News in brief (10/05/23)

With news on: Suez switches on solar panels at Avonmouth MRF; Veolia delivers clean up after coronation; First Mile becomes B Corporation company; and, Berry Global ‘maximises efficiency’ with REP-TEC baler.

Suez has switched on 1,000 solar panels which have been installed on the roof of its Avonmouth materials recycling facility (MRF).

The solar panels will supply 17% of the facility's power needs every year, and forms part of the company's efforts to "decarbonise the management of its customers’ waste".

The once empty roof of the MRF has been "transformed" over the last month and is now home to the solar panels ready to harness the power of the sun.

Contractors Olympus and Apex Height Safety completed the works and the panels were switched on in late March and have been generating electricity to sort recycling from homes and businesses across the South West.

At weekends, bank holidays or when the facility is not fully utilised, the excess electricity generated by the solar panels will be exported into the National Grid.

Dr Adam read, chief external affairs and sustainability officer for Suez recycling and recovery UK said: "We’re delighted to have the solar panels on the roof of our Avonmouth materials recycling facility up and running. Solar panels are a standard feature when planning new developments, but we’re also identifying opportunities to retrofit renewable energy sources across our existing estate as part of our strategy to reduce our carbon emissions.

"Looking at the system as a whole, we are investing in ways to monitor and decrease the carbon content of the waste itself as well as the impact of the way we collect and manage our customers’ waste."

Veolia has detailed the scale of the clean-up operation required in Westminster following the coronation weekend.

100 Veolia operatives and 30 vehicles worked "around the clock to ensure that everything was fit for the coronation".

More than 39 tonnes of additional recycling and refuse were collected from the event area. This is in addition to the approx. 650 tonnes collected on an average weekend – "Veolia managed this including multiple road closures and much more restricted collection times," the company said.

Each member of staff on foot (60 people) walked about 25 miles, collectively that's a total of 300,000 steps taken, covering about 1,500 miles.

Helder Branco, Veolia Westminster general manager, said: "I am immensely proud of my team's unwavering passion and commitment to making sure we delivered an outstanding service during this momentous occasion. We have worked hard to make this event as sustainable as possible, separating out recycling from litter collected, and with more than half of the vehicles used within the area electric or hybrid.

"The scale and speed at which we make the streets clean and safe to be re-opened is sometimes difficult to imagine, but that is our expertise. The applause from the crowds was very rewarding for my team, and I would like to thank the public for their support."

London-based recycling company First Mile has announced that it has reached a "major milestone in the company's sustainability journey" by becoming a Certified B Corporation.

B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting certain standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials.

To become B Corp Certified, companies undergo an assessment which involves over 300 questions designed to measure a company's entire social and environmental impact across five key areas – governance, workers, community, environment and customers.

Commenting on its B Corp Certification, First Mile founder and CEO, Bruce Bratley, said: "The B Corp Certification process is an extremely rigorous one that delves deep into every area of the business. Becoming B Corp Certified is a fantastic achievement and recognises not only the performance of First Mile's range of products and services, but also how we conduct all of our internal and external business practices too."

Berry Global has "maximised efficiency" at one of its UK recycling plants by taking delivery of an automatic twin baler from REP-TEC.

The two-ram baler comes with wire tie and machine data reporting which has helps improve efficiency and make better business decisions based on these reports.

Garrett Loughran, sales manager at REP-TEC, said: "Berry required a fully automatic baler for one of their UK recycling plants and we were more than happy to offer a solution. It was clear from the start that a twin ram baler was the best option for baling the plastics.

"The twin ram baler clears out the baler chamber each time, so Berry can easily switch between the various plastic types without risk of contaminating subsequent bales. That coupled with the high press force the machine offers and the flexibility to add as many ties as they required, made it the perfect choice. The project ran smoothly. As the plant was being built at the same time, we coordinated and worked well with McDonald International and other contractors to ensure smooth delivery and installation."

Rep-Tec said that since installing the Samson twin ram baler, Berry Global has "experienced significant improvements in efficiency and throughput".

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