Report Claims UK Recycles More Plastics Than Official Figures Suggest

A report that was commissioned by the British Plastics Federation's (BPF) Recycling Group has suggested that the amount of plastics packaging that government figures claim enters the market every year are majorly overstated by 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes.

Compiled in response to a request for corroboration of recycling rates that came from the Advisory Committee on Packaging, the report analysed the National packaging Waste Database and came up with a total figure of 2.5 million for the amount of plastics packaging placed on the market at present. Although the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimates a growth rate of 2.5% for this kind of packaging, the BPF Recycling Group says this is an overstatement, with NPWD data showing almost no growth in the period 2006 to 2012, after which a decline followed.

What this means is that reports about plastics recycling in the UK that have been sent to the European Union have been understated and have led to setting business targets based on mistaken information, which could have increased costs. What's more, with the European Union planning to increase the recycling targets for member states in the next couple of years, UK businesses could be put in a disadvantaged position compared to other member states. The chairman of BPF's Recycling Group commented that giving businesses an accurate baseline, according to which recycling targets are calculated, is essential in order to avoid distorted compliance costs for enterprises.

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UK Company Builds First Plant For Mechanical Recycling Of LCD Displays

In December, Electrical Waste Recycling Group Ltd. (EWRG) said that it had obtained the approval of the Environment Agency to build the first recycling plant in the world that will process flat screen displays mechanically. The 100,000 square foot facility will be located in Huddersfield, Recycling Today reported.

Mechanical processing will significantly reduce the time needed for the reassembling of a flat screen; currently, manual disassembling takes around 15 minutes per display, while the mechanical process will bring this down to six seconds. This, according to Electrical Waste Recycling Group, is quicker and safer than other processes.

Commenting on the news, the company's managing director, Keith Patterson, said that extensive trials were conducted to ascertain the advantages of the new processing technology, and expressed hopes that the amount of screens to be processed at the plant will justify the investment. This is very likely, taken that the number of LCD screens thrown away every month stands at around one million. EWRG is currently awaiting a patent, and there are plans to replicate the recycling process at other locations in the country as well.

Flat TV screens and computer monitors contain mercury, a hazardous material, in the fluorescent lights. If the monitors are disposed of in landfills, it could leak into the soil and underground water. Industry experts advise that electronic equipment companies should start making more durable products with fewer toxic components. Unfortunately, for the time being, things are going in the opposite direction, which calls for the design of new recycling technologies.

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Britain Approves PV Recycling EU Regulation

Late last year, the UK approved the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, and it came into force ahead of schedule on 1 January this year, a move that was praised by European recycling organisation PV Cycle.

Under the new directive, all photovoltaic modules that have reached the end of their lifespan, whether due to damage or because of warranty expiration must be disposed of appropriately. PV Cycle helps with the process, since standard regulation about the disposal of electric and electronic waste generally concerns household appliances and other consumer products, while PV modules are mostly used by businesses. These modules have a longer lifespan than consumer products, says David Burton, country manager of producer compliance scheme for PV Cycle UK.

The UK Department of Business, Skills and Innovation has been very helpful in the matter, consulting the photo-voltaic panel production sector in order to make sure that waste disposal is conducted appropriately and without harming the industry's long-term sustainability plans.

Under the new directive, all PV panel importers to the UK will need to register under a product compliance scheme, which requires them to take full financial responsibility for disposing of the expired panels they have sold on the market, as well as to report all relevant information, including locations of the panels sold and their numbers.

The WEEE Directive was amended to include PV modules in August 2012, and the industry had an 18-month period to become compliant with it before the national governments of the EU's 27 members incorporated the directive into their legislation.

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37,000 Brits Take Part In Tesco/Coca-Cola Recycling Campaign

An online campaign carried out by Tesco and Coca-Cola has drawn pledges from 37,000 people to recycle and be rewarded either with a 50p discount voucher for a number of Coca-Cola products or 25 bonus Tesco Clubcard points.

The campaign, called Together We're Making Recycling Count, was launched with its own website in June 2013. The site featured information about how to recycle along with a video from Coca-Cola demonstrating the company's recycling procedure. The campaign reached a large audience, with more than seven million consumers viewing the recycling messages on Tesco's main website, Tesco.com.

