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| Page updated 25th January 2010 | |||||||||
| Monmouthshire Community Recycling will be closing down on 27th November 2009. The County Council has introduced a new co-mingled method of collecting recycling in Monmouthshire. A concerted campaign to retain the award-winning Black Box kerbside sorted recycling collection for the County has so far been unsuccessful. To read MCR's last ever newsletter, please click here. | |||||||||
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What is
MCR?
Individuals and members of local community groups helped establish MCR through discussions with Monmouthshire County Council and neighbouring community recyclists Newport Wastesavers. The company actually started operating early in 2003, when the first member of staff was appointed. Support came from Viridor Credits, Corus, Alcan, Alupro and most importantly the Council itself. |
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The
MCR Black Box
scheme currently collects every week from most of the
South of the County and parts of the North. All of the towns in
Monmouthshire are now served by the scheme. Every participating
household is provided with a Black Box which is emptied on a set day
each week by MCR crews. The material is sorted as it is collected
into different compartments of the collection vehicles to ensure that
what is collected can be recycled. It then goes back to the yard
in Caldicot where it is 'bulked up' before sent off for re-processing.
We endeavour to use UK reprocessors wherever possible, and only collect
materials that we know can be recycled and have a value.
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Schools, pubs, hotels, offices, shops and other workplaces may be able to use MCR's services. Our Workplace Waste Recycling Scheme is tailored to suit the customer and will reduce the amount of waste thrown out, and hopefully the amount that businesses spend on it. Each pick-up is slightly different and can be free, or there may be a small charge. We already collect from a large number of workplaces and can accept:
Please get in touch with us, if we can't deal with it ourselves, we probably know someone who can! |
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We offer:
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For the sixth year running MCR has collected and recycled more than ever – a grand total of 4352 tonnes sent to reprocessors. Most of this is from local households as part of Monmouthshire County Council’s black box service. A full list of what goes where is available on the company website and will be included in a newsletter posted out to residents. Information on last year's 'what goes where' is available via a link in the news item below. With the help of a ‘carbon calculator’ MCR has also reported back on the difference in CO2 created, compared to landfill. In total 2322 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided. Against this 39 tonnes were emitted by the company’s entire fleet of collection vehicles – this will be offset by supporting projects such as solar energy development in India. A customer survey carried out across all areas where the black box service is offered has shown some positive results:
David Roman, MCR’s Executive Director commented: “This is a fabulous set of results – we are very pleased that the public appreciate the hard work of the crews, are willing to help, and that we can tell them exactly what difference their actions make. We take on board the fact that some people aren’t happy with the size of the smaller red and green boxes – anyone who has a set can be upgraded on request, just give us a call and we will swap them over. Likewise if anyone wants an extra box, a lid or a divider, get in touch and we will arrange it.” 2007- 8; A bumper year for
recycling MCR has also produced a report on what happens to the materials it handles. These are 16 different commodities that are separated on collection rounds, and sold on to different recycling companies, such as Shotton Paper Mill in North Wales and a number of plastic packaging producers, mostly UK based. Residents keep most materials separate within their boxes, and trained collection crews sort them further, including different colours of glass – this helps make sure the glass can go into use in the UK where possible, such as making Stella Artois bottles, which are filled in the South East of England. The list of materials is comprehensive and includes batteries, cardboard drinks cartons (‘tetrapaks’) and even aluminium foil, which is picked out by hand, as it is a different grade of aluminium to cans. All have a use and MCR have checked on these, and have compiled pictures and video footage of reprocessing to reassure residents. David Roman of MCR commented: “We would like to thank people across Monmouthshire who have being doing their bit by putting their box out and in most cases making the sorters’ jobs easier by keeping things separate. This is why we can keep costs down for taxpayers, and pass on the full value of what they put out – for instance old clothes, which benefit charities. We can also collect more and more different materials and know that all of them can be recycled.”
MCR advises the United Nations David was invited to join a delegation sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government to showcase best practice in energy and recycling industries at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). The visit to Vienna has already shown results, with three potential projects being discussed. One of these would involve a UNIDO funded enterprise being launched in West Africa with guidance from Mr Roman and colleagues. “The managers at the UN event were very interested in the way that a social enterprise could achieve so much for so little money, and obviously wanted to see if African projects could benefit from the same approach” he commented. “They were very hospitable, and made me and the other Welsh delegates feel welcome – we came from many different countries, but what we all had in common was a wish to see environmental action creating good quality jobs.” Zero Waste
Progress |
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Volunteers and Members If you’ve got a recycling idea you’d like to develop, or you’d be interested in helping out at MCR get in touch. Volunteers are welcome, the company is run by them! Members receive regular newsletters, can attend the Annual General Meeting (and any other general meetings held) with voting rights, are welcome to visit the site by arrangement, and help make MCR more accountable to local communities. Members can stand as directors if they wish. |
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Write to us at our new address: 18 Severn Bridge Industrial Estate, Symondscliffe Way, CALDICOT, Monmouthshire, NP26 5PW Please note: Site is not open to visitors unfortunately, for Health and Safety reasons Ring us on:(01291) 430 550 Visit our new website at www.monrecycling.co.uk
Email:
admin@monrecycling.co.uk
(this email address will not be operational
after 30th November 2009)
•NO TIME TO WASTE• •DIM AMSER I WASTRAFFU• |
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Monmouthshire Community Recycling (MCR)
is a social enterprise, run by Monmouthshire residents. We provide
information and services to reduce and recycle waste locally. This
includes the Monmouthshire Black Box Scheme, workplace recycling and an active educational
programme.
We
want to encourage children to start thinking early about reusing or
recycling resources instead of throwing them away. MCR will come
to any school in the areas we cover to give a talk to pupils and
students about what we do, why we do it, and what it means for the
children. This is free and has worked for all age groups. It
is linked to a regular collection from the school and site tours of our
depot are possible, where children can see where their material goes,
how we load them into bulk containers, what a recycling vehicle looks
like close up and how we sort and crush the cans.
MCR's
Director, David Roman has visited Vienna recently to address United Nations
managers. The visit was arranged by the Welsh Assembly Government and has
led to plans for a new recycling project in West Africa.
Arvans.
Five streets were selected, with a population of 1400. Many of the
households are small and incomes here are low by comparison with St Arvans
and participation rates in recycling were 36% at the start of the project.
In Monmouthshire as a whole participation
rates in using the kerbside black box scheme are around 68%. A
pre-project survey of the area showed that awareness of the black box was
low, with many householders not knowing how the black box recycling scheme
worked, although many people requested collections of plastic bottles for
recycling. Each household received two boxes into which to sort their
recyclables, and plastic collections were introduced in November 2007.
Time was taken to knock on doors and
explain to residents when materials had been placed in the wrong boxes, or
when they could not be accepted. Within four weeks of the start of the
project 64% of households were participating in the scheme, with an increase
of around 500kg of recyclables each week, and a reduction of 12% in
household waste sent to landfill. The Zero Waste Village Project will
continue until 2011.