West Sussex hands out waste management contract

Waste management and collection at households in West Sussex is to be carried out by Biffa, the county council has announced.

The firm was selected as the preferred bidder for a 25-year contract worth £1 billion.

Biffa’s bid included plans to build facilities capable of processing up to 300,000 tonnes of waste a year at its landfill at Warnham, where it would separate out recycling material and turn the rest into a fuel for burning to generate electricity.

The cost will be borne largely by the council tax payers as the council claims the government has not contributed to the scheme.

Cabinet member for finance Louise Goldsmith told Lets Recycle: "We recognise this is a big burden for local taxpayers. Unfortunately the government has refused to provide any help in meeting that cost.

"First, it denied West Sussex access to PFI funding. Then it failed to deliver its promise to give back to local authorities landfill tax money, which they could have invested in alternative technologies."

The Recycling and Waste Contract was handed to Viridor Waste Managemnt in 2004 in a project know as Reclaim West Sussex, which boosted the recycling rate from 22 per cent to 37.8 per cent.

The Materials Resource Management Contract, which Biffa has won, is to be signed in 2009.

Biofuel motorbike wins race

A Peterborough–based motorcycle team have raced to victory on a biofuel-powered machine.

Team Inzane’s adapted Ducati 800SS snatched a victory on September 14th by just two tenths of a second.

The motorbike, ridden by Russel Joyner, runs on bioethanol E85, a blend that includes just 15 per cent petrol, with the remaining fuel distilled from biomass.

Its fuel was provided from pumps in Norfolk, where the only refinery using excess sugar beet as a feedstock can be found.

The team was supported by the Energy Efficient Motor Sport initiative.

Inzane Technical Director Ian Calvert said: "This is the pinnacle of a fantastic season for Russ and the team. We have been third in the championship most of the year, with podium places. It’s fitting tribute to the faith that EEMS placed in our dream to pull off this world first. And it’s worth remembering that no planets were harmed in the winning of this race!"

The EEMS project team was set up in 2004 and is reviewing past activities and creating new strategies for the future.

Living Fuels to collect London cooking oil

Living Fuels, a Norfolk-based renewable energy firm, is to start collecting cooking oil to generate electricity from London.

The firm has established cooking oil collection tanks at recycling centres in 14 London boroughs including Tower Hamlets, Haringey and Newham.

Once collected, the recycled oil will be taken to Living Fuel’s Hockwold facility to convert it into biofuel, which will then be used to run a generator.

Business development director David Leivesley told RWM that the company had received a lot of interest at the RWM show and that, as well as local authorities it recycles oil from "schools and companies such as Bird’s Eye and Premier Food".

Gordon Gardner, operations manager, told the publication: "200 litres of used cooking oil is enough to produce electricity to run six houses for four weeks."

Meanwhile, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is offering to collect cooking oil from businesses for free, having realised the value of the oil which can be used in biodiesel production.

Nujira top ten clean tech firm

Cambridge firm Nujira has been recognised as one of the country’s top ten clean technology firms.

The company, which helps reduce operational costs and boosts environmental performance of base stations and radio transmitters for mobile phone and radio networks, was named the ninth best clean technology company in the Guardian’s list of the top 100.

Traditionally, base stations and radio transmitters consume massive amounts of energy but, according to the newspaper, Nujira’s technology cuts consumption by 50 per cent.

By boosting transmission efficiency, the technology not only improves base station consumption but also improves handset battery life.

According to the Guardian, the company’s technology is being assessed by the majority of the world’s major telecommunications infrastructure vendors.

Nujira claims that radio networks typically account for 80 per cent of an operators electricity consumption.

Norfolk engine in green car

A tiny Norfolk-designed engine is the power behind a light and aerodynamic car design which promises 100 miles per gallon and half the emissions of current cars.

The Axon car, which was at the St John’s Innovation day in Cambridge, is powered by a 26 kilogram two-cylinder engine designed by Ptech in Norfolk.

Using a lightweight engine is in keeping with the Axon Automotive approach to boosting fuel efficiency.

Most of the rest of the car is made of lightweight carbon fibre, to remedy one of the sources of inefficiency in most cars.

Axon founder Steve Cousins explained to potential investors: "There is lots of inefficiency built into a standard car, and the two main sources are the weight of the vehicle and relatively poor aerodynamics, both of which we have addressed.

"Because manufacturers have responded to public concerns by changing energy sources we have seen electric and hybrid cars emerge. But this has led to cars becoming heavier and more consumptive than is necessary."

The result is a car with high mileage and carbon dioxide emissions of just 80 grams per kilometre, well under the 130 g/km target set by the EU.

Circuit company 3rd best clean tech firm

A Cambridge-based company that makes circuits that reduce the amount of power electrical devices use while in standby mode has been praised as one of the top ten clean technology companies in the country.

CamSemi, a 35-employee firm, took the third slot in the Guardian newspaper’s Clean Tech 100 list.

The firm, which has no fabrication plant of its own, designs power management circuitry to reduce the energy consumption of products such as phone chargers or video recorders when they are in standby mode.

Individually the effects of this technology do not amount to much as these devices do not consume a lot of energy. However, the cumulative effect of this technology could be massive as the technology is applicable to billions of devices.

According to the firm’s environmental policy, it is "committed to helping customers achieve more energy- and materials-efficient offline power conversion and as a developer and provider of integrated circuits endeavours to be environmentally responsible".

Mid Bedfordshire trials food for compost and energy

Mid Bedfordshire council used scraps of food waste to generate renewable electricity as part of a waste management pilot project.

The scheme administered by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) saw a total of 4,400 tons of food waste used to nourish the land.

According to the organisation, the 19 local authorities throughout England and Northern Ireland that collected food waste from 94,000 homes managed to reduce carbon emissions by 2,000 tonnes.

The compost has been used to fertilise farming and horticultural land and help redevelop reclaimed land.

Mid Bedfordshire council was one of two councils to put the waste through anaerobic digestion, a process which uses bacteria to release gasses from the waste which can be burned for energy.

Phillip Ward, director for local government services at WRAP, told 24dash: "If you design a scheme like this with the customer in mind, making sure you give them what they need and discussing their concerns about whether it’s going to be messy or smelly and how that can be dealt with, then results can be achieved."

Idling motorists face £20 fine

Motorists who leave their engine running while in a traffick jam in West Sussex could face a £20 fine.

The council is trialling a project which would give traffic wardens the right – after a warning – to levy the fine on cars which are idling too long.

Shoreham-by-Sea will be the venue for the trial, which will start in January.

There are already signs asking motorists to turn their engines off at level crossings.

A spokesman for the county council said: "We want to get people out of the habit of leaving their cars ticking over out of convenience.

"But we would hope that the vast majority of motorists would be willing to co-operate and not leave their engines idling."

The measure, designed to cut down on pollution, could also help motorists reduce their carbon emissions. It is also a step which is recommended by eco-driving experts.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, road transport accounted for 22 per cent of carbon emissions in the UK in 2006.