National Climate Week - Come along to Regional Events

09 Mar 2011

Following the success of the 'Changing Climate Weeks' programmes in July and November 2010, you may be interested in Climate East Midlands' next programme of events which coincides with the first national Climate Week, 21-25th March 2011.

There are five days in five locations across the East Midlands which include a range of speaker and workshop topics, including the Low Carbon Economy, Green Deal, Green Futures for Existing Buildings, Adaptation and Health, Renewable Opportunities, Schools Carbon Trading and many more. Also featured is the introduction of the East Midlands Climate Change Skills Programme which provides new opportunities for local authorities (planners and elected members in particular), schools and local communities.

These are all FREE events and take place as follows:

Mon 21 - Derby, The Roundhouse

Tues 22 - Nottingham, Nottingham Conference Centre

Weds 23 - Leicester, De Montfort Hall

Thurs 24 - Lincoln, Epic Centre

Fri 25 - Northampton, Hunsbury Hill Centre

Download a full programme from this address:
http://www.climate-em.org.uk/resources/item/climate-week  

Book places at this address:
http://bookwhen.com/cem-events  

Standard Procurement Documents - Now Available to all Authorities

07 Mar 2011

The Standard Documents group have now completed their work in updating the region's Standard Documents.

The purpose of these templates is to:

(a) Provide those authorities without consistent standard template document relating to procurement processes with such documents. The benefit from using a standard template is that it both saves time on each individual procurement and provides a good consistent base document.

(b) Develop over time a consistency of documentation emulating from local authorities which provides suppliers, in particular SMEs with a recognised format in which they are comfortable in responding against.

We would like to convey special thanks the following people for their involvement and hard work:

David Hayes - Gedling & Rushcliffe BC
Sandy Williams - Bassetlaw DC
Surinder Kahlon - Derby City
Steve Cotterill - Broxtowe BC
Andrew Hickson - Derbyshire CC
Gus de Silva - Northamptonshire CC
Roger Holloway - Lincolnshire CC
Matt Hird - Lincolnshire CC

The Standard Documents can be found at:
http://www.eastmidlandsiep.gov.uk/standarddocuments/  

Local authority communications case studies

03 Mar 2011

Case studies showing different communication methods and their impact throughout England funded through WRAP's Local Communications Programme 2008-2011

Follow this link to read more.  

NEW! WIN case study: East Kent Joint Waste Partnership set to generate savings of £30million

03 Mar 2011

Learn how the Partnership entered a legal agreement to transform their waste services through joined-up working arrangements; set to generate recycling rates of 50% and significant cost reductions.

WRAP report: Collecting food waste from small businesses and schools WRAP report:

03 Mar 2011

Collecting food waste from small businesses and schools - information on collecting food waste from small businesses and schools; highlights a series of key issues for local authorities when considering rolling out such food waste collections.

Communications to support a major waste and recycling service change

03 Mar 2011

Key facts

• Additional 4,188 tonnes dry recyclables collected at kerbside from October 2009 to September 2010.
• Residual waste has reduced by 13%, from 11,515 tonnes in quarter 1 of 2009/10 to 9,982 in quarter 1 of 2010/11.
• Total tonnage diverted from Residual waste from October 2009 to September 2010 was 7,176 tonnes.
• Recycling rates increased from 33% in 2008/09 to 41% in 2010/11.
• Incidences of side waste have reduced from nearly 3,000 households before the campaign started to under 300 per week.
• Campaign cost per household £1.70.  Cost per tonne diverted £20.90 per tonne.
• The gross saving (avoided disposal costs) was £261,800, a net saving of £127,000 in 2009/10 alone. This is the reduction in incineration costs and is a result of both the additional recycling, introduction of wheeled bins and no side waste initiative.

Compost Awareness Week 2011, 1-7 May:

03 Mar 2011

Pass It On - find out about this years theme and get tips and stats to help with your activities.

To read more click here

Defra extend JMWMS letter deadline to 16th March

03 Mar 2011

Due to Defra receiving requests from some authorities/waste partnerships for extra time to send their responses on the future of Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategies the deadline has been extended from the original date (28th February) to 16th March 2011.

WISH Metrics Sickness Absence Survey Project

03 Mar 2011

On behalf of HSE, the Health and Safety Lab (HSL) are running a 3-year survey to collect and analyse sickness absence data from the UK Waste & Recycling Industry using WISH Metrics. It is hoped that this study will help identify effective and targeted interventions aimed at reducing rates of sickness absence across the industry. There will also be benefits to participating organisations, as the project outcomes will enable participants to compare their performance with industry-wide data.

HSL will be collecting their first round of data for the period April 2010 - March 2011. If you would like to take part please email the project team on wish@hsl.gov.uk. They will then contact you later in March with full details of how to participate.

To find out more about the project click here.

