Annual statistics published by the British Beekeeping Association (BBKA) show an increase in the number of current members this year – 17,500 compared to the 2008-09 period of 14,000. The average number of hives per beekeeper has also increased from 3.9 to 4.7.

It was reported last month that the UK’s honey bee population suffered further decline this winter due to the severe weather conditions across the country.

Results of the  BBKA survey - asking members how many of their colonies of honey bees survived over the period November 09 - March 2010 -  also estimates the national loss at 17.3 per cent. Northern England faired worst with highest losses of 26 per cent whilst the lowest losses were recorded in the south-west at 12.8 per cent.

Commenting on the survey, Martin Smith, BBKA President, said:

‘This year’s losses show a small and encouraging improvement on the 19.2 per cent losses of 2008-09 and are much better than the disastrous 30.1 per cent revealed by the 2007-08 survey.’

With the picture in the Midlands region unclear; Birmingham Recycled visited South Staffordshire Beekeepers Association to talk to apiary manager Neil Leadbetter and membership secretary Phil Healy about how members’ colonies had faired over the winter and find out what could be causing the decline in honey bee numbers.

Here’s our interview with Neil Leadbetter and Phil Healy

As part of the new project, the team will launch a website which will contain information and advice on how local businesses can benefit from operating with greater resource efficiency and how to improve their environmental performance.

The team – Paul Hanna, Director of Economic Development and Partnership, Kate Bullock, Environmental Advisor and R. Shariat, Operations Manager – will aim to deliver the project through social media and hope to engage with businesses through cross-networking, open discussion and campaigns to highlight the importance of environmental factors in business performance.

 Speaking of the project, Paul Hanna said:

 ‘We’re adopting an ‘organic’ strategy here and hope the project will build gradually over time. The idea is to create a mini-site which will have a menu of all the different environmental factors that businesses should consider.

 The Chamber works with a lot of SME’s (Small Medium Enterprises) and we aim to get them to consider how addressing some of these ‘green’ factors will improve their businesses’ efficiency and performance.’

 The website will focus on five key areas that can improve businesses’ environmental performance: reducing waste, energy use, water use, transport costs and improving process efficiency.

There are similar resources out there for businesses to help encourage better environmental practice. Business Link already has a guide for companies on the benefits of improving environmental performance and in 2009, Defra published guidance on how businesses can measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions.

A report published by the Environment Agency in 2008 – reflecting on the previous 10 years of development and progress in ‘green’ business performance – shows improvements in compliance with environmental regulations:

‘The sectors that have reported to us since 1998 (energy, chemicals, metals, minerals) have: reduced greenhouse gas releases by four per cent, cut releases of sulphur oxides (SOx) by 69 percent, fine particles (PM10) by 53 per cent, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 12 per cent and reduced waste by 14 per cent.’

It acknowledges though that many issues continue to be a problem and need addressing. These include: ‘climate change, protecting health, protecting the environment from pollution, sustainability and resource efficiency and whether industry takes the environment seriously enough.’

 The Birmingham Chamber website is set to launch later this month so follow @Green_Shariat and @Green_Kate on Twitter to hear more about the project’s progress.

Lisa Nelder of Walkers Heath Allotments recently said:

“Unfortunately, according to Birmingham Council rules, beehives are not allowed on allotment sites.

I think the health and safety and Public Liability risks are too high for the council to allow them on sites.”

Rule 7.4 of Birmingham City Council Allotment Rules – under Section 28 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 - previously stated that ‘beehives are not allowed on the allotment.’

However, discussions at the recent Birmingham District Allotment Council AGM seemed to suggest that the rule will no longer stand:

“It now appears that the council has backtracked on this particular rule and bees will once again be allowed on site, with certain restrictions in place.

Mainly, the beekeeper will have to be a member of the beekeepers association, who will in turn, ensure the bees are looked after properly, sited correctly on the allotment and appropriate insurance is taken out.”

Clarification

Adrian Stagg – Allotments Finance & Records Officer at Birmingham City Council – clarified the plans:

“We intend to change the Allotment Rules to accommodate bee keeping but are waiting for approval to the new terms. In the meantime we allow bees subject to the following conditions:

The siting of hives must be agreed with the Association and the Allotment Liaison Officer in advance.

Anyone keeping bees must have Public Liability insurance and must be a member of the British Beekeepers Association or affiliated society.”

It is unclear when the approval of the new ruling will be received and indeed what the new terms of the agreement will be.

Hotel vs hive

It appears that bees have been kept on allotments in the city, but under specific ‘housing’ rules.

