.

The delivery and collection service is also very sustainable. With the highest density collection fleet serving the printing industry WasteCare guarantee the lowest carbon footprint, in fact using a ClothCare cloth can save you over 2kg of carbon.

To find out more phone ClothCare on Tel:0800 091 000

Figures published by the Sunday Telegraph have revealed that householders are being fined more for breaking the rules on bin use and recycling than they would be for shoplifting.

The paper contacted all 358 local councils in England and found out from the 207 that responded that 1,240 fixed penalty notices and 24,914 official statutory notices were issued last year.

Fines of up to £110 are being issued to householders for infringements including over filling bins, not sorting recycling properly and putting bins out at the wrong time.

Environmental wardens, nicknamed the 'bin police' monitor bin use on behalf of councils, and sometimes go through rubbish looking for evidence of which household the waste originates from.

Some areas are now issuing up to nine bins to householders. Authorities insist that penalties are required in order to enforce the rules and meet European targets.

In the early hours of Thursday, a fire broke out in the storage compound area at WasteCare’s facility in Garforth.

A company spokesperson said:

“Fortunately none of our personnel were on site at the time of the fire.

We take this incident extremely seriously and will be carrying out a thorough investigation into the cause. We are currently working with the Environment Agency to ensure there is no environmental damage.

All operations have been transferred to other WasteCare facilities and there will be no delays or changes to any of our services. Our national waste collection and recycling services continue to operate as normal.

We would like to thank the emergency services for their excellent effort and appreciate the patience of the local residents.”

If any customers would like assistance following the incident, please do not hesitate to call us on 0800 091 0000.

Conservative MP Caroline Spelman has taken over as Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs replacing Hilary Benn. Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne has also been appointed to the department.

Spelman says: “I will work across government and beyond to respond to challenges of increasing food production, adapting to climate change, protecting our national environment and ensuring we live sustainably.”

Legislative pressures could lead to the UK becoming a leader in the waste management of batteries, according to a report published by consultants Frost & Sullivan.

The report, ‘European Batteries Waste Management Market’ looks at current and future market prospects for collecting, treating and disposing of waste batteries across Europe. The report claims that EU-wide battery waste management revenues will have increased by an average of 32 per cent a year between 2009 and 2016.

With the UK portable battery collection rate, estimated to be as low as 3 per cent last year, the report states that, “demand for battery waste management will steadily rise over the forecast period as legislative pressure for compliance in the UK, Southern Europe and CEE region support demand for immediate and reliable solutions to manage their battery waste needs.”

The report says that, while battery recycling companies have a strong presence in Germany, France and Scandinavian countries, the EU Batteries Directive will pave the way for developing facilities in other countries, such as the UK.

The report states that, “the UK market is expected to be a significant regional centre of activity in lieu of the new legislation that establishes the legislative framework for the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators.”

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has said that Scotland will struggle to meet its target of recycling 40 per cent of rubbish by the end of 2010. Latest recycling figures show that the country currently recycles 34 per cent of rubbish. This is almost double the recycling rate of five years ago. However, there is a concern that the speed of increase in recycling rates has slowed considerably in recent years.

The latest report ‘Waste Data Digest 10’, revealed that recycling rates rose by just 4 per cent between 2007 and 2008 compared to a 13 per cent increase between 2006 and 2007.

Martin Marsden, head of environmental quality at SEPA says, “The target to recycle 30 per cent of Scotland’s waste was met at the end of 2008, although meeting the 40 per cent target will be more challenging.”

New research has shown that more bins can have a detrimental effect on the amount of waste householders recycle.

Staffordshire Council recently gained a mixed response from householders when they issued nine different bins to families in the area. The bins were for garden waste, non-recyclables, food, cardboard, plastic, paper, glass clothes and compost.

But this approach may be wrong, as research shows that making householders sort waste may lead to lower recycling rates.

According to the data, there is a 25 per cent increase in household recycling when only one bin is required for ‘dry’ recycling such as plastic and glass. Councils that have retained the one bin scheme have collected up to 627lbs per household, whereas, authorities that require sorting prior to pick-up only collected 525lbs from each household.

