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October 25, 2006 at 10:59 am | Products and Services for Skip Hire Companies | No comment

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TO THE EA AND BEYOND…..

By Marco Muia, aka “Enviroman”:
Is it a bird, is it a plane, no its Enviroman, fighting for truth, justice and struggling with a 6′ banner for the Skip’s stand at the Recycling and Waste Management (RWM) show at the NEC last week. Sadly I had to drive there as my cape was at the dry cleaners.
So another show is over and despite offering a bottle of malt last month for the best name for a National Skip Hire Association I had no takers, apart from the cheeky suggestion of the Irish Recycling Association which doesn’t abbreviate well. So come on get your thinking caps on!
The RWM exhibition was busier than ever this year with an estimated 7,100 visitors, 420 exhibitors and a total attendance of 9,000 showing that the recycling industry is a large beast indeed, confirming that a voice is definitely required for the skip industry. During the show I spoke to over 150 visitors regarding waste related matters and was asked a multitude of questions, luckily some hastily copied Skip articles were at hand to be given out and I was reliably informed that the EA has now ‘gone public’ with their position statement on WEEE which was discussed in Issue 13. Many waste operators are still unaware of the exemptions they can benefit from so I will concentrate on them next month.
EA Consultation on 2007-8 charges.
This month the Environment Agency issued their consultation on the proposed fees and charges schemes for 2007-8, including waste management licensing, PPC etc. The skip industry has a limited representation out of the 290 organisations and individuals on the consultee list (which includes 127 trade associations). If the British Egg Industry Council, National Association of Funeral Directors and British Trout Association can be bothered to comment on charges that affect their members I dare say someone should comment on behalf of the skip industry, given that the industry makes a significant contribution the Agency’s coffers every year.
To make life easy the Agency have prepared a comments form to fill in which directs consultees to a narrow range of issues but does not invite wider comment (which is encouraged but should be sent to the Agency’s National Customer Contact Centre). I have repeated the main questions relating to proposed changes, as follows, with suggested comments and urge you all to read the consultation document and make additional comments which will be sent to the Agency:
Q. “As a result of our efficiency savings, we have been able to keep the baseline increases down to 2.3%. Do you have any comments or queries about the increases for such charges?”
A. “A complete revision of the waste charging scheme is required to remove the many anomalies, such as the excessive application fees for smaller sites and the charging of many recycling sites as disposal operations because they do not recycle 100%. Get rid of the existing tables and standardise charges – it costs the Agency no more to licence a site with a throughput of <5,000 tonnes than a site with a throughput of <25,000 tonnes.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to increase charges by a further 1.5% on top of the 2.3% baseline increase, to recover the costs of additional IT services and fund a programme to fundamentally modernise our approach to waste regulation and compliance work.”
A. “Strongly object. Existing subsistence fees should cover the costs. The current charging scheme requires a radical overhaul as many charges bear no relation to the level of work involved in dealing with the applications or regulating the sites.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to introduce a reduction of 10% to WML subsistence charges where a site is partially regulated by PPC and WML, a similar activity is being undertaken under both regimes, and the operator is the same person for both regimes.”
A. “10% seems to be a favourite discount for waste charges – why not reduce the charges further by ensuring that one key officer regulates the site to avoid duplication, 10% is an insult.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to introduce two new tiers of modification charges, a zero charge for administrative only changes, and a low-level charge of £1,200 for simple modifications. This arrangement would similarly apply to Environment Agency-initiated modifications.”
A. “EA initiated modifications should not be charged for – if a licence requires modification because it is deficient in any way the regulator should foot the bill because the applicant will at some time have had to pay an application fee, unless the site was licensed under COPA in which case the EA has a duty to review licences periodically. Simple modifications need to be well defined.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to introduce a capped fixed subsistence charge of £3,000 where construction has not yet started on a WML installation.”
A. “If construction has not started there should be no charge – a non-operational business should not be faced with excessive fixed charges which have no relation to the regulatory cost. £3,000 would be better spent on site infrastructure. A licence holder can notify the EA when works start, which (apart from landfill) requires little regulatory input.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to introduce a lower fixed surrender charge of £2,800 for closed inert and redundant landfills.”
A. “A charge reduction should equally apply to all transfer stations to reflect the level of regulatory work involved.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to continue to increase the range of fixed licences that benefit from a reduction of 10% in the application charges. How about reducing exemption charges?”
A. “The 10% reduction is laughable. The reduction should be increased proportionately i.e. there is significantly less work involved in issuing a fixed licence which should justify a reduction of at least 50%.”
Q. “We would welcome your comments on our proposal to extend the types of hazardous waste that benefit from lower subsistence charge to include hazardous Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.”
A. “All WEEE should benefit from lower charges.”
The deadline is 8 December 2006 and I will be responding as a consultee but would also like to able to state how many skip firms support a strong response to the consultation. I know this is a boring subject but I have yet to meet an operator that says “Aren’t EA fees good value for money?” so make your comments known. The consultation documents are available from Alan Day at the EA on 01454 624003.

