Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has publicly spoke out about the thinking behind landfill bans and reassures councils and skip hire companies alike that the definition of municipal waste changes.

We’ve all been having problems getting to grips with new changes regarding governmental reforms over waste over the past few years and it’s not about to get any easier. Local authorities and waste management companies look set to have to grapple with landfill bans being imposed for different waste streams on different dates over the years to 2020.

The Environment secretary has confirms these landfill bans will take place. Benn’s agenda is to reduce the amount of waste materials from being sent to landfill.

Ahead of a consultation on the bans – which could be issued in February 2010 – Mr Benn described them as an “encouragement” and as a form of “mutual support” for the landfill tax.

Asked whether landfill bans were Defra’s cause célèbre for waste at present and whether they were really necessary in light of the rising landfill tax, the Secretary of State said: “We are trying to make progress on a number of fronts. As I said at my ‘World Without Waste’ speech in October, why do we put all these valuable products in landfill?

“For me it is about the two things supporting each other which is why we have got to the point of landfill bans, they will mutually support each other so we can get to where we want to be. Landfill tax has had an impact, but it is about thinking ahead, being ambitious. It does not make sense to put food waste or wood or plastic or glass or aluminium cans or tin cans into landfill.”

Part of the reason behind Mr Benn’s thinking is thought to be the fact that the UK still sends 50% of household waste to landfill as well as a large percentage of commercial and industrial (C&I) waste.

By banning materials from landfill, this will encourage further recycling, said Mr Benn. “By saying you are not going to stick this into landfill any more, then we need to find another way of dealing with it which will further support the way this material is recycled and build on what we have achieved already through the efforts of local authorities, and I pay tribute to them in responding to the landfill levy.”

The Secretary of State singled out food waste as one of the key target areas for future landfill bans, arguing that it makes no sense to landfill this “for obvious reasons, both because of the methane and the fact that you have a fantastic alternative which is either composting or producing renewable energy.”

And, he suggested that all local authorities ought to be collecting food waste at least by 2020, although a precise date will be consulted on. Mr Benn remarked:  “If some local authorities can collect food waste, why can’t all local authorities collect food waste?”

And, he emphasised the logic of a landfill ban in the case of food waste which will help encourage new infrastructure such as anaerobic digestion (AD). “By definition, I take you back to landfill bans; this is a policy that has a number of benefits for clearly when we get to the point that food no longer goes into landfill clearly every local authority is going to have to find another way of dealing with it.”

Mr Benn dismissed industry claims that AD developers are finding it hard to get funding for projects and said: “We have done a huge amount on AD as this is an emerging technology with enormous potential. We have doubled the incentives under ROCs from the first of April last year, Feed-in-Tariffs will come in, there is £10m for the demonstrator projects, and the EA has said digestate will not be classified as a waste and the AD task force is working with the industry.  Frankly it is a technology which is waiting to take off because all the building blocks are in place.

Is nothing sacred? Somehow, thieves have stolen a council skip placed to help residents get rid of household waste left uncollected because of the snow.

The large yellow skip was placed at Shaw, north Manchester so people living in side roads which waste trucks had not able to reach could empty their rubbish. But when residents arrived on Monday they discovered it had been stolen over the weekend.

Cllr Mark Alcock, environment spokesman, said: “Whoever took this skip would have needed a specialist truck to take it away.

“We are currently checking nearby CCTV cameras to see if such a vehicle has been seen in the area.

“If the thieves are tracked down then they will be prosecuted.

“It is very disappointing. People are doing so much to help others while some selfish individuals are helping themselves.”

Sad times. Whoever did this had access to a skip wagon – so there will be a skip firm somewhere who is responsible for this. Guys, let’s clean up skip hire and get rid of these cowboys who continue to dirty the name of our industry.

Just a quick word of congrats to Skip Hire companies across the UK. Although some places were hit by the sudden snowfall than others, I was heartened to see plenty of skip wagons on the road regardless of the weather. In fact saw this lovely little pic of a skip covered in snow, and thought it was a good symbol of our hardwork throughout the bad weather. Well done guys!

Remember Terry Sandham, the Yorkshire skip hire pigeon fancier (try saying that after a few shandies) who was being denied planning permission for his palatial pigeon loft?

Well, he won the court battle (yay!) but has lost some award winning pigeons since (boo!).

The  bad news follows as Sandham has now reported the theft of dozens of his prized pigeons.

Terry Sandham, 69, believes thieves broke into his luxury pigeon loft in Guiseley last week, making off with up to 30 birds worth at least £1,000.

As reported in The Skip last year, Mr Sandham ruffled the feathers of council bosses by building the palatial 18ft by 5ft loft on green belt land.

But the skip hire boss later won a planning appeal and was awarded legal costs from Leeds City Council, which could total up to £40,000.

Almost one year later, he is still waiting for the money – and after the added stress of the pigeon theft, he said he finally wanted some “peace”.