As we wake up to a new if uncertain political regime and the most anxious economic climate since the 1930's what impact will there be on the recycling sector?

“Poor societies waste less and recycle more. Unparalleled levels of debt have disguised to many how poor we now are as a country. The new Government will have no alternative but to reduce financial waste and cut the burgeoning public growth. In the absence of a decisive mandate we can only hope that we take the opportunity to unburden private enterprise and give light support to the recycling sector rather than weigh down recycling initiatives with all too often poor regulation and unnecessary bureaucracy.

"The Conservatives appear to have been the only party who addressed business waste management within their manifesto. They have promised to keep Landfill Tax at a minimum until 2020, this will give businesses the incentive to re-assess their waste management policy and look for greener ways of dealing with waste rather than sending more to landfill than any other member of the EC. The party have also pledged to set new voluntary agreements with producers and retailers to set targets for waste reduction and recycling. This would be a positive step forward; we now have to wait to see if they get the opportunity to make the change the country needs."

A new survey carried out by Keep Scotland Beautiful has found that most residents living in the Edinburgh and Midlothian area are recycling.
The survey was commissioned by the two local authorities and will now be used to shape future waste policy. Encouragingly, the survey found that people weren’t just recycling more, but that they were also making efforts to reduce the amount of waste that they produce.
Russell Imrie, of Midlothian Council, said: "The majority of our residents are keen recyclers and use the services the council provides to do their part in protecting the environment.
"Progress has been very encouraging to date and we'll be using this research to shape our future waste strategies to make sure we treat our waste in the most sustainable way possible."

Peter Hustinx, a European data protection supervisor has called for a European law that would require digital equipment makers to build in an easy, free way to delete all personal data. He has also called for a ban on the sale of second-hand electronic goods that have not been properly wiped.

The recommendations are contained in an opinion paper he has published on planned changes to EU waste laws aimed at forcing producers to take more responsibility for the disposal and recycling of electronic goods. The European Commission (EC) has announced it will revise the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive to solve technical, administrative and legal problems in the law.

Sainsbury's has reached the first target set out in the Milk Roadmap by using 10 per cent recycled content in its HDPE bottles. The Milk Roadmap was launched in 2008 and sets a target of 10 per cent recycled material in milk packaging by 2010 rising to 30 per cent by 2015 and 50 per cent by 2020.

The news comes less than a week after Sainsbury's revealed that it was looking to expand the use of plastic bags for milk after the format had proven to be popular with consumers.

Bob Mead, Environment Agency batteries implementation project manager recently told MRW that the UK is on track to meet it’s 2010 portable battery recycling target. However, Peter Hunt, chief executive of BatteryBack warned: “This year was always going to be a breeze, but next year may be a struggle for some. A lot more needs to be done to raise awareness and get more people to bring their batteries to collection points.”

Under the Battery Regulations, battery compliance schemes have to collect, treat and recycle batteries on behalf of large producers.

The 10 per cent interim target for 2010 is based on battery sales figures for 2009 of around 45,000 tonnes. This means that schemes will now have to collect 4,474 tonnes of batteries by the end of this year. Schemes will have to report their first quarter’s collection data figures by the end of April.

Bristol has launched a new mixed recycling scheme. 18,000 households will be involved in the new pilot project. If it is successful the council will consider rolling out the project across the city. Households have been given water proof sacks to collect waste plastic in. These will be collected each week along with regular recycling black bins.

The council says all plastics from households can be placed in the sacks for recycling. Items include shampoo bottles, cleaning products, and food and beverage containers. Hard plastics such as toys, cling film, video cassettes, crisp packets, and carrier bags, will not be accepted for collection. The council has estimated that the new scheme will collect up to 774 tonnes of plastic products each year. 86 tonnes of plastic bottles are collected by the city’s recycling banks each month, the equivalent of 25.8 million bottles each year. Households not taking a part in the pilot programme can still participate by taking mixed plastics to local recycling sites.