Dave Harte – a local allotment holder said:

“You can have bee hotels on your allotment. There’s a few on ours. We need bees to pollinate stuff like pumpkins which is why you often see flowers planted on allotment plots.

It’s beehives you can’t have which are a different order of things altogether.”

The difference between keeping bee hotels and bee hives is an area for further consideration and something the Council may be able to clarify.

There will be more posts to follow on this topic following the new ruling.

Shropshire Council has organised for Recycler to visit primary schools in the county to deliver an interactive programme devised by environmental charity Waste Watch.

Along with a ‘Recyclerteer’ – an education officer – the robot will perform a show at each school with story-telling and a quiz, as well as performing the recycling rap.

Leena Patel, Education Co-ordinator at Waste Watch explained that the programme has continued to succeed despite funding issues.

‘The programme was initially funded by WRAP and we had three robots touring schools across the UK.

However, the funding was pulled so now we work with Local Authorities to deliver the education programme.’

Why a robot?

The charity believes that using Recycler helps to get the message of recycling across to youngsters in a fun and interactive way.

‘Recycler has become a British institution; with thousands of school children having sung along to his catchy “reduce, reuse, recycle” message.

As well as encouraging the next generation to change their behaviour and be more environmentally-conscious, Recycler’s message reaches many of their parents as pupils are encouraged to take the message home.’

Teaching them whilst young

Waste Watch offer a range of educational programmes to primary and secondary schools  which are designed to help pupils and staff  reduce their environmental impact at school and at home.

Programmes such as Recycler also help link to the Curriculum and National Framework for Sustainable Schools.

Leena explained the importance of teaching children about environmental issues:

‘Teaching children at a younger age about recycling and reducing waste is great because they are enthusiastic and take the message on board.

We also work with secondary schools but often this is harder because there’s not so much enthusiasm.

Recycler is a novel way of teaching Key Stage one and two about recycling and allows them to interact in a fun and educational manner.’

Recycler the robot can be seen in action touring around schools across the UK to deliver the 3R’s message.

Recycled UK – based in Coseley, Wolverhampton – has rapidly expanded over the past 12 months and is now projecting a turnover of £1 million by the end of the year.

The company moved to premises more than twice the size of their previous home in September 2009 and has taken on an additional 6 employees to cater for the increase in businesses’ recycling waste.

The company offers a complete plastics waste management service to clients across the manufacturing, packaging and automotive industries and deals with a complete range of materials from collection to re-sale for manufacture.

Who benefits?

Not only has the company improved the ‘green’ credentials of hundreds of local businesses, but it has itself grown from strength to strength.

Founder and director, Paul Green said:

“It’s a win/win situation – businesses make money from selling their waste to us for recycling and we provide them with all the paperwork needed to tick the environmental boxes for governing authorities.”

He explained that their latest success hasn’t come without a struggle:

“The price of plastic fluctuates a lot and at the end of 2008 – early 2009, the market collapsed.

We had two options; either sink with the market or diversify our customer base.”

As well as continuing to process waste material from its existing customers, Recycled UK connected with local authorities to help recycle waste plastic from damaged bins, cones and road bollards and has also teamed up with a number of high street retailers.

The system also deals with material from pallets, rejected packaging, redundant stock, plastic film and UPVC window frames; breaking, sorting and processing for re-sale.

Awareness of responsibility

Paul believes that the success of the company is partly the result of businesses becoming more aware of their environmental responsibilities:

“Businesses are more aware of environmental concerns because it has become public news and also because they have to meet certain policies.

But they have also realised that if waste materials are separated, then they can gain an income from recycling them through companies like ourselves.”

Financial support

The company’s recent expansion – moving to the 30,000 sq ft site on Cannon Business Park – was partly funded by a scheme offered by Advantage West Midlands and WRAP.

Paul explained that without the match fund grant of £55,000, Recycled UK would not have been able to make the step.

“We looked around for support from various schemes by Business Link and Defra and I approached Advantage West Midlands about their funding with WRAP.

The money has helped us move to bigger premises and buy several pieces of equipment to improve the efficiency of our processing system.”

All materials processed by Recycled UK go back into British manufacturing and its use is not only beneficial for the environment but also saves money for product manufacturers.

On average, recycled material is 30 per cent of the cost of new material and so businesses benefit hugely from manufacturing re-processed plastics.

What the future holds

Paul explained that if their current base of customers continues to expand, another move may be on the cards.

“We filled the space here much quicker than we anticipated. We’re already considering taking on additional space in the coming months and again this will require additional staff too.”

Bromsgrove District Council – one of several authorities in the county – launched the chargeable garden waste collection in March 2009 – replacing a service that previously was ‘free’ of charge.

