Tag Archives: Defra

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Waste Stories 3/4/2017

1. OPEN CONSULTATION: Local authority environmental regulation fees and charges 2017 – closes 13 April 2017

Defra want to know what you think about proposed amendments to the environmental permitting fees and charges schemes including a general increase of 4.5%.  Do you think the increase is justified to cover regulatory costs?  Defra particularly want to hear from Local Authority Environmental Health regulators, operators and their trade associations.

For more details click here

2. Persistent Organic Pollutants: draft Stockholm Convention UK implementation plan 2017 – closes 14 April 2017

Defra wants to know what you think about the proposed new actions in the updated national implementation plan.  This plan sets out the progress made since 2013 in reducing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).  It also proposes new actions for improving progress and implementing the requirements for new POPs that have been added.

For details, click here

3. The Group’s 2017 conference

The Group’s 2017 conference will be held on Thursday October 5, at the Northampton Town’s football ground in Sixfields, Northampton. The event will focus on the sustainable management of food waste from the healthcare and hospitality sectors. It will feature speakers from WRAP, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, the Co-op, Northamptonshire Waste Partnership and Severn Trent Water. The event will be sponsored by  Sharpsmart and Olleco.

To book click here

4. EC consultation on antimicrobial resistance

The European Commission has launched a consultation asking which activities should be included in its new Action Plan to combat antimicrobial resistance. Responses, which should be submitted by 28 April, will help decide on which actions should be taken at EU level to seek to preserve the efficacy of antimicrobials, strengthen infection control and stimulate innovation into new treatments.

Read the consultation here

5. European funding for bio-based industries – expressions of interest

This KTN, H2020 UK National Contact Points, SusChem and Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) event is aimed at companies and research organisations that are interested in European Funding for Bio-based Industries (BBI) and who wish to work with European counterparts in collaborative research and innovation projects. The morning session will highlight information about the 2017 call for proposals from the BBI Joint Undertaking and the afternoon will be highly participative in support of consortia building and proposal development. Due to limited spaces the KTN is operating an Expression of Interest scheme for this event.

Read more here

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Waste Stories 7/11/2016

 

10th anniversary1.Defra Secretary of State admits uncertainty over post-Brexit Environmental laws

Andrea Leadsom has confirmed that the majority of European Union (EU) environmental legislation will be transferred across into UK law in the immediate aftermath of Brexit, but uncertainty looms for around a third of green regulations which the Defra Secretary admitted “won’t be easy to transpose”.

Read more here

2. National Infrastructure Commission specific studies: call for ideas

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) provides expert, impartial advice to the government on infrastructure. Although operationally independent, the NIC is currently in interim form. The core purpose of the NIC is to set out a clear picture of the future infrastructure we need, including through an in-depth assessment of the UK’s major infrastructure needs on a 30-year time horizon – known as a National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA). In addition to the NIA, the NIC also undertakes specific studies to advise government on immediate priorities or particular challenges that need to be addressed.

The Chancellor, together with the NIC, has decided that he would like to give anyone with an interest in this field an opportunity to contribute their ideas for issues which could form the subject of future NIC studies. This process will help us ensure the NIC is focused on the country’s most critical infrastructure challenges.

Read more here

3. National Recycling Awards 2017

The awards are open to all involved in recycling and waste management, from local authorities, to waste producers, waste management companies, manufacturers, energy producers, retailers, construction and corporate companies across the UK.

The entry deadline for the 2017 round of awards is 28 January 2017.

Read more here

4. Rushlight awards

The 10th Anniversary Rushlight Awards are open.  They are the only set of awards designed specifically to support and promote all the latest clean technologies, innovations, initiatives and deployment projects for businesses and other organisations throughout UK, Ireland and internationally.

The Rushlight Awards are open to all types of organisation at any stage of corporate development, including individual inventors, early stage companies, charities, universities, SMEs, quoted companies and multi-nationals.

Entries close on 30 November, 2016.

For more details, click here

5. Project to convert waste treatment centres into bioenergy factories

A project is seeking to develop an innovative process for enhancing biofuel production from municipal, agricultural and industrial waste.

Methamorphosis, which was granted funding in 2014 by Europe’s prestigious LIFE programme seeks to increment biogas production from municipal waste leachate by modifying and innovating processing techniques.

Read more here

 

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Waste Stories 15/12/2015

3_spark_a_christmas_decoration_hd_picture_1701391. Maps of progress on sustainability across the NHS published

Compare progress on a range of sustainability measures including on energy, water and waste within the NHS, using the Sustainable Development Unit’s maps

2. Our 2015 annual report

The Group’s 2015 report can be found HCWRR steering committee report 2015a

3. Joint Healthcare Waste and Resources Research Group and ISWA International conference (sponsored by Grundon Waste Management)

In conjunction with the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), the Group will be hosting an international conference on April 14 and 15, 2016. It will be held at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Topics to be covered will include current and emerging technologies, sustainability and preparing for emergencies.

