In an effort to learn something about bins and waste management, I have been a earnest reader of Waste Matters a publication from the Leicestershire Waste Partnership.

This is a 16 page full colour glossy publication, which must cost thousands to produce. The information it contains is nothing that could not be put on a website or in an email - probably to more effect as well. Paradoxically wasteful of the waste partnership.

The summer 2008 edition contains a selection of articles on new initiatives across the County - some of them are quite good, such as making the recycling system easier for disabled people to use, a new system in North West Leics which is a rip off version of Freecycle, and steps being taken to reduce waste being generated before it needs recycling across the County.

There are also some completely pointless articles, such as the full page article on a new small roadsweeper for Charnwood, and a trip to a place in Essex - I can only imagine it was space filler.

I massively supportive of almost all efforts to reduce waste, and manage it in an environmentally sound way - which is why I dislike expensive glossy booklets promoting it. It’s very hard to make a case for recycling and waste management when it is evident that you do not comply yourself.

I await the Autumn edition.

The BBC has reported today the imminent opening of a revolutionary plastic recycling facility in Dagenham, which is the UK’s first with the ability to recycle plastic bottles.

Anybody who has had any contact with the recycling industry will know that until very recently, plastic bottles were the bain of the business. The problems of different sorts of plastic, the difficulties of collection, the sheer bulk of them and the problems of potential contamination looked insurmountable.

This was a headache because plastic bottles are one of the most abundant forms of packaging in the UK, and were contributing a large amount to our landfill.

Apparently this new facility aims to recycle 35,000 tonnes a year which is a good start to the problem. The recyclate can then be mixed with virgin plastic up to a 50:50 ratio.

The whole facility only cost £13 million, which is cheap for a recycling depot.

I don’t know if bottles from this area will be part of the annual 35,000 tonnes, but I hope so.

At the risk of sounding slightly obsessed with this issue, there has been progress on the development of a single European Airspace.

The European Commission yesterday put forward proposals to cut the current 47 different airspaces across Europe down to 8/9 by 2012. The current situation makes the average European flight 47 miles longer than it needs to be, a senseless waste of fuel.

The proposals have one key obstacle, the one which dogs all European initiatives, that of individual countries not wanting to cede sovereignty to a Europe wide body. Most of this argument in this case is pure cant, but there are some reasonable cautions about the role of national air forces in this new sky space.

There seems to be widespread political and business support for this move - and the cynics among you would quite reasonably suggest that the enthusiasm from business is due to the potential fuel savings of 3 billion Euros a year - so I suspect this could be one European initiative that gets where it intends vaguely on time.

More to come soon I suspect.

More news from Bill Newton-Dunn.

Two things particularly caught my eye on his newsletter:

The Waste Directive to increase Recycling
Yesterday, the European Parliament approved binding targets for the recycling of waste by 2020 that the European Union’s 27 member states must include in national plans or face legal action by Brussels. The rules seek to achieve recycling of 50 percent of waste from households and 70 percent of hazardous materials. The sheer fact that concrete targets had been accepted despite strong opposition in some capitals was a victory for MEPs. National governments are increasingly difficult to negotiate with. As the recession bites, they know that this legislation will cost money so they become reluctant to accept the parliament’s amendments. According to Brussels estimates, Europe generates around 1.8 billion tonnes of waste, which is an average of 3.5 tonnes per person, mainly from households, commercial enterprises such as shops or restaurants, industry, agriculture and construction and demolition projects.

Welcome news that concrete targets are in place, but where the EU has often fallen down (In my opinion at least) is turning this political endeavour into equal and fair action across all member states. Many people in my ward, and across the country presumably, often point out that they are not against the green agenda as such, but it pains them to be issued with directives from Europe that we will try our best to comply with, while other members states will just ignore them and get away with it.

An argument that I have sympathy with - I suspect the European project would have much more popular support if the design and implementation of policy felt less like some member states were freeloading off the contributions of others.

However, this could be balanced if I had the views of a German to hand - they recycle a significantly larger portion of their waste than we do, and have done so for years. What do they make of our recalcitrance over developing our refuse systems? Perhaps they feel we are not pulling our weight.

The second bit that caught my interest, on a green theme also:
IATA (the world association of airlines) gave a briefing today to the parliament. Their goal is a 25% efficiency gain by 2020. Rising oil prices are a strong economic incentive to them. Every possibility is being explored : for example, British Airways has calculated the one tea-bag airborne for a year uses a litre of fuel. A unified European air space with a unified air-traffic control system would save over 10% of aircraft emissions. IATA’s nightmare is that the world’s governments may fail to work together but develop different conflicting solutions.

I cant make up my mind whether 25% is a bit ambitious, or a rather poor effort. I don’t know by how much the motor industry has reduced its fuel efficiency since that last oil crisis (not that we are in one now), but I would speculate that they have improved by more than 25%. I also have no idea whether air engine makers have improved their efficiency since then, but I suspect not. Perhaps someone could furnish me with some of these statistics.

I posted the bit about a 10% saving by unifying air traffic control systems across Europe, and while I think IATA’s nightmare is cynical, I’m inclined to agree.

What I know for certain is that if British Airways stopped buggering about working out the impact of tea bags on their MPG, they wouldn’t have made such a cock up of Terminal Five. How did they work that out?

 Answers on a postcard.

My colleagues Sandra Francks & Ann Hall have begun a campaign to rid Burbage of plastic carrier bags. I was surprised to learn that over 6 billion of these are given away each year in Britain, and thus unsurprised to learn their environmental impact is large.

I hope people join in with this campaign - an easy way to make a potentially large contribution to the environment. I have joined in - I have not acquired a new carrier bag for a whole week!