Marco Muia BSc (Hons) MSc MCIWM specialises in all aspects of waste regulation consultancy and is a WAMITAB accredited assessor for the COTCs in waste transfer, treatment and inert landfill. He also holds the level 4 COTCs for Hazardous Waste Treatment and Transfer. You can contact Marco via The Skip Magazine

October 24, 2006 at 11:55 am | Environmental News | No comment

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Skip It, Don’t Tip It

Skip Units Group are ‘over the Troon’ after supplying South Ayrshire Council with three Randalls Simpak 1800T traversing waste compactors and a variety of containers for its new, state-of-the-art Community Recycling Centre at Troon in Scotland.
The machines have already proved to be a runaway success story since installation, after fulfilling measures to decrease landfill levels and improve on environmental targets.
The 1800T machine is very powerful and compacts waste so efficiently that an average of 10 to 12 tonnes can be removed in one load. Compacting reduces costs as compacted waste requires fewer journeys to transport the same volume to landfill and with fewer large service vehicles are required on site. The site is also served by five 40 yard compaction containers and one 20 yard RoRo container manufactured by Skip Units in Derby.
The amenity was officially opened on June 26th by Councillor Alistair Kerr, the Convener of South Ayrshire Council’s Commercial and Business Services Committee and was funded by the Scottish Executive’s Strategic Waste Fund. It was designed and built by South Ayrshire Council’s Waste Management and Roads sections.
The new centre replaces an existing one that had become too small to serve the requirements of the community. A full range of facilities has been provided to allow residents to separate and then recycle or compost as much of their household waste as possible.
The Troon centre is piloting an innovative compost return voucher system where compost derived from South Ayrshire garden waste, which the Council routinely collects from residents in brown, wheeled bins, can be purchased at the site with vouchers on sale in the town. Buying a voucher gives the purchaser a re-usable 70 litre hessian sack which can be filled from a 16 tonne bay at the centre. A voucher system was chosen so that staff would not have to process cash. If successful, the scheme may be extended to other locations in South Ayrshire.
Last year South Ayrshire recycled and composted 36.5% of the waste collected by the council, well ahead of Scotland’s overall figure of 21%. The council expects that the new centre at Troon will improve on this. The target of the local area waste plan is to recycle or compost 52% of municipal solid waste by 2020.
And with increasing targets for recycling and composting set by government, it is only a matter of time until this nifty bit of kit is set to be a common sight across the UK’s transfer stations and recycling centres. To in-bin-ity and beyond!!!

October 23, 2006 at 11:49 am | Products and Services for Skip Hire Companies | No comment

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Lost Losers Medal

‘Every Loser Wins’ sang Nick Berry in the mid 1980’s. And for Burnley FC, losers in the 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy Final, that phrase was never truer as they picked up their runners up medals on that fateful Spring day.
One member of the team however, lost his medal and he’s never tried to get it back.
How does The Skip know this? I hear you holler!
Well, six years ago, Ivor Ball, a retired scrap metal worker from Rochdale, found the missing medal in a skip and after years of doing very little about it has recently launched a public appeal to track the owner down.
Ten of the original twelve players who played on that day have been contacted and are all say they still have their medals; as does the manager at the time, Brian Miller. This leaves only the captain, Ray Deakin or utility player, Shaun McGrory as the medal’s rightful owner.
Burnley lost the final 2-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers 18 years ago but the day is still remembered fondly by Burnley fans as the intervening years have been very barren on the medals front. The medal has also been verified by the FA so there’s no chance that it’s a copy or a fake.
Sarah Meakin, a spokesperson for Burnley FC has said the medal will end up in a memorabilia museum if it remains unclaimed.
So, Mr Deakin and Mr McGrory, if you’re reading this article and you’re eager to get the medal back so that you can brag about it to your kids or bore your mates with your loser medal stories down the pub, get in touch with us.
Losing is nothing to be ashamed of boys!

October 21, 2006 at 11:45 am | The Skip Magazine News Stories | No comment

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Out-take from Topskips.com corporate video

We had to share this with the world … our inimitable Head of Customer services at Topskips.com, Louise Malpas, corpsing on her rehearsal for our corporate video. It made us laugh…plus it’s nice for any of the thousands of customers she’s dealt with to see what she really looks like (although I think she wishes she’d put some make-up on that day :-) . Did I mention that she’s also my sister-in-law and will kill me when she sees this

October 20, 2006 at 4:24 pm | Skip Hire Funnies | No comment

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Hardcore Horror Hits Hikers

The tranquil scenery of Orton Woods is a place where many a rambler goes to enjoy the view and the last place on earth where you would expect a great, big, dirty skip. Yet disgusted walker, Keith Smith came across a builders skip blocking his way when out for his daily morning walk.
Not only was the skip dumped near the local beauty spot of Snowdrop Corner, it had also been filled with cement which had set, making it impossible for the skip to be moved.
Mr Smith said: “This is another example of an act of vandalism against the countryside and another cost to the taxpayers of Peterborough for its clearance.”
The sight has been made ever worse by the fact that huge vehicle tyre marks have damaged the area.
Distraught ramblers have tried to contact the Peterborough council, but they are denying all knowledge of being informed of this atrocity.
Peterborough City Council’s community safety manager Christine Graham said: “Now we are aware of this issue, our officers have been down to the footpath to assess the problem and we will remove the skip as soon as we can.”

October 19, 2006 at 11:43 am | The Skip Magazine News Stories | No comment

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