A report carried out by telecoms analysts Ovum has found that mobile phone recycling in the UK has doubled between 2008 and 2009. According to the research, eight million mobile phones were recycled in the UK in 2009, double the four million collected in 2008.

The report suggests that, unsurprisingly, this is due to the financial incentives offered for recycling mobile phones and the fact that there are a number of companies fighting for this business. It also found that most of these phones end up being re-used overseas rather than being recycled.

In its manifesto, the Green Party has pledged to almost double spending on recycling and waste management. The document, entitled ‘fair is worth fighting for', sets out the party's plans for addressing the triple economic, environmental and social crises facing the country- claiming that the other parties have not done enough to tackle inequality and drive sustainability.

The Green Party says that it would spend an extra £3bn per year on recycling and waste disposal, saying "we have to recognise that sophisticated waste management costs more than burying it in the ground." The expansion in waste services would also lead to an extra 60,000 jobs, helping the economy while also cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The spending would be part of a Green New Deal to help create jobs and move to a low carbon economy and would be funded through cutting spending in other areas such as defence, roads and ID cards. The Party also says it would aim for a 70 per cent domestic recycling rate by 2015.

Scotland has launched a new zero waste campaign and unveiled a report of the country’s current recycling record all in one day. This underlines their hardline approach to waste management going forward.
The report showed that recycling levels are high for items such as newspapers and glass, but that there is much room for improvement in other areas. The average Scottish household throws away 260kg of recyclable material each year. The Zero Waste recycling campaign will work in partnership with local authorities and grocers to educate the public on how they can do their bit in their local area in the form of nation-wide road shows. Television, radio and outdoor adverts will be seen across Scotland for up to six weeks. A 10 foot blue elephant, taken from the advertising creative, will also tour iconic locations across Scotland to remind people to recycle more items, more often. It will also appear at various supermarkets across Scotland.

Peter Hunt, managing director of WasteCare says: “The Scottish government has taken a hard line on this, and it is proving extremely successful. I hope the future government here can learn from their excellent example.”

A consultation has been launched to seek views on proposed changes to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007.

The UK has a good record for recycling packaging and reached its targets of recovering at least 60 per cent of packaging and recycling 55 per cent by December 2008. It is thought that the targets were achieved because the obligations put the onus onto the packaging producer.

At present targets have only been set to the end of 2010, now the government wants to set business targets up to 2020 in order to improve performance further.

One of the main proposals is to increase the recycling rate to 70 per cent by 2020. Within this separate targets may be set for different types of plastics and glass.

Midex RT Ltd, the Camberley based WEEE recycler, has increased recycling rates by over 40 per cent in a year through offering a unique door-step amnesty collection service. Aptly named "WeeeCollect", the service has been running for just over a year and offers householders a free door-step collection of all types of WEEE. The company works in conjunction with local authorities to provide amnesty days for waste to be collected direct from homes. The service has proved hugely popular; as householders often have old electrical items around the home that they haven't got round to recycling.

Alison Hull, Community Champion for Midex explains: "Last year we offered the pilot service to over 250,000 homes across a number of Council regions to evaluate the viability of running a free scheme. We knew from EA data that over 70 per cent of WEEE was not knowingly being recycled and we could see the current regulations and recycling network was not going to expose this material. By offering a free service to encourage people to clear out garages and empty cupboards, we knew most of the WEEE we collected would have otherwise been lost."

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council were the first to come on board and support the trials in July followed by Reading Borough Council in December. Over 250 tonnes of WEEE will be generated in a year from these two projects alone. Following the success of these pilot projects, Midex now plans to roll out this popular service across the UK.

Pam Hudson, Operations Manager for Midex says: "Operational costs are high and margins low but the Midex model has achieved a very small carbon footprint, beating the CA site alternative and matching retail in-store take-back schemes. We report all recycling data back to the council so they are able to measure accurately their individual recycling performance. We have also launched another ground breaking service "WeCollectWaste" this service will handle all other types of recyclables for businesses, e.g. batteries, confidential documents , lighting and general office waste."