Residents wishing to ‘opt in’ must pay £30 to have garden waste collected from the kerbside between March and November.

The scheme is all part of changes being made to the way waste and recycling is collected from households in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

The Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy – a document drafting out the strategic approach to waste management and recycling across the two Midlands’ counties – shows how services are being unified in the coming years.

Why a chargeable service?

According to the strategy, the introduction of free collections across the board was dismissed:

This option was discarded as it would result in a significant increase in the amount of municipal waste handled and the cost for both collection and disposal would be significant. The current JMWMS promotes home composting as the key way for dealing with garden waste.

Anna Wardell, Waste Policy and Promotions Manager at Bromsgrove District Council believes the charged service makes sense:

This system works well as those residents that want the system pay for it, rather than residents in flats (for example) that can’t have the service, subsidising those with gardens that want the service.

In 2009/10, 15,588 residents applied throughout the year for the service. To date, we have 13,500 households that have applied for 2010/11.

The council is in the process of issuing brown wheeled bins to households that have signed up and the existing green bins will be used for commingled recycling collections from April.

Meeting recycling targets

It is hoped that creating a uniform system across Worcestershire will make waste collection services more manageable and targets for recycling will be achieved.

The strategy states:

The Partnership has set a target of 43% recycling/composting before 31st March 2014. As new collection and treatment methods are introduced, the Partnership will review its ability to exceed this target in line with the 2015 national target of 45%.

Talking of Bromsgrove’s recycling targets and progress, Anna added:

Over 5,000 tonnes of garden waste were collected for composting last year and we are predicting a slight increase on this for 2010/11.

We are predicting a combined recycling, composting and reuse rate of around 36% for 2009/10 which is well above the statutory target.

With targets set as low as 20% in line with national guidelines, Bromsgrove looks set to exceed these once again this year. But the question remains – why do some local authorities charge for waste collections when others appear to offer it for ‘free?’

Envirosort, based in Norton, was created by Severn Waste Services to deal with recycled materials collected from the kerbside boxes issued by local councils.

Bromsgrove District Council is making changes to their recycling collections to make use of the new facility.

Starting next month, residents will use the green bins – which used to be for garden waste –  for household recycling, according to the council’s website:

‘Envirosort will separate out the mixed recyclables into paper, cans, glass and plastics, meaning that we will not have to do the sorting using the two boxes. Instead we will be able to put all the recyclables loose into one container.’

Why Envirosort?

The facility, which will be used by councils across Worcestershire and Herefordshire, aims to make sorting recycled materials easier.

Ian Barber from Severn Waste Services said:

‘Envirosort was set up to provide a unified system for refuse and recycling collection services. Councils in Worcester and Hereford had a ‘mixed bag’ – different ways of sorting materials – some used separate bags for plastic, cans and paper and some areas had a kerbside sorting system.

The Joint Waste Resource Management Forum got together to develop one, unified system – where waste is collected from the kerbside and sorted at Envirosort.’

Before the facility was built, holding bays were used to store recycled materials, which then had to be sent out of the county for sorting and re-processing.

Benefits of the facility

Ian added:

‘We’ve put our trust in technology to do the sorting. It’s early days yet, we have only just finished commissioning trials of the system but we hope to be able to measure our success in the coming months.

Residents will benefit from the facility because it helps with the lapse in recycling collections. It also helps local councils because commingled collections are more economic.’

Bromsgrove District Council’s refuse and recycling collection policy provides further details on the changes to household recycling collections.

The centre held its first ‘clothes swap’ on Thursday evening (February 25), with local residents and volunteers recycling their unwanted items for ‘new’ pieces donated by others.

Organisers, Nell Osborne and Trudy Gallagher were surprised that the first of such events was so popular.

“The rules have disintegrated – we told people to bring one or two items to swap but everyone has brought bags full!”

There was a period of browsing for visitors to look at the clothes before trying items on and choosing which to swap.

Why clothes swapping?

Clothes swapping or ‘swishing’ has become popular in recent years and many see it as a eco-friendly way to update your wardrobe without spending money and creating waste.

Nell, who volunteers at the centre, said:

“Clothes are so cheap these days from stores like Primark and H&M; you often buy something and never wear it.

We encourage people to reduce and recycle as many things a possible so we thought a clothes swap would be a good idea.”

Trudy added:

“Its fun as well – today’s swap is for women only but we’re hoping to open future events to men and children too.”

Any clothes left ‘unswapped’ will be donated to local charity shops in Northfield.

The centre has recently launched two new groups; family hour and gardening as well as running sewing and craft workshops each week and offering evening talks on environmental concerns.

Visit Northfield Ecocentre’s website for details of upcoming events.