NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

EASTERN REGION

Resource Saver has been assessing the impact of the project and produced performance data which covers the period from September 2006 to January 2008:

Waste Materials diverted from landfill (tonnes) - 164.5   
Virgin raw materials saved (tonnes) - 164.5   
Carbon saved (tC) - 284.6
Cost savings to business (£) - 366,903
Hazardous material reduction (tonnes) - 1 tonne
Increased sales for business (£) - 350,000

The Community Recycling Network East are also pleased to announce that they have finalised two new training contracts with construction companies which will offer training to 250 delegates.

Contact:
Heidi Seary heidi@crn.org.uk ,
Gemma Sortwell gemma@crn.org.uk   07870 194172
Lewis Herbert lewis@wastewise.org.uk   01223 411699

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NORTH WEST

Members collecting and diverting commercial and industrial waste are currently being given help preparing business and marketing plans in order to be able to deliver collection services to businesses in the North West. Office wastes such as paper, card, plastics and glass are targeted as well as office and commercial furniture and food waste from catering outlets.

New community sector organisations are also planned. Working with Cumbria County Council, the aim is to establish a new community composting site dealing with food waste from the tourist trade - something that has possible echoes in Cheshire as well, given the similarities between the two areas highlighted in the recent Best Value Indicators report.

Elsewhere, the North West Network, in conjunction with Envirolink North West, is mounting a community sector meets the Commercial sector event on 10 April. The purpose of the event is for the business sector to find out what the community sector can do for them. Exhibition space is disappearing fast so if you have a collection service you feel you can offer your local businesses, do get in touch.

Information on Resource Saver North West, aimed at finding community sector solutions to business waste resources, is available on www.resourcesaver.org.uk if y ou want further information or have contacts you would like to share, do get in touch with Daniel daniel@crn.org.uk  0161 2238200 M 07743065698

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOUTH WEST

The national regional programme funded by Defra came to an end this year and there has been a great deal of work on finding continuation funding for the work that has been going on in the South West over the past two and a half years. At this stage it is necessary to cut back on the services organisations receive whilst this search continues. The CRN UK will be providing a peer exchange email address to allow SW CWN members to share information directly with other groups within the region.

The Community Waste Network South West steering group will continue to meet and feed back important information to this peer network.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YORKSHIRE AND HUMBER

Following the launch of the Furniture Re-use Network's partnership with the National Housing Federation at their annual conference last month, a network of Leeds furniture services has been discussing how to maximise reuse from the housing sector. There is quite a lot of ad hoc referring taking place in the city but there are definite benefits all round in setting up proper systems to allow tenants to make the most of re-used furniture and other items. Representatives of the housing ALMOs (arms-length management organisations) in Leeds met the furniture network in January and are organising briefings of housing staff on re-use opportunities.

Social landlords are also being involved in attempts by the Community Waste Network to establish a Building Material Reuse Centre. This would take a much more sustainable view of the resources generated from construction and demolition work in the region, re-using as much as possible on-site, to the benefit of local community organisations. The work is modelled on a national programme being rolled out by BioRegional, reported widely in our sectors news. Some promising cross-sector partnerships are already being formed, with research proposed construction & demolition processes in Yorkshire & the Humber. Do contact the regional team for more information.

Contact:
Paul Forrest paulf@crn.org.uk ,
Mary Goldsworthy, mary@crn.org.uk   0113 2003977