News

Alternate Weekly Collections

Powys Zero Waste echoes the minister for Sustainability and Housing, Jane Davidsons call for Alternate Weekly Collections. This firm has long argued the value of this, particularly in the Newtown area where a food waste round already exists. The importance of the food waste round ran by Cwm Harry Land Trust can not be over emphasised as the ability of Newtown residents to remove the 'smelly' part of their waste leaves them free to recycle in the normal way and paves the way for bi-weekly collections. This not only has a positive effect on recycling but will keep the county at the fore-front of the new recycling targets of 70% proposed by Mrs.Davidson.

Another New Grant Round from Powys Zero Waste!

Powys Zero Waste

The third round will be made up of two pots of cash:

PHD=£39834

PHDL=£4869

If you are interested or know some community group, organisation, village hall comittee etc etc who would be keen on bringing forward innovatiove recycling and/or training packages then please contact Powys Zero Waste as soon as possible to discuss your requirements.

Tel/Ffon/Ffacs 01938 555925

e-mail: info@powyszerowaste.org.uk

Website: www.powyszerowaste.org.uk

Dead line for application is Thursday 31st May 2007 5:00pm

Cae Post announces new fleet of vehicles

Powys Zero Waste

Cae Post announces a new fleet of vehicles to deliver kerbside recycling to 5,000 households in North East Powys, following a grant award of £513,444 from Powys Zero Waste.

Cae Post is a pioneering charity and social enterprise, established in 1986, that provides work experience and training to people with disabilities and others disadvantaged in the job market. They already recycle a wide range of materials, collected by Powys County Council from around 20,000 households, schools, council offices and businesses across the county at their purpose built, commercial scale materials recovery facility (MRF) at Trewern, near Welshpool. They also collect from over 40 bring sites in Powys using their own vehicles.

The kerbside recycling service is unique to Powys, in that it aims to provide a collection of clean, dry materials from rural households that are not covered by council services. However, in some areas it will replace the current kerbside recycling offered by Powys County Council, allowing efficiencies to be made.

Householders on the rounds are issued with a 55 litre red box for plastic bottles, plastic bags, cans, tins, glass bottles and jars, and a 44 litre black box for paper, cardboard and textiles. The materials collected are then deposited into ‘stillages’ on the specialist kerbsider vehicle. Each time a box is collected, an electronic tag is scanned to allow for monitoring participation rates and to gather data of the weights of recyclable materials generated from each household.

This information will be available to householders via the Cae Post website, where individuals can log in using their unique identity code, shown on the collection boxes in order to access their own data.

In contrast, the collection service offered by the council, with the exception of Ystradgynlais, relies on householders placing the correct materials in red and black plastic sacks, that are bulked on collection vehicles and then sorted at the Cae Post facility.

The kerbside crew will consist of a driver and loader, who will be assisted by a part time Community Catalyst working with householders to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and deal with any questions and queries they may have.

Cwm Harry Land Trust wins £738,215 grant

Powys Zero Waste

In a first for Wales, Cwm Harry Land Trust based in Tregynon near Newtown, Powys, have secured a grant of £738,214 from Powys Zero Waste to provide a weekly, kerbside collection of food waste in Newtown. Cwm Harry will provide households with a 7 litre ventilated kitchen caddy into which a bio-degradable corn starch sack is placed for kitchen food waste. They will also supply a 20 litre caddy into which householders can place their filled bags ready for collection.

5300 households in Newtown will receive this service, which will follow Powys County Councils refuse collection rounds. The collected waste will be taken to an in-vessel composting facilty which is sealed from the environment, where it will be mixed with garden waste collected from households already participating in a garden waste collection service in Newtown. This low tech composting process, that complies with the Animal Food By-Products Act, will allow Cwm Harry to produce a quality compost in just 90 days. The finished product will then be available for the people of Newtown and elsewhere to purchase for use in their gardens, thus completing the recycling loop, as well as providing gardeners with an organic alternative to chemical fertilisers.

More Tools for Self Reliance scheme

Powys Zero Waste

Ystrad Volunteer Bureau announces it’s More Tools for Self Reliance scheme - Powys Zero Waste has awarded a grant of £47,813 to Tools For Self Reliance Ystrad based at the Volunteer Centre, Ystradgynlais. This grant delegated to the group through the Powys High Diversion Learn element of funding secured through the European Social Fund, has enabled them to start the "More Tools for Self Reliance" project. Volunteers joining the project will be able to learn new skills in refurbishing tools that will be sent to communities in Africa, as well as having other opportunities for training in similar fields.

In addition, the group hopes to provide training for PAT testing that will enable the group to offer such services to local groups at a reduced fee.

Phoenix Furniture announces new shop

Powys Zero Waste

Phoenix Community Furniture Scheme announces the opening of a new shop in Llandrindod Wells that will allow them to expand the reach of its services to Radnorshire.

The group has benefited from a grant of £401,300 from Powy Zero Waste that has enabled them to expand their field of operations, as well as provide new training opportunities and employment.

The group has already collected 200 tonnes of furniture, domestic appliances and paint this year, which would otherwise have been destined for landfill.

Ystrad Wood Store collects waste wood

Powys Zero Waste
The Wood Store has been given a grant of £82,000 to collect waste wood from
householders and businesses in the Ystradgynlais area.
In addition they offer individuals the opportunity to gain accredited training in carpentry, tool use and
health & safety.
The team of 3 part time employees (and as many as 6 trainees at any one time)started work in April and have collected 13.83 tonnes of waste wood, which would otherwise have been sent to landfill.
Once collected the wood is graded according to its quality. The public are able to visit the site in order to buy timber for
use in their homes and gardens. They can also place orders for bespoke pieces made to high standard by the team.
The Wood Store team also make various items such as coffee tables, garden ornaments, house signs and key racks. All from unwanted timber, which they sell from their workshop or at local markets and events.

News

Latest recycling news

Get behind us