UK Business Briefs: plastic and electrical recycling, careers, pumps and acquisitions

Plastics company Vita Thermoplastic Polymers (VTP), the UK thermoplastic elestomer compounding division of British Vita plc, is looking for partners to demonstrate the potential of their new technology producing products from recycled car parts. The company has recently completed a development programme for the commercial production of thermoplastic elastomers containing substantial quantities of recycled tyre crumb and battery casings.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is publishing a new guide for careers in the environment sector, aimed at 16 to 25 year-olds. The guide has been prompted by the growing recruitment problems in the environment sector, where employers are having difficulty in recruiting qualified experts, whilst 80% of environmental graduates are not working in the sector, partly due to a lack of helpful information.

Peterborough City Council has announced that it has been awarded £266,000 by DEFRA to establish a waste electrical and electronic equipment reprocessing facility which will provide a collection service for old electrical items from domestic properties and retail stores. The appliances will either be repaired and sold into the reuse market or disassembled for reprocessing and remanufacture.

A purchase by the television shopping channel, QVC, has broken the 300,000 tonne record for trading packaging recycling notes (PRNs) during the 2002 obligation year through the Environment Exchange. The purchase represents 6.5% of the compliance market for 2002, says Environment Exchange Managing Director Angus Macpherson.

Mono Pumps is celebrating the installation of its quiet Grifter Pump system at the Carradale Bay caravan park in Scotland. Increased volumes of raw sewage generated by a substantial increase in the size of the site are now being handled by the Mono system, allowing residents at the park a good night’s sleep, says the company.

Black Country law firm George Green has announced that it has been advising a Wolverhampton waste management group on an acquisition which expands its business into a new area. Limpia Waste Management has now purchased Greatwell, a trading division of Smiths Construction plc, which collects and treats the waste from cesspits and septic tanks, for an undisclosed sum.