Day: 8 August 2006

EA to get more coastal protection powers

Rates rise when recycling’s rewarded

Pilot schemes offering cash rewards and other prizes to top recyclers have shown that given a big enough carrot, people are prepared to pay more attention to the management of their own household waste.

Pollution ‘off the scale’ at Russian rocket crash site

A rocket which crashed shortly after lift-off from a Soviet-era launch site in Kazakhstan has spread highly toxic fuel over miles of the surrounding countryside.

Huge returns for energy efficiency investment

Global investment of US$700 billion into energy efficiency over the next 25 years could reap returns in excess of US$1.4 trillion, according to top energy economists.

NGOs tell bank to block Slovak motorway loan

Environmentalists are calling on the European Investment Bank to withhold a €50m loan which would allow the Slovak Government to build a stretch of motorway until a full environmental impact assessment of the proposed project has been completed.

USA to phase out hazardous pesticides

Regulation of pesticide use in the USA is set to be tightened, with plans to phase out a family of harmful chemicals from agricultural use.

RCC arch dam technique tested in Brazil

The advent of roller-compacted concrete (RCC) in the construction of gravity dams has made them more time and cost-effective and a viable alternative to arch dams, and therefore the arch dam market tends to suffer from the competition of the RCC gravity dam. Since the beginning of 2002, Swiss consultant Stucky and Brazilian company Construtora Norberto Odebrecht with the support of international RCC expert Francisco Rodrigues Andriolo have collaborated on the development and testing of an innovative technique to apply RCC to double curvature arch dam construction, thus to make the arch dam more competitive.

How soft starters are shredding supply costs

Instead of forking out to upgrade a local sub station, a shredding company is using soft starters to overcome the problems of limited supply capacity and high peak demand charges

Your legal queries answered

Paul Rice, a partner at leading solicitors Pinsent Masons, answers topical questions on legal issues surrounding environmental and waste management

Guernsey contractor rolls out pay-by-weight

An on-board weighing system from PM Onboard is helping one private contractor get to grips with the rising cost of waste disposal in Guernsey

EfW project takes flight as alliances link up

Partnership working is at the heart of an energy-from-waste project currently underway near Heathrow Airport. Maxine Perella visited the site to find out more

Plastics forge ahead

Strong growth in plastics recycling is set to continue in the UK as a stream of new initiatives get underway, says Andrew Simmons