Brief News: Christmas Cheer For Charities In Recycling Drive; Repic Appoints New Environmental Affairs Manager; And More

6 December 2011

Christmas Cheer For Charities In Recycling Drive; Repic Appoints New Environmental Affairs Manager; Bag It - Then Bin It, Says Rhondda Cynon Taf Council

Christmas Cheer For Charities In Edinburgh Recycling DriveEdinburgh residents are being encouraged to recycle their waste at local community recycling centres in an initiative launched by the City of Edinburgh Council that will give eco-friendly residents the opportunity to vote for their favourite charity to receive a Christmas donation.

Any visitors to Edinburgh's three Community Recycling Centres between Monday 5 December and Friday 16 December will be given a postcard with instructions on how to vote along with a free car or bike sticker. When voting closes on Monday 19 December the charity with the most votes will receive a donation from the Council to help support their work - just in time for Christmas.

The charity with the most votes will be announced through the Council's website on Tuesday, 20 December.

Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council (RCT), Wales, has launched a scheme aimed at encouraging local youngsters to recycle their lunchtime litter, while also reducing the volume of such litter on the routes to and from school and in the town centre.

Known as the Respect project, the students are being provided with free plastic carrier bags by their schools, while specially liveried recycling bins have been placed in five of the comprehensives - with a possibility to be expanded to all 19 in the county borough. The multi compartment containers allow students to recycle plastics; cans, food waste and general litter, including the degradable plastic carrier bags, supplied by Leeds based Cromwell Polythene.

The bright green bags feature the Respect logo, which has been designed by the RCT design team themselves and which also appears on the recycling containers and in promotional literature supporting the scheme.

"The vest-style carrier bags, normally supplied for retail use, are printed in bold primary colours to give them a more 'cool' appearance and avoid the students feeling self-conscious about using them," according to Paul Fleetwood, sales director, Cromwell Polythene, which has supplied an initial 100,000 bags to kick start the Respect programme.

Students are also being encouraged to form their own eco groups to monitor and motivate their peers, with the incentive of a cash reward, linked to the volume of recyclate that they collect, to the school that tops the Respect league table at the end of the year.

Repic, the UK's largest B2C waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme (PCS), has boosted its team with the appointment of Sarah Downes as environmental affairs manager. Sarah's extensive experience of working in sustainability policy will help Repic strengthen its industry position and service offering.

Repic is committed to working alongside stakeholders in the industry to increase the efficiency of the current UK WEEE system; as such, Sarah will focus on building structural networks and bringing stakeholders together to influence the long-term development of WEEE recycling in the UK.

Prior to joining Repic, Sarah was head of sustainable consumption and production for the North West Regional Development Agency and has held roles in the Environment Agency's Environment Protection and Planning departments, and also acting as a Waste Policy Advisor to the Welsh Assembly Government. In addition, Sarah has worked on several regional recycling market development initiatives for WRAP.

Dr Philip Morton, CEO of Repic, said: "Sarah's expertise in waste policy and sustainable consumption will help us to stay at the cutting edge of legislative changes and allow us to work productively with our partners to reduce leakage from the WEEE recycling system."

Sarah said of her new role: "Repic is the premier brand in the market and my job will be to ensure that it continues to be the most trusted and knowledgeable PCS in the industry. There is no doubt that the changes that are currently anticipated in relation to the WEEE Directive will mean that the UK has to work harder to establish an improved WEEE processing system, so I will be working with partners both here in the UK and abroad to make sure we meet the higher targets."

Darrel Moore