Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

Your industry news - first

The original and best - for over 20 years!

We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.

Acumen and Newcastle-under-Lyme BC help 'Tonight' programme highlight how councils can reduce landfill

In the ITV programme 'Tonight - Throwaway Britain', presenter Jonathan Maitland spent time with Acumen Distribution's recycling team and interviewed Trevor Nicoll, Head of Recycling & Fleet Services at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, to illustrate how local authorities can help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. The Council has seen kerbside recyclables increase to 55% thanks to its partnership with Acumen Distribution.

In the programme, televised 1st August, Jonathan Maitland stated that Britain accumulates 290 million tonnes of waste with half going to landfill. He went on to say that in eight years the country will run out of landfill capacity and will also be liable for EU fines if it does not recycle half its waste.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has gradually introduced its wide range of kerbside recycling services. In July 2009, plastic bottles and cardboard were added to the fortnightly recycling collection and in March 2010, weekly food waste collections were launched along with the extension of the fortnightly garden waste service to all homes with a garden. In May 2013 small WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) and household batteries were added to the fortnightly recycling collection service.

Bring banks located in strategic public spaces were also introduced to enlarge the textile recycling and small WEEE collected across the Borough. The initiatives have further increased the quantity of recyclable materials collected that may otherwise end up in landfill.

Although homeowners have a number of separate kerbside containers, the Council says this helps to avoid cross contamination, which has enabled it to sell recycled goods for over £1/2 million pounds a year.

Questioned about whether this is acceptable 87% of householders said they are happy to undertake recycling and local resident Eric Pemberton said: "It is fine as long as you are organised." Asked whether it would be better with fewer containers he replied that it made him actually think about recycling rather than throwing everything into one bin.

The programme also paid a visit to St. Mary's Primary School, Mucklestone, located in Newcastle-under-Lyme where children we keen to express their views on the importance of recycling. Acumen Distribution's employees encourage school visits to see how its Transfer Station works. Employees show the children around the site, explain about recycling and how it helps the environment. The children then weigh themselves on the weighbridge, have the opportunity to watch the diggers in action and sit in the driver's cab of a kerbsider.

Acumen Distribution's Waste Transfer Station at Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, manages the recyclable waste of Newcastle-under-Lyme Council's 54,000 residents. The Transfer Station handles paper, card, plastics, cans, glass, textiles and food waste and has recently achieved accreditation to ISO9001 (Quality) and ISO14001 (Environmental) standards from ACS registrars.

The amount of recycling has grown to 250 tonnes per week and is still rising. The company now collects waste four days a week from Tuesday to Friday using nine trucks which include five kerbsides, two 26 tonne compactor trucks and two 7.5 tonne trucks.

The successful partnership between Acumen Distribution and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has led to the Council winning numerous awards for its environmentally sound and cost effective waste management programme that reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and provides a high level of service to residents. The recycling system, supported by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme), designed to produce the best quality material for recycling, has already produced dramatic results, while delivering £500,000 of savings.

Acumen Distribution provides logistics solutions to some of the UK's most successful companies. Its specialist services help companies increase productivity and become more efficient and competitive.

Acumen takes on diverse challenges and delivers competitively priced, quality driven tailored solutions for UK Domestic and European transport needs. Using its range of core transport capabilities, complemented by innovative Lead Logistics Services and the appropriate use of technology, Acumen gives its business partners accurate, real time information and a competitive advantage to meet exacting Customer Service and Just-In-Time manufacturing requirements.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough, awarded three stars by the Audit Commission, covers 21,096 hectares (Approx. 81 square miles) and has a population of approximately 122,000, making it the largest population of any district council in Staffordshire. There are two main town centres, Newcastle and Kidsgrove. The centre of Newcastle-under-Lyme has a variety of shops and a historic outdoor market.

T: 01604 597740
E: [email protected]
W: www.acumenlogistics.com

5th September 2013