WeeeCollect.com is a free service for retailers and has an exclusive agreement with BatteryBack the nations leading battery recycling scheme. Midex is unique in its combination of providing a nationwide collection fleet, a network of their own recycling facilities and most importantly a home for the recovered metals, plastics and glass. In addition to this the company provides the all important evidence as Midex has an exclusive contract with WeeeCare plc to provide low cost evidence for WeeeCare members.

Turning "lost" waste into evidence has to be today's equivalent of turning base metal into gold. Midas would have been proud!

Visit www.weeecollect.com or wwww.WeCollectWaste.com for further details

WEEE will be the focus for this years Recycle Week campaign in June. This will be the first time that the campaign has promoted the recycling of one waste type above all others.

Recycle Week began in 2004 and was launched to encourage waste reduction and recycling.

A statement on the recyclenow partners website said: “Join us in promoting Lets waste less this Recycle Week between June 21st and 27th 2010. This year the focus is on waste electricals.”

A UN study has suggested that the increased dumping of waste computers, mobile phones and other electronic equipment poses a serious threat to our health and environment in the future.

The study suggests that the World needs to do more to ensure that more electronic waste is collected for recycling rather than going to landfill. It warns that the amount of e-waste being produced could rise by as much as 500 per cent over the next decade. The main concern is that much of this waste contains toxic material as it decays and therefore could cause substantial problems in the future.

Guido Sonnermann, programme officer for Unep says: “This is a global question. This problem is not going away, it’s growing.”

The problem is particularly acute in countries like Africa, China and India but it is not a problem that Europe can ignore. Ruediger Kuehr of the United Nations University says: “There’s still a high growth rate in developed countries. It’s an increasing, growing and pressing problem everywhere, including Europe. The collection rates are simply too little.”

The UN wants to see more support for communities in what it terms “informal” collection facilities and it wants to see better enforcement of recycling and anti-dumping laws.

Peter Hunt, managing director of WeeeCare says: “We have the facilities to recycle electronic waste, we have to make recycling as easy as possible for the public. More needs to be done to make the public aware that these services are available.”

Bristol City Council has announced that it will be conducting a new trial recycling scheme aimed at boosting recycling efforts in the area.

It is hoped that the scheme will reduce the amount of household waste going to landfill. Residents will have to volunteer to participate at this stage. Those who take part will be given a chipped wheelie bin which will be weighed every week – the bins that weight the least will indicate where more recycling is taking place. The householders who produce the least waste for landfill will be rewarded with cash prizes.

The maximum incentive that can be earned is a total of £17.50 per person per household each year, so a household could earn around £40 each year just for recycling waste.

The Council will now submit the proposal to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask for support and funding for the trial.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said that more roadside collection points and greater information to the public are two ‘critical’ factors in ensuring Britain meets its battery recycling targets.

The Consortium is confident that retailers are ready and willing to provide this service. Bob Gordon, head of environment at BRC says: “The aim of reducing the number of batteries going to landfill is a good one. Retailers recognise their responsibilities and they’re ready with the facilities.”

The challenge now is to make sure that the provided collection points cause minimum disruption to the retailers and customers. BatteryBack appear to be the only battery recycler that have come up with a bespoke, easily recognisable container which has been specially designed to cause minimum disruption throughout the collection and recycling process. Peter Hunt, Chief executive of BatteryBack explains: "As far as we are aware only one other scheme is supplying a recycling vessel to retailers, and this is in the form of a cardboard box which cannot be used to transport the batteries. The BatteryCans that we use are robust and offer minimal disruption to the retailer as they do not have to be decanted before transportation."

BatteryBack already has over 10,000 battery collection points across the UK at civic amenity sites, schools, supermarkets and other retailers. The number of BatteryCan collection points is growing daily and BatteryBack aim to have 30,000 sites by the end of 2010.

Latest figures from the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) have shown that some 10,000 tonnes of rubbish put out for recycling was rejected by its £5m sorting machine in the last 12 months.