To see an example report of the summary statistics this survey will provide click here.

Local Partnerships, Co-operatives UK and the Employee Ownership Association Launch the Mutuals Information Service

02 Mar 2011

Following the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude's Announcement on Mutuals, Local Partnerships, Co-operatives UK and the Employee Ownership Association have come together in partnership to provide a signposting service for staff in the public sector interested in setting up a social or mutual enterprise.

• Are you concerned about the future of the services you provide?
• Do you want to take steps to safeguard your job for the future?
• Do you want to take more control of the services you provide?

The Cabinet Office wants to encourage the creation of innovative alternatives for public service delivery by making it easier and more attractive to set up public service mutuals. Across many service areas, a new right to form employee-owned mutuals will empower millions of public sector workers to become their own boss and help them deliver better services in partnership with the communities in which they work. The policy is still in its infancy but groups of public sector staff across the country are already starting to think about how they might go about stepping out on their own as a public service mutual.

The Mutuals Information Service has been set up to help signpost staff in the public sector who are interested in setting up a social or mutual enterprise. Careful consideration needs to be given to the different organisational options available, to ensure that the business that you are creating is right for you and right for delivering the services that you want to provide. We can put you in touch with organisations that will be able to help you with various aspects of business planning, HR and legal advice, finance and investment, marketing and market research.

If you would like to take advantage of this free signposting service, please get in touch by calling 020 7296 6705 or visit our www.local.gov.uk/mutuals

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 – draft legislation published

28 Feb 2011

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 - draft legislation published

Changes to National Home Composting Framework prices

28 Feb 2011

From April 2011 there will be a small change to the National Home Composting Framework pricing (an increase of approximately £1 on most units) to reflect the increase in VAT as well as rising production and fuel costs. The new prices have been approved by ESPO and iESE and remain an excellent deal for councils.

Full details of this can be found here (see pages 27-30 for details of the Home Composting Framework 'totally managed solution', supply only and communications options. The rest of the document relates to the wider framework and products available through this).

For further information about the framework click here

Commingled boost as WFD regulations are laid

28 Feb 2011

Defra has confirmed that commingled recycling will count towards the "separate" collections of material required by the revised Waste Framework Directive after 2015.

Please click here to read more

Food waste in schools

28 Feb 2011

Why is food waste from schools an important issue? In 2007/08, WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) produced a report into the types and quantities of waste produced by schools in England. A key finding was that food waste was a major component of waste from schools, estimated to account for almost half of the waste, by weight, from primary schools in England and almost a third of waste, by weight, from secondary schools in England. A copy of the report can be found here

Food waste can be seen as a particularly significant issue because, when food is wasted in schools:

• the embedded energy from growing, transporting, storing and preparing food is also wasted;
• the money spent on buying and preparing the food is wasted and costs are incurred in treating and disposing of it; and
• perhaps most importantly in the context of schools, children are not gaining the nutritional benefit of the wasted food.
  

Therefore, in order to identify what could be done to reduce food waste in schools, WRAP commissioned this study to better understand the composition of the food waste and the behaviours and practices which lead to it being wasted. However, food waste is not the only issue to be considered in any study of food in schools – health and nutrition are arguably even more important, although they were not the focus of this study. This should be borne in mind when considering possible solutions to food waste; approaches will not be desirable if they impact negatively on health and nutrition, regardless of any benefit on reducing food waste.

WIN Case Study: Incentives, rewards and behavioural change

28 Feb 2011

Incentives, rewards and behavioural change - read the latest case study from WIN to find out how the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead rolled out its recycling incentivisation scheme, which has enabled a 46% increase in collected dry recyclables (data: January 2011)

EM IEP Newsletter - February 2011

25 Feb 2011

Commercial & Industrial Waste and Economic Research Study Final Report

24 Feb 2011

A cost-benefit analysis of local authority home composting support programmes

24 Feb 2011

1. Introduction

This study explores the costs of home composting campaigns in relation to the cost savings to local authorities associated with less municipal waste needing to be collected, treated or disposed of. The analysis involves considering the ‘up-front’ costs associated with home composting bin provision to householders set against projected estimates of future cost savings in terms of the quantities of waste diverted from municipal systems through home composting participation. Estimates of the net savings associated with home composting need to take account of the ‘time value’ of money spent by local authorities today, set against the future savings resulting from waste diverted into home composting. For this, Net Present Values (NPVs) can be calculated to compare the value of a local authority pound invested in home composting today against the value of the same pound in the future (taking into account inflation and likely returns if the money had been invested).

The number of bins each council collects

24 Feb 2011

The number of bins each council collects report from The Taxpayers Alliance outlines the number of bins used per household by local authorities across the UK

Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket

24 Feb 2011

Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags – new report from the Environment Agency assesses the life cycle environmental impacts of the production, use and disposal of different carrier bags for the UK