Let’s play with rubbish: new board game helps make the most of waste

Focus Games Ltd has developed the Bioeconomy Game, an educational board game that challenges players to create value from waste and develop their community.

The game was developed in collaboration with MeLoop Foundation, India, and the THYME Project, a North of England project designed to improve productivity of the bioeconomy and companies across Yorkshire, the Humber and the Tees Valley.

The bioeconomy is a part of everyday life. It involves using renewable living things such as plants, animals and microbes to produce food, energy and other materials.

As the world moves away from its dependence on products manufactured from fossil fuels, it is important that we all understand how the bioeconomy works and contributes to sustainability.

The objective is to minimise the amount of waste going to landfill, and to instead create value from waste by reusing and recycling it in innovative and sustainable ways.

Aimed at players aged 12+, the game is used to educate school children about sustainability as well as a training aid for workplaces wanting to learn more about this rapidly expanding bioeconomy sector. To complement the physical game there is also a digital version which can be played on a mobile device.

To find out more and purchase the game (educational discounts apply) visit the Focus Games website.

DS Smith Recycling and Co-op sign new five-year contract

Leading recycler and retail giant renew partnership to recycle over 55,000 tonnes of cardboard packaging annually.

DS Smith Recycling, one of Europe’s largest paper and card recyclers, managing more than 5.5 million tonnes for recycling annually, has signed a new five-year contract with Co-op, one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives.

The partnership between DS Smith and Co-op, which builds on an existing ten-year relationship, will see over 55,000 tonnes of cardboard packaging recycled annually in the UK at DS Smith’s Kemsley Paper Mill in Kent (pictured), the second largest recycled paper mill in Europe.

Key to the partnership is both organisations working together to maintain a consistent supply of good quality cardboard packaging for recycling, which can then be used to make new packaging products across DS Smith’s packaging operations, it says.

RB partners with Veolia to drive a circular plastics economy

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) and Veolia have announced their partnership to drive the shift to a circular plastics economy.

The partnership with Veolia is another step RB is taking to fulfil its pledge to make 100% of its plastic packaging recyclable and to contain at least 25 percent recycled content by 2025.

Veolia and RB started working together two years ago to work on increasing the use of postconsumer recycled plastic in RB’s packaging.

The first offering from the partnership is the new packaging for Finish Quantum. The packaging now contains 30% recycled plastic and is proudly grey in colour because RB has decided not to add masking pigments or additives to the packaging.

The companies will continue their collaboration on designing for recyclability and the maximization of post-consumer recycled content.

To accelerate the circular plastics economy, a team of 20 experts from RB and Veolia are also working to develop enhanced collection systems, driving behaviour change to aid consumer sorting habits and improving recycling from households.

Reconomy strengthens group with further acquisitions

Reconomy has announced the acquisition of Gosport based waste management company, Nationwide Services Group (NSG) as well as a boutique packaging compliance consultancy.

Following the acquisition of Advanced Waste Solutions (AWS), this makes it three in the space of three weeks as part of Reconomy’s ambitious growth plans.

NSG, founded in 1992, has built key relationships in the construction, fit-out, retail and commercial sectors and was one of the first outsourced service companies to offer tool and plant hire via a network of service providers.

This continues Reconomy’s strategic acquisition plan and investment in developing the group for the future, with the aim of strengthening its offer across all key sectors and continuously improving the customer experience. Combined with organic growth, Reconomy’s overall group turnover is now forecast to be in excess of £330m at the end of 2019.