At present around one third of all waste is recycled in Merseyside, and the local authorities are keen to increase this. However about one tonne in every seven being to the recycling facility is being rejected.

A spokesperson for the Bidston Materials Recovery Facility says: “This is stuff that people are putting in recycling bins in error such as yoghurt pots and plastic film.”

People are clearly trying to recycle, but more education on what can and can’t be recycled is obviously still needed.

Research by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has shown that men use more batteries than women. According to the survey, the average UK male owns 12 battery operated gadgets.

The survey also found that almost two thirds of these males throw away their used batteries rather than recycling them.

It is estimated that only 3 per cent of batteries are currently recycled. The Uk target for battery recycling is for 25 per cent by 2012.

Peter Hunt, chief executive of BatteryBack says: “We have done a lot of work to raise awareness of the battery recycling facilities that are now available across the country. Consumers should start to notice our BatteryCan recycling points at civic amenities, supermarkets and other retailers across the country. The convenience of these facilities should encourage more people to recycle their batteries from now on.”

The Scottish Government has promised to provide an extra £7m of funding for council waste and recycling services. This follows the release of figures which revealed that the country is a long way off meeting its 2010 target to recycle 40 per cent of municipal waste by the end of 2010.

The figures showed that Scotland only managed to achieve a 35.9 per cent recycling rate for the time period of October 2008 to September 2009. The data was collated by the government waste database WasteDataFlow and published by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).

Richard Lochhead, environment secretary said, “18 of our 32 authorities have met the target. These, targets, therefore, are attainable. To help the 14 under achieving local authorities we have announced an extra £7m for local government funding. We are also planning a national campaign to get everyone in the recycling habit.”

BatteryBack is receiving unprecedented levels of enquiries from the general public and battery retailers following prime time coverage earlier this week on both the BBC and ITV national news. Coverage from both networks demonstrated the new retail recycling service by showcasing the leading service provider – BatteryBack; as their distinctive eye-catching containers were clearly visible throughout the news item.

From last Monday new Regulations have come into force that require retailers of batteries to offer free battery collection to their customers. BatteryBack has been running a campaign since last September to ensure all UK retailers are ready in time to meet the new Regulations. So far over 11,500 outlets have taken up the free service. As a result of this fantastic coverage, BatteryBack are now proving irresistibly popular with both the general public, wishing to learn more about battery recycling, and retailers, hoping to benefit from the same service shown on the TV. With enquiries reaching into the hundreds every day, BatteryBack is set to become Britain's favourite battery recycler. Britain currently disposes of over 1 billion batteries every year.

Please click here to view the coverage.

Following the official start of the Battery Recycling Scheme on the 1st January 2010, the Government has urged the public to recycle their used batteries.

On their website Directgov say: "Until now, it hasn't always been easy to recycle batteries, as you may not have had a collection point near you,"

"The good news is that you can now expect to find collection points in most supermarkets and many high street shops, as well as some town halls, libraries and schools."

According to Directgov, over 12,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be avoided if the country can meet its target of recycling at least 45 per cent of batteries by 2016.

WasteCare is one of the main schemes to provide battery recycling services in the UK. Their battery cans (where the public can leave their used batteries) can be found in may retail outlets including Morrions and Asda.

Defra has launched a consultation which will eventually make producers of farms films responsible for the collection and recycling of the material. The aim is to recycle 80 per cent of the material within four years. At the moment, only 20 per cent of the material is recycled.

The consultation, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, outlines two potential approaches to introducing producer responsibility for farm films - or non-packaging agricultural plastics - such as silage wrap and crop covers.

The plan also outlines staged targets for collecting the 83,000 tonnes of waste farm films that arise in the UK each year, starting at 40 per cent in 2012, moving to 60 per cent in 2013 and 70 per cent in 2014, before the eventual 80 per cent goal.

The plans are out for consultation until 22nd February 2010.

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has said that anticipated alterations to the WEEE Directive will not come into force until the end of the year.

The changes are expected to lead to a three fold increase in the amount of electrical equipment covered by the Directive therefore tripling the recycling targets for WEEE. According to letsrecycle.com, the draft recast of the WEEE Directive is currently making its way through European Union members involved in the decision process.

