04
sustainabletimes
01732759725
greenAgenda
Electric charge
In the last 12months, Ecotricity’s
electric car charging network, the
ElectricHighway, has poweredmore
thanhalf amillionmiles of road
travel with100% green electricity.
Tomeet rising demand, Ecotricity is
doubling the number of chargers at
each location and by the endof the
year expects there to be an Electric
Highway pump at everymotorway
services inBritain.
Electric car cluboff
theblocks
TheUK’sfirst entirelyelectricpay-per-
use car clubhasopened in East London
aheadof anational roll-out.
The first phase of E-Car Clubwill
bring newRenault Zoe andRenault
Fluence vehicles to the LondonBorough
ofTower Hamlets in partnershipwith
social landlord Poplar HARCA,whichowns
around9,000homes in the area.
E-Car Clubwas founded in2011,
with investment from Sustainable
Venture Partners and theTechnology
StrategyBoard.
The London launch follows two
successful pilot projects: a community-
led project inMiltonKeynes launched
inOctober 2012 and a partnershipwith
LutonBoroughCouncil in2013.
Twobillionand counting
Followinganaudit of recyclingprocesses,HPhas
announced thatmore than75%of its ink cartridges and
24%of its toner cartridges arenowmadewith ‘closed
loop’ recycledplastic –50%more thanayear ago.
HP’s closed loop cartridge recycling process uses recycled
plastic from returnedHP cartridges, recycled plastic bottles
and plastic clothes hangers to create new cartridges.
Recycled plastic fromHP’s recycling process has a 33%
lower carbon footprint and54% lower fossil fuel consumption
thannew plastic. To date,HP hasmanufactured2 billionHP
ink and toner cartridgeswith recycled content.
Bumper rise in
recycling
Shrewsbury-based commercial
vehicle rental and contract hire
companyBurntTree haswon a
GreenApple EnvironmentAward
in recognitionof its Project Revive
recycling programme.The on-going
initiative recycles, repairs and re-uses
bodyshop parts, such as panels and
bumpers, insteadof throwing them
away.The project has resulted in a
32% reduction inwaste and a 97%
increase in vehicle parts recycling.
Charlie Bailey,Group Fleet Engineer at
BurntTree, said:“Today 100%of our
car bumpers are recycled and repaired,
alongside other plastic items such as
mirror heads, corner bumpers, rear
light surrounds, headlight surrounds
and lower step panels.”
AnyVan launches app
AnyVanhas launchedanewapp that enablesAndroid/
iPhoneusers tobook spaceonvanswith spare capacity.
AnyVan,whichwas set up tominimise the amount of
unused space in delivery vans (it claims 25%of vans on the
roads are empty and50%half empty),matches peoplewho
need something to be delivered/removedwith commercial
vehicles that have room to spare.
Last year, 74%of jobs onAnyVanwere either combined
with another customer’s loador carried by a vanon a return
journey, effectively saving 21.1millionmiles andmore than
9million kilograms of CO2.
The new app includes a ‘RouteMatcher’ tool that presents
a choice 15 companies basedonwhere they are driving in the
next 7 days; a BookNowoption that lets you specify a price
youwant to pay rather thanwait 20minutes for bids to arrive
from accredited transporters; and a tracking tool that lets
customers track transport companieswhen they are en route
to a pick upor delivery.
Forty timesmore aerodynamic than
a BugattiVeyron andwith a top
speedof 90mph, the pedal-powered
ArioniVelocipede could generate
enough power to light up an average
UKhome. It is being developed by
a teamof engineering students at
theUniversity of Liverpool who are
aiming to create the fastest human-
powered vehicle inhistory.The
University of LiverpoolVelocipede
Team (ULVT) hope to break the
current speed recordof 83.13mph
at theWorldHuman Power Speed
Challenge inBattleMountain,
Nevada in September 2015.
HPCartridgeRecycling
