Inform Resources E&E AWARDS 2011


The energy and environ- ment sectors proved their resilience to the economic downturn as outstanding individuals, organisations and groups were celebrated at the Environment and Energy Awards.


The event, which took place at Birmingham’s National Motorbike Museum as part of Sustainabilitylive!, boasted a record number of entries.


ESTA Energy Manager of the Year was scooped by Paul Moran of Harper Adams University College. Karen Taylor from


Hampshire Cosmetics was named as Environmental Manager of the Year. The NQA Environmental Leadership Award for


Metal recycling rates remain low


Scarcity of raw materials threatens clean technologies


Recycling rates of rare metals are far lower than their potential for reuse despite them being crucial to the development of clean tech- nologies, a new report has found. Less than one-third of some crucial 60 metals studied by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have an end-of-life recycling rate above


50% and 34 of them have a recy- cling rate of below 1%. This effectively threatens the cost of producing products such batteries for hybrid vehicles or magnets for wind turbines as raw materials become more scarce. The Recycling Rates of Metals: a Status Report states that in spite of significant efforts in a number of countries and regions, many metal recycling rates are discour- agingly low, and a ‘recycling


society’ appears no more than a distant hope. “The


weak performance is


especially frustrating because, unlike some other resources, met- als are inherently recyclable,” the study points out.


Recycling metals is estimated to be up to ten times more energy efficient than smelting them from virgin ores. Meanwhile, extrac- tion alone accounts for 7% of the world’s energy consumption.


Weekly bin collections funded


Government to offer financial incentives to councils


Councils will be offered finan- cial incentives to restore week- ly


bin collections under


Government’s forthcoming Waste Review, according to reports in the national press.


Cultural Change was won by office supplies and IT ser- vices business, Commercial Group (pictured above). Elsewhere, the Nemex Renewables Innovation Award went to Birmingham Energy Savers; the Energy Product/Service Award was won by Pudsey Diamond Engineering; and the SME Award for Energy Efficiency was picked up by the Midlands-based Best Western Moor Hall Hotel & Spa. Other winners included: Beech Properties, Ecotricity, Daikin UK, Office Depot, Queen’s University in Belfast and Northern Rail.


In a move that is bound to upset environmental campaigners, a source close to the review told The Daily Telegraph that funding plans – estimated at £100M a year – had been agreed by ministers to put the plan in place.


The newspaper stated that the return to weekly bin rounds is “being masterminded” by Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles.


Pickles in particular has been a vehement supporter of weekly bin collections. Last year he ordered the Audit Commission, which is due to be axed, to scrap guidance encouraging councils to undertake fortnightly collections.


A Defra spokesperson said the


reports were merely “specula- tion”, but some waste experts have hit out at the hefty cost of the Government’s plan if it goes ahead and warn it may have a detrimen- tal effect on recycling rates. Friends of the Earth waste cam-


the


Waste experts have criticised the funding plans


paigner, Julian Kirby, said: “This decision to revert to weekly bin collections


is about saving face


with a vociferous minority, not about cutting waste – and flies in the face of the Government’s claims to be the greenest ever. “Fortnightly bin collections boost recycling and save councils huge sums of money by avoiding the need for costly landfill and incineration – and are popular and perfectly hygienic so long as food waste is collected weekly.” Reintroducing weekly bin col- lections in Exeter would cost the city’s taxpayers almost £1M a year, according to the local council. An additional £757,000 would be needed to cover the start-up costs. Exeter scrapped weekly bin collections for thousands of resi- dents last year to save money.


The council claims returning


to weekly collections would cost £912,068 a year. Included in the figure is the more than £400,000 estimated costs of sending the additional waste to landfill. The council has figures that show people recycle less and throw away more when they have a weekly collection – around 20% more waste on average.


Around £625,000 would be needed to pay for five new lorries and £75,000 to produce and distribute new calendars of bin rounds.


“It is my understanding that local authorities would not have to have weekly refuse collections, but there would be financial incentives to help them if they chose to do so,” said Mike Trim, head of the city’s cleansing services.


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