However, concern has been aired over proposals to introduce a new 65 per cent collection target to be reached by all member states by 2016 - moving from the current weight-based goals - and to extend producer responsibility.

There is pre-preliminary meeting due on the WEEE Directive by a council working group on the 15th January, a report will then be drawn up outlining the commission's proposals to be voted on by the Parliament's Environmental Committee in April. A full plenary session of the Parliament is then set to vote on proposed amendments at a discussion scheduled for June 2010.

Watch this space for more details as this develops throughout the year.

As of 1st January 2010 eleven new experts have joined the WEEE Advisory Body, these experts join the ten existing members of the body to be re-appointed.

Business minister Ian Lucas selected the new members back in the beginning of December, amongst them is Lee Marshall, former chairman of the Local Authority Recycling Committee (LARAC).

The WEEE Advisory Body was formed in December 2007 to help steer government policy on WEEE and provide independent advice on the development of the WEEE system following the implementation of the WEEE Directive in the UK.

The new appointments are:
• Scott Butler - general manager, ERP
• Lynne Cullis - chief operating officer, The Wastepack Group
• Richard Davies - chief executive, Gearrs Wales
• Bill Griffiths - national recycling manager, Viridor
• Barry Groves OBE - director, Northern Compliance
• Andrew Hanratty - compliance director, Veolia Environmental Services
• Adrian Hawkes - director of policy, Valpak
• Simon Hill - commercial manager (recycling), Wincanton
• Lee Marshall - senior manager (policy and Waste), Powys county council
• Claudia Kuss-Tenzer - research and policy programme manager, Waste Watch
• Eddie Taylor - chief executive (strategy), Lighting Industry Federation


Remaining members of the body are:
• Peter Caliafas, chairman
• Julie-Ann Adams - Adams Consulting Services
• Joy Boyce - head of corporate and environmental affairs, Fujitsu Services
• Jonathan Gorman - regulatory policy manager, Tesco Stores
• Gary Griffiths - environmental & quality systems manager, RDC
• John Holbrow - non-executive chairman, Pollution Monitors
• Dr Leigh Holloway - environmental consultant, eco3
• Terry Macguire - chairman and managing director, Computer Remarketing Services
• Dr Kirstie McIntyre - environmental takeback compliance manager, Hewlett Packard
• Mark Shelton - waste promotions manager, Donarbon Waste Management

"The snow lies on the ground, the country is in deep recession, unemployment is rising, the Government are increasing taxes to deal with record breaking budget deficits and Silver Lining Industries is making its first collection of waste."

We are talking about the 6th January 1980. Yes 30 years ago things looked bleak but whether we were brave or daft we felt the need to give it a go. The transport fleet consisted of an Escort estate with trailer. The target market was the recycling of photographic and x-ray silver bearing waste. The first collection was 160 litres of photographic bleach fixer from Wymondham Photographic in Norfolk. The price paid to the customer £120. Yes we paid for the pleasure. However the price of silver had reached £16.20 per ounce, rising to £26.80/oz by April before collapsing to £1.87/oz 15 years later. Even now the price of silver is barely £10/oz and in real terms is worth less than £4/oz.

In the first 10 years we focussed on the printing, x-ray and photo sectors growing market share to 65%, 55% and 70% respectively. Our only income coming from the silver we extracted. Output peaked at 40 tonnes per annum. Fortunately by the mid nineties we began to diversify into recycling electronics, dry cleaning residues and solvents, later expanding heavily in the retail sector. 30 years on the Group now boasts 13 licensed regional facilities, 170 trucks, 360 personnel handling over 12,000 collections per month dealing with over 450 different waste streams on behalf of over 28,000 customers.

Let us see what we can do over the next 30 years and just hope the economy and the weather is a little more favourable next time around.

Thank you to all our customers both old and new for all your support and encouragement over the last 30 years. We look forward to serving you in the future.

Best wishes for 2010 and beyond.