Wrexham signs £40m PFI recycling contract

WREXHAM County Borough Council has signed a £40m private finance waste contract with Waste Recycling Group.

The 25-year contract will enable Wrexham to meet its 2010 recycling targets and landfill diversion targets up to 2013.

The funding comes from the Welsh Assembly Government.

The contract will include the construction of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where kerbside and bring site recyclables will be sorted, baled and prepared for sale to recycling processors.

A state of the art enclosed composting facility is also proposed which will allow compostable waste streams to be recycled. The proportion of residual waste that is not recycled will be sent for treatment in appropriate facilities off-site.

Total capital investment in construction of the new facilities is expected to be approximately £17 million. The new facility will handle kitchen waste and cardboard.

Subject to planning permission, it will start in 2009 after the new facilities are built. Council leader Aled Roberts said Wrexham already had a recycling rate of 31% and that residents “can not do any more on their own.”

Denver targets global warming

Goal is equivalent of taking 500,000 vehicles off road

By Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News
June 11, 2007

Denver is gearing up to fight global warming, and residents may soon be asked to make personal sacrifices to help save the planet.

The new plan is aimed at making Denver a national leader in reducing gas emissions that have been linked to global warming, giving a major push to alternative energy, stepping up recycling and changing building codes to encourage energy conservation.

But the proposal also contains some ideas that may be unpopular, such as penalizing heavy users of electricity and natural gas and basing auto insurance premiums on the number of miles traveled.

The ambitious goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.4 million metric tons by 2020, the equivalent of eliminating two small coal-fired power plants or taking 500,000 cars off the road. More...

Happy World Environment Day

Seeing it is June 5th I would like to wish all our readers a very happy World Environment Day 2007

Regards from Editor

Lights out for London

London radio station Capital FM has launched a campaign calling on all Londoners to switch off their lights for an hour on the longest day of the year.

The station is asking those living in the capital to power down between 8pm and 9pm on Thursday, June 21.

According to the station's calculations if the lights were turned off in 3 million homes, this would save around 750MWh.

The campaign has been endorsed by celebrities, businesses and those responsible for famous landmarks around the capital.