The businessman, who runs Aireborough Waste Traders, said,  ”I felt sick when I realised what had happened.

“Those birds are massive part of my life; I’ve had pigeons since I was an eight-year-old lad. At least 10 have gone, but numbers in other parts of the loft have gone down as well.

“I’ve been ill over Christmas and this just adds to it. If they’re released, there’s a chance they may fly back, but I’m not holding out much hope.”

The pigeon loft, complete with windows and patio doors, was built in 2006 as a replacement for Mr Sandham’s former crumbling loft on the same land.

Neighbours described it as “blot on the landscape”, but he was eventually granted retrospective planning permission and appealed against the extra costs. However, he has yet to see any of the money, which was initially estimated at £20,000.

The sum may now have increased to £40,000 due to the ongoing legal wrangle, which has lasted for more than three years.

Mr Sandham added: “If I owed the council money, they’d be chasing after me and taking me to court. But when it’s the other way round, they bury their heads.”

The stolen pigeons, which shared the loft with around 100 others, were taken between Thursday night and Friday morning. Mr Sandham has offered a £500 reward for the safe return of the birds, which are mostly of the Leen Boers variety.

Terry, sorry to hear of the latest bad news. We hold some hope that those birdies will fly home soon. We’ll keep an eye in the skies for you. Good luck.

It’s not everyday that you look out of the window to discover your garden looks like an H-Bomb has landed on it.

Unfortunately, for one couple this was the case when they moved into their brand new home and were undergoing some work on it.

The couple were shocked to discover that the 6 cu yd skip that they had ordered had been swallowed by their front garden.

Kate Scott and partner Paul Harding had ordered the skip hire as they were preparing to build a new conservatory.

They had just bought the house in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire and had moved in two weeks ago.

But they were left stunned on Sunday morning when they woke to find the six-yard skip had fallen into a giant hole measuring 15ft by 15ft.

Garden Swallows Skip: Oh dear...

They later discovered that the skip had sunk into a bunker beneath their lawn, which they had not known was there and had not come in the survey they had before they had bought the house.

Ms Scott, 37, said: ‘It was a massive shock, we just couldn’t believe it. The hole is about 20-foot-deep and takes up a third of our front garden

‘It’s really gutting as we only moved in two weeks ago.’

The couple, who have a nine-month-old baby Scott, ordered the skip to be delivered to their house on Friday evening.

They had arranged for builders to start digging out foundations for the conservatory on Sunday.

But when they woke at 6.30am on Sunday morning they were puzzled to find they had no water.

Mr Harding then looked out the window and saw the empty skip had fallen through their lawn into a gaping hole.

Kate, who is 30 weeks pregnant with twins, added: ‘We had to get another skip company to haul it out as the original company doesn’t work on a Sunday.

‘Normally Paul parks his van there. If the skip hadn’t been there, the van would have been.

‘Our biggest problem is we now have nowhere to park and we can’t use our front pathway. Fortunately our neighbours have been lovely and very helpful.’

The couple now hope their building insurance will resolve the problem and the conservatory plans are on hold.

Keith Walker, of K&S Walker Skips, which pulled the skip out the ground, said: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this happen before.

‘The couple called me on the Sunday morning and we used chains to pull it out.

‘Luckily it was empty so it was a fairly easy task.’

Well thanks to Keith at K&S Skips who got up that Sunday to help out. The rest of us were sending up the zeds!

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www.mylocalskiphire.com is opening it’s doors to readers of “The Skip Magazine” to get there company on the front page of google for skip hire.
why advertise on mylocalskiphire?
Type skip hire into google and you will see the following
My Local Skip Hire Screenshot
The screen shot was taken on the 15th May 2009, and places them in the top 3 position on google which gets 1000,s of visitors per month going to the site as they want a local skip company to provide them with a skip hire service.
So it has actively got buyers looking for a service and for £10 per postcode you can get access to those customers, that’s it £10 for a postcode and your details are shown every time a person searches for that postcode.
Try it now for GU24, the site is not going live till June but a few lucky people have been made live prior to the event.
Visit My Local Skip Hire now to reserve your place

The February issue of The Skip is packed full of all your favourite usual skip features and stories from the wonderful world of skip hire in the UK and Ireland.
If you’re not in the gang yet, don’t miss out any longer subscribe safely below

HAPPY NEW YEAR, SKIP FANS!
Dumpster diving bears? Cross-dressing Skip Chicks? Dumping your load? It can only be another fantastic issue of Britain’s favourite publication dedicated to the world of skip hire – “The Skip” magazine (we can say that with complete confidence, as it’s actually Britain’s ONLY publication dedicated to the world of skip hire!)
It’s not all about cheering you up with a giggle and getting you through those long days at work though, there’s lots of informative stuff written by industry experts to help you stay ahead of the game and up to date with current legislation etc. Not to mention a bumper stash of resources to help your business operate as efficiently as possible, and plenty more too…

Check this skip hire video out (part of the launch for National “Share a Skip Week”)