Day: 1 February 2000

Sewer failure, and successful remedies

Richard Swan, head of materials technology with WRc¹s networks group, looks at what can go wrong down in the sewers, and what can be done to put it right.

Giant sludge incineration plant opens in the Mersey Valley

Derek Workman, head of projects at USF Edwards & Jones, describes North west Water’s new mersey valley incineration plant. along with Thames Water’s Beckton and crossness incinerators, it is one of the UK’s largest.

Quality is the watchword in environmental management

Waste management operations, including landfill sites, are increasingly being subjected to quality assurance and environmental audits. LAWE reports on the ISO14001 programme being developed by Waste Recycling Group

EU Directive targets spur update in technical guidance

The landfill management industry and the Government are focusing on the major shift in operational practice and standards that will result from the implementation of the EU Landfill Directive. In this special feature LAWE reviews action to meet the UK's obligations and reaction from industry, with reports of developments on site and in landfill products.

Construction mounts major effort to minimise and reuse waste

The biggest producer of bulk waste going to landfill, construction and demolition, is the subject of a major survey as the industry continues to make progress on the minimisation, reuse and recycling fronts. Other sectors are also maintaining their commitment to recycling

Industry backs waste recovery solutions against incinerators

A new report from waste management company Biffa makes a strong case for waste recovery options over the potential benefits of incineration, while a newsprint industry study also comes out in favour of recycling used newspapers rather than going for the energy alternative.

See the sites

When Aggregate Industries UK Ltd launched its corporate-wide ISO 14001 initiative, aiming to certify all its UK sites before the end of 2001, the Environmental Working Group challenged with implementing the system soon realised the benefits of utilising IT, and set about implementing an intranet-based Environmental Management System.

States of industry

You log on to the website, input your information, and there it is: an instant appraisal of how your company compares with your sector, your industry, Europe-wide. This is the ultimate vision of the MEPI (Measuring Environmental Performance of Industry) project, co-ordinated here in the UK by the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit at Sussex University. Matt MacAllan reports.

Sustainability: 100%

This fleece top is made from recycled plastic bottles. Edwin Datschefski, director of BioThinking International, argues that, until we develop a unified picture of nature and industry as a single interdependent process, debate about environment will always be on a ³mankind versus nature² footing where one side always has to lose.

Garbage in, garbage out

Michael Scott, SWIG, argues that, with limited or even no confidence in data from process and environmental modelling sensors, what's the point?

A source of intense excitation

Environmental concern is now supported by increasing legislation to limit the levels of mercury-laden effluents discharged into receiving waters, and manufacturers exceeding those limits face heavy financial penalties.

Treatment at a stretch

Typically, 100kg of raw wool will contain 65kg of fibre; the rest is dirt, vegetables and wax. Cleaning ­ scouring ­ and processing, entails detergent, oil and grease. Glynn Skerratt of the Centre for Environmental Technology at Staffordshire University, and Robert Skelton, Koch Membrane Systems, consider membrane treatment.

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