The programme can be found here: Programme – Dec 2015

Sponsors include: Daniels, Econix, GV Health, Frontier Medical Group, Newster, Sharpsmart, Cloud Sustainability and ISS Ltd. (Please contact Terry Tudor: terry.tudor@northampton.ac.uk, if you wish to sponsor)

Booking details for early bird registration can be found here: healthcare waste 2016 conference

4. Updated definition for RDF

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has issued an updated definition for refuse-derived fuel (RDF). This updated definition now includes a specification on RDF’s minimum calorific content as agreed with the end-user. Earlier in 2015, the Department issues a one-line definition, after announcing in its response to the “Refuse derived fuel market in England” call for evidence in December 2014 that it would intervene with the market to tackle waste crime. Defra has also announced that a treatment standard would not be introduced along with the definition, as this would run counter to the Department’s efforts to cut red tape.

See the new definition here

5. New WERLAs in Northern Ireland

Three new Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities (WERLAs) have recently been appointed in Northern Ireland. The authorities will have responsibility for coordinating waste enforcement actions within regions, setting priorities and common objectives for waste enforcement, ensuring consistent enforcement of waste legislation across the three existing waste management planning regions while still leaving local authority personnel as first responders on the ground to specific breaches of waste legislation.
The new authorities are as follows:
• Southern Region – Cork County Council
• Connaught Ulster Region – Leitrim & Donegal County Councils (Joint)
• Eastern & Midlands Region – Dublin City Council

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Waste Stories 15/7/2014

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1. Seminar on September 25 (Sharpsmart: making healthcare safer http://http://sharpsmart.co.uk/ )

The Healthcare Waste and Resources Research Group will be hosting a seminar focusing on treatment technologies and recovering value from healthcare waste, on Thursday September 25.

It will be held at the Bywaters’ recycling facility, in East London. The morning session will be dedicated to presentations from a range of speakers. While in the afternoon, delegates will have the opportunity to tour the facility.

The event is being sponsored by Frontier Medical Group, MITIE, Sharpsmart and Bywaters. Additional sponsors include GV Health, SRCL, Econix and Independent Safety Services Ltd.

Registration forms and booking details, including early bird discounts are available at the link below. When you book, can you let us know: (1) if you would like to do the site tour in the afternoon, (2) if you require a car parking space and (3) if you have any disability requirements?

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/understanding-treatment-technologies-and-recovery-of-value-a-seminar-tickets-11313828967

2. SRCL opens new alternative treatment plant

SRCL has opened its eighth clinical waste Alternative Treatment (AT) site at Knowsley, near Liverpool. The plant is designed to recover 100 percent of the treated clinical waste as refuse derived fuel (RDF), which will be used in the cement industry.

Specifically commissioned to service customers locally in the North West of England, and following an investment of £2m by SRCL, the new AT plant has the capacity to process up to 48 tonnes of clinical waste per day and adds to SRCL’s seven other AT sites across the UK and Ireland in Cumbernauld, Newcastle, Four Ashes, Bridgend, Larkfield, Belfast and Dublin.

Read more here: SRCL opens new AT plant

3.Zero waste Scotland report on the potential health impacts of the frequency of non-recyclable waste collections

Research led by Zero Waste Scotland has found that there is no health risk involved in collecting waste less frequently.  The reportstudied the potential exposure of both householders and waste collectors to health risks where residual waste is collected at ‘extended frequencies’ of less than fortnightly. Laboratory research found that health risks were reduced if residual waste is bagged and biodegradable waste is collected separately. Recommendations in the report therefore include encouraging householders and businesses to separate biodegradable and residual waste as well as to place in bags rather than loose in the bin.

Read the full report here: Zero Waste Scotland report on health impacts of waste

4. NHS facing pre-election crisis says Nuffield Trust

The NHS is “increasingly poorly placed to manage the impact of austerity” and faces a pre-election funding crisis, a respected healthcare think-tank has warned. In a detailed analysis of health service finances, the Nuffield Trust suggests the health service has relied heavily on one-off or temporary savings but is reaching the limit of its capacity to withstand further cuts.

Andy McKeon, senior policy fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said demand for NHS services showed no sign of abating. With hospital finances increasingly weak, growing pressures on staffing, and the goal of moving care out of hospitals and into the community proving elusive, “the NHS is heading for a funding crisis this year or next”. The immediate choice, he said, was “rapidly becoming one of financial deficits or scrimping on the quality of care”.

Read the full story here: Nuffield Trust report on NHS funding crisis

5. Defra announces four-year low in waste costs

The Defra Annual Report on Accounts 2013-2014 shows that the costs of councils’ waste collection have reached their lowest levels in real terms since 2008. Local authorities have spent 1.3% and 3.4% less per household for waste management activities compared to 2011-2012 and 2008-09 respectively, having spent £140.40 per household for waste management activities in 2013-14 compared to £145.38 in 2008-09. Defra said “this significant reduction suggests some efficiency savings have been achieved, with reductions in the amount of waste sent to landfill being a key driver”.

Read the full report here: Defra accounts for 2013/4

6. Nigerian Healthcare Waste Management Plan

The government in Nigeria has recently issued a new healthcare waste management plan. Details of the document can be found at the link below.

Nigerian national healthcare waste plan