Among the people taking part in the campaign, around two-thirds of those who previously admitted they never recycle revealed in follow-up e-mails that they now always or almost always recycle. Interviews were made with those pledging to recycle, revealing an improved understanding of the wider environmental implications of recycling and the positive effect of the campaign.

Both Coca-Cola and Tesco said they were very happy with the results of their initiative and the chance it gave them to share recycling tips and other information with their customers. According to Nick Canney, sales and marketing vice-president of Coca-Cola, such initiatives have proved to be a powerful tool in addressing at-home recycling issues and encouraging people to do it. It has also shown to be invaluable in raising awareness among customers about the necessity of recycling, he added.

According to information from the British Plastics Federation, packaging accounts for the largest part of Britons' plastic consumption, with a 38% share of the total.

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Study Warns That E-Waste Could Grow By 33% By 2017

New data gathered by the United Nations, governments and science organisations has revealed that the total amount of electronic waste across the world could rise by a third in the next four years, reaching the weight of 200 Empire State Buildings, which is the equivalent of 72 million tonnes.

The data gathered, which has been used in a new initiative named 'Solving the E-Waste Problem' (StEP), includes a map of electronic waste around the world that gives information from 184 countries with estimations of the electronic devices sold in each of them and the amount of waste this will eventually generate. The map is published online and is aimed at helping national governments, as well as the business sector, tackle the electronic waste they produce. Currently, the United States and China are the biggest e-waste producers, with 11 million tonnes and 12.2 million tonnes, respectively.

Electronic waste includes all electrical and electronic appliances, from TV sets and irons to mobile phones and tablets - anything that needs a battery or a power cord to function. In view of the huge increase in its amount over the next years, businesses, as well as individual users of electronic and electric devices, should start looking for ways to reduce the waste they produce. For individuals, recycling or donating their unused gadgets for charity to be reused are the readily available options, while businesses would do well to consider some long-term strategies such as sustainable energy solutions and lasting technology that would need increased investment but will service them over a longer period.

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Nationwide Campaign To Ban Food Waste In Landfills

A national-scale campaign was launched by the government with the aim of banning food waste going into landfills by 2020, after estimates showed that this could bring in savings of over £17 billion a year, the Guardian reports.

Titled Vision 2020: UK Roadmap to Zero Food Waste to Landfill, the initiative is being backed by local councils along with food production, retail and restaurant industries.

Figures released last month showed that the average British family throws away food worth £60 every month, which translates into around 4.2 million tonnes of food waste every year. According to the figures, compiled by government advisory group Wrap, one-fifth of the food households buy is thrown away, and 60% of this could have been eaten and drank. To remedy matters, the report proposes obligatory food collection by local councils as the core measure to eliminate food waste in landfills. At the moment, only 40% of local authorities collect food separately. According to the Local Government Authority, which took part in the report, a 50% reduction in "food contamination" of recycling would bring in savings of £1 billion by 2020.

In general, the report urges all participants in the supply chain to collaborate on devising best practices on reducing food waste, making the best use of what's left of it for soil fertiliser and for power generation.

Food recycling through anaerobic digestion, for example, can make 1.3 million tonnes of fertiliser a year, or can generate more than one terawatt-hour of electricity over the same period. This power is sufficient to cover the power needs of 600,000 homes, the report says.

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Samsung Rumoured To Work on S5 Metal Body

The much anticipated addition to the Samsung Galaxy family may have a brand new feature that, albeit not entirely unexpected, will take Samsung's design into a complete new direction. The South Korean manufacturer is reported to be preparing a new metal body for its upcoming S5.

According to a report by Korean website EMSOne, Taiwanese-based supplier Catcher is ready to start shipping metal components to Samsung. It is believed that the South Korean company has turned to HTC designers who came up with the acclaimed aluminium- body models, technology news site Crave reports.

The new S5 may be revealed as early as January 2014, but it is more likely that the official presentation of the device will be held in March. Based on the popularity of the Galaxy series, the manufacturer is reported to have ordered up to 30 million metal bodies.

Samsung had been rumored to have plans to ditch its plastic design for years, so the report is not a surprise to industry experts. The transition from plastic cases to metal bodies may have been in the works ever since the launch of the Galaxy S4, which faced serious criticism over its less than premium design, reports said. However, the switch to metal has been expected even before the release of the S4, but rumors then were proved wrong. This time the change may actually happen, since Sony and HTC have both launched their flagships standing at the higher end of the market. We will just have to wait and see.

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