Page 19 from: October 2014
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TheUKrefuse-derivedfuel (RDF)
market gets ‘a bad press’ but this repu-
tation is based on individual instances
of poor practice, insists Andusia Recov-
ered Fuels’ co-director Steve Burton. And
he hails the thousands of tonnes of
waste that is exported annually for
energy recovery as ‘a good example of
an industry that is working’.
Incineration is often presented as the
enemy of recycling – but the reality is
different, according to Burton. ‘I would
say around a third to a half of what is in
domestic waste bins still comes out
before it goes to RDF,’ he says. ‘What we
should be making sure is that what is
exported is actually RDF – residual waste
should not be exported,’ Burton
observes. The UK’s Environment Agency,
which is benefi tting from the ‘booming’
RDF market through transfrontier ship-
ment fees, should ‘police’ the sector
better, he adds.
Burton argues that the RDF industry is
‘more legitimate’ than is being publicised.
‘There is nothing wrong politically and
environmentally with what we do,’ he
says. ‘We are burning it and getting power
from it. Unless you reduce the volume of
residual waste, what do you do? It has got
to be a big advantage over landfi ll.’
Andusia recently reported that it has
collected over 10 000 truckloads of RDF
destined for recovery. The company
sources roughly 250 000 tonnes per
year of RDF from suppliers in the UK.
www.andusia.co.uk
Source: letsrecycle.com
Andusia: RDF not the
enemy of recycling
Luxurycarmanufacturer Jaguar’s
new model, the XE, generated a real buzz
following its London launch owing to an
‘advanced lightweight construction’, with
a ‘large part’ of the aluminium as well as
other materials constituting recycled con-
tent, according to the company. This is the
‘fi rst step’, it says, towards building cars
boasting a 75% recycled content by the
end of the decade.
Based on aerospace-inspired technol-
ogy, the Jaguar XE is ‘the fi rst car in the
world’ to make use of a new grade of
high-strength aluminium called RC
5754. This new alloy features a high
level of recycled material, added to
which up to 46 kg of recycled plastics
has been incorporated. The ‘most sus-
tainable car today’ will go on sale in
early 2015 and make ‘a signifi cant con-
tribution’ to Jaguar’s green ambitions, it
is claimed.
The XE ‘boasts the lowest cost of owner-
ship of any Jaguar’, notes company
vehicle line director Kevin Stride. The new
modular vehicle architecture of the XE
will ‘set the standard for driving dynam-
ics in the mid-size segment’, he adds.
The ‘aluminium-intensive’ vehicle is
manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover’s
all-new, purpose-built facility in Solihull,
central England. Part of a £1.5 billion
(US$ 2.5 billion) investment, this manu-
facturing facility will create 1700 jobs in
the UK. www.jaguar.co.uk
TheEuropeanAluminium Asso-
ciation (EAA) has reaffi rmed its commit-
ment to sustainable packaging in Europe
with the launch of a new brochure enti-
tled ‘Aluminium packaging: convenient,
safe and infi nitely recyclable’.
The brochure highlights some ‘best prac-
tices’ to optimise recycling processes and
technologies. Currently, almost 60% of
all aluminium packaging and 68% of all
beverage cans in Europe are recycled. ‘It
is our ambition to increase these fi gures,
particularly in view of the ambitious EU
recycling targets,’ stated the chair of
EAA’s packaging group Laurent Musy.
At the organisation’s annual packaging
seminar held this week in the Finnish
capital Helsinki, he called on all parties
within the waste management chain to
address the need for better collection
and sorting of highly-valuable alumini-
um fractions. And he added that pro-
ducer responsibility systems ‘must be
improved, with member states given the
necessary time and resources to invest
in their existing waste recovery infra-
structure’. www.alueurope.eu
EAA plea for improved
aluminium collection
and sorting
Extrafundingworth£5 million
(US$ 8.2 million) is being made available
to help UK councils to increase their recy-
cling rates, the country’s secretary of
state for communities and local govern-
ment Eric Pickles has announced. House-
holds will be encouraged to recycle by
means of shopping vouchers and loyalty
rewards – without the threat of ‘unfair’
bin fi nes or service cuts for breaching
‘complex and arbitrary’ waste rules.
Crucially, the new funding will be open
just to those councils offering weekly
collections. In this way, ministers hope
to send ‘a clear signal’ that councils
offering only fortnightly collections will
lose out on government funding.
The scheme is intended to build on the
success of around 40 government-fund-
ed pilot reward programmes – a notable
example of which is the Royal Borough
of Windsor and Maidenhead’s scheme
which has boosted recycling by 35%,
with residents earning recycling points
that can be spent at shops in the district.
‘It is a myth that fortnightly bin collec-
tions or unfair bin fi nes are needed to
increase recycling,’ Pickles has com-
mented. Rewards for recycling show how
working with families can deliver envi-
ronmental benefi ts without the ‘draco-
nian approach’ of punishing people and
leaving out smelly rubbish, he insists.
Pickles adds: ‘Councils with fortnightly
collections will not receive government
funding and are short-changing their
residents with an inferior service.’
www.gov.uk
Funding to incentivise
recycling in the UK
Jaguar sets new standard
with ‘most sustainable’ car
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