Bill Esterson MP elected ESNZ Committee chair
Bill Esterson MP, vice president of the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) has been elected as chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero (ESNZ) Committee.
Pablo John, the ADE’s head of external affairs, said: “We at the ADE are really excited to see our Vice President Bill Esterson be elected as chair of the ESNZ Committee.
“Bill deeply understands the challenges our energy system faces – especially the need to decarbonise British heat and empower energy demand. There is an awful lot of work to be done if we want to deliver clean heat, Mission 2030 and industrial decarbonisation. We look forward to supporting Bill and the rest of the ESNZ Committee every step of the way.”
Esterson has been MP for Sefton Central since 2010.
Plastic bags and wrapping recycling trial expanding to Royston
Approximately 5,500 more households in Royston and the surrounding area will be able to recycle their plastic bags and wrapping as part of their usual recycling collection.
Around 2,200 households in Knebworth are already part of the trial – which started in October last year.
Some households in Sawbridgeworth in East Herts will also join the trial. The council said that it plans for all households in North Herts and East Herts to be able to recycle their soft plastics at the kerbside next year, as part of the two councils’ new joint waste contract which starts in May.
Participating households will receive special blue bags to put all their plastic bags and wrapping in, including crisp packets, confectionery wrappers, plastic film and bubble wrap. Pet food pouches will not be accepted.
Sarah Kingsley, service director for place, said: “Although plastic bags and wrapping don’t weigh that much, they can take up lots of space in people’s bins and it’s such a shame for them not to be recycled. We all need to look at how we can produce less waste and increase recycling, to reduce what we send to landfill.”
Knorr launches paper stock wrappers
Stock brand Knorr has announced that it is launching a new paper wrapper for the UK.
Following a pilot in Tesco for its Chicken SKU stock cubes, the brand will roll out the new packaging across its wider range – beginning with Fish and Lamb SKUs. The rest of the range will follow later this month.
The original wrappers were made from multi-layer aluminium wrapper.
Georgina Bradford, marketing director for nutrition at Unilever UK and Ireland, said: “The significant move to paper wrappers means that our Knorr stock cube boxes and wrappers are now recyclable, meaning more packaging can be recycled at home every day.
“As category leaders, we are committed to maintaining Knorr’s position as the stock cube of choice through big innovation with big flavours and new formats and now through making our wrappers fully recyclable. This is not only important to us, but also to our retailers and our shoppers. With this packaging innovation we are giving our consumers more reasons to choose Knorr when looking to bring big and bold flavours to their dishes.”
A recyclable icon has been added to front-of-pack while the side-of-pack includes On-pack Recycling Labels (OPRL) to provide shoppers with recycling instructions.
Cherwell trials blister pack recycling scheme
Cherwell district council has announced the trial of a blister pack recycling scheme, which will be turned into items such as outdoor furniture or plastic shipping pallets.
Empty tablet blister packs can be dropped into TerraCycle bins at three libraries throughout North Oxfordshire – Banbury Library, Bicester Library and Kidlington Library.
The initiative came about after the council acknowledged that blister packs are “difficult to recycle”.
When recycled, the waste will be sorted, melted and turned into pellets, flakes or powder, which will then be blended with other plastics and moulded into something new.
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