SKIPS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES It was almost a cat-astrophe
THERE are a whole host of things which end up in a skip, but now and again site operators will come across something surprising - which is exactly what happened at Bucks Recycling, Aylesbury.
As a Bucks Recycling driver was packing up after a long day, he heard a kitten in a collected 10-yard skip. Alarmed, he told on-site operator Connaire Kiff , who unloaded the skip by hand. Out popped a
severely dehydrated and injured six-week- old kitten, Connie – aptly named after her saviour, writes Sam McKeown.
The furry feline settled in well at Bucks Recycling, and received a lot of love from company employees.
Bucks Recycling Sales and Marketing Director, Francesca Murray-Smith said: “Unfortunately people throw away animals like rubbish because their pets have ‘unwanted litter.’ The outcome is not always nice, as we have often discovered in the past.”
Kind-hearted Francesca has since adopted the tiny ball of fun, who enjoys playing games with her two-year-old son, Lawrence.
It's not the fi rst time animals have been found. In April 2016, mother-of-one Nichole Jindel of Stanwell found a litter of kittens in a skip in Hayes, west London.
Sadly, this type of incident happens all over the UK. Shaun McIntyre of Derrykeighan-based Bevradin Animal Rescue Kennels said: “In the summer of 2016, an eight-week-old terrier-cross puppy was handed in to us which we believe had been alone in a skip for an entire night.
Bucks Recycling's Tricia Murray and daughter Francesca Murray-Smith - who
gave the kitten a home.
“It was covered in sores. We contacted the dog warden after attending to the pup’s sores, and it was rehomed.”
Cat saviour Connaire Kiff
MacRebur picked by Richard Branson as company paves the way for ‘plastic roads’
SICK to death of potholes and constant repairs? Last year in Cumbria a Scottish company trialled an innovative ‘plastic road,’ promising increased durability compared to asphalt roads.
‘Plastic road’ founders MacRebur was the company behind the bitumen-based alternative, known as MR6 - which mixes locally-sourced plastic waste.
This year it got the thumbs up from Cumbria County councillor and Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport Keith Little, who said the innovative product had “held up really well”.
He added: “If we had more time we’d have done it with deeper thickness, but we found it to be equally as good as asphalt.
“We’re keen to work with the manufacturer and do further trials in bigger areas within the next 12 months on heavy duty roads and highways.”
MacRebur’s story started in Mumbai, India when engineer Toby McCartney saw ‘pickers’ taking waste plastics from landfi ll
18 SHM July, 2017
www.skiphiremagazine.co.uk
and putting this in potholes. The waste would be lit up with diesel, and the melting plastic created a seal strong enough for heavy vehicles to drive over.
Toby teamed up with construction engineer Gordon Reid and waste expert Nick Burnett to establish Dumfriesshire-based MacRebur.
Along with support from Scotland’s secretary of state, David Mundell, MacRebur’s simple and clever formula received a UK and European patent.
Speaking about how the idea can be marketed, Toby said: “Worldwide, the asphalt market produces 1.6 trillion tons of asphalt, and for example in the US this is
expected to rise by 3% each year.
“As MR6 replaces all-asphalt with bitumen, the potential market is colossal.”
Toby added: “Plastic melts at a much higher temperature to bitumen. As we replace part of the bitumen in the mix, we ‘strengthen’ the bitumen so that it reacts diff erently to a pure bitumen mix."
40 companies in 30 coun ties have approached MacRebur, with Bahrain being the fi rst to sign up to a license. MacRebur became a fully-fl edged business after winning the ‘pitchathon round’ at a Virgin Media Business competition; in front of Richard Branson.
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