A new nine bin recycling system has been introduced by Newcastle-under-Lyme Council in order to help meet tough recycling targets. Householders in the area have been told to use the nine bins top separate plastic bottles from glass, tins and aerosols and cardboard from paper.

The new system includes a slop bucket for food waste which is later emptied into green outdoor bin to be collected, a blue box for glass, foils and aerosols, a pink bag for plastic bottles, a blue bag for paper and magazines, a green bag for cardboard, a white bag for clothing, a wheelie bin with a brown lid for garden waste and a grey wheelie bin for non recyclable materials.

The system has come under fire from local residents who say that the new system is too confusing and many have complained that there is no room in their houses to store all the extra bins and bags. Lots of residents have said that trying to deal with 9 recycling bins is just way too much.

The new 9 bin system replaces the old 5 bin system which is used around much of the UK, the aim is to boost the recycling rate from 26% in 2008 to 50% by 2015.

If the new system is found to be successful in the Newcastle-under-Lyme area then it will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the near future.

10:10 is a new website which launched on the 1st September 2009, they have one simple idea and that is to reduce all our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Whether you are an individual, school or university, shop, global brand or politician everyone can sign up to 10:10 and work together to reduce carbon emissions by 10% this year.

Carbon emissions or greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of global warming, they are released when fuels are burnt in the home, from vehicles, power stations and factories.

To date almost 60,000 people, businesses and organizations have signed up to the new campaign and are already working in a number of ways to cut their carbon emissions. For individuals 10% should be fairly easy and could include things like flying or driving less, insulating your loft or changing your light bulbs to energy saving ones. For businesses, schools and other organizations 10% may be a little more difficult to achieve but its best to aim high, the main areas that will be concentrated on will be grid electricity, fossil fuels, air travel and vehicle fuels.

Sign up with 10:10 here today

As part of an initiative marking Earth Day pupils in primary schools in England and Wales will be taught about the importance of recycling.

On the 22nd April, Healthy Planet will be giving free interactive and fun lesson plans to all primary school teachers in England and Wales. According to the charity each lesson plan contains all the resources required and contains the national curriculum goals set6 for each age group.

Pupils will learn about Earth Day in an age appropriate way including the importance of trees, finding out what a carbon footprint is and evaluating the importance of recycling.

According to the Environment Agency the UK is on track to meet its 2010 portable battery recycling target.

The 10% target for 2010 is based on battery sales of 45,000 tonnes in 2009 meaning that battery recycling schemes need to collect 4500 tonnes by the end of the year. Battery recycling schemes first quarter figures will be reported by the end of April.

Bob Mead, the Environment Agency’s Implementation Project Manager said “I have no concerns about the way things are going at the moment. We are very confident of meeting 2010′s battery recycling targets.”

This years target was always going to be fairly easy to hit but next years target may be more of a struggle. By 2012 the UKs target will be 25% and by 2016 45% of batteries need to be recycled. In order to meet these targets in future years more needs to be done to raise awareness to get people to take old batteries to collection points.

As well as buying old mobile handsets Mobile Phone Xchange also buys old and unwanted digital cameras, MP3 players and games consoles.

Even if you old gadget is broken, its still possible that you can get some money for it. It would be much better to get money for a broken Playstation or Xbox than simply throwing it in the bin, causing further damage to the environment and getting nothing.

To find out how much your old gadget is worth, simply visit the Mobile Phone Xchange website and type in the name of the device you want to sell, if they will buy it then a price will be shown on the following page.

As a reward for returning your old and unwanted gadgets to Mobile Phone Exchange you will be paid via either bank transfer, cheque or straight into your Paypal account. If payment via gift card is selected then you can receive an additional 7.5% if accepting M&S vouchers, 10% more for Argos or a huge 15% more than the cash value for Debenhams vouchers.

Start selling your old gadgets and mobile phones at Mobile Phone Xchange here

Recent figures from the Waste and Recycling Action Programme (WRAP) have found that on average British householder will throw away 0.45 tons of food waste and packaging every year, this amounts to 11.9 million tons of food annually being thrown in the bin.

The report by WRAP found that around 6.6 million tons of food waste that is put in the bin every year is ‘avoidable’ and could be either reused of recycled. WRAP calculated that if ‘avoidable’ waste was disposed of correctly it could save each household up to £1000 per year.

These figures are expected to increase pressure on the Government to step up plans to reduce the amount of food waste that the UK produces.

Although household recycling rates have increased in the last couple of years to just over 37% the amount of food waste that is composted remains a lot lower at only one sixth. At this time only one fifth of local councils have schemes in place to dispose of food waste correctly so most is still ending up at landfill where it is breaking down to release methane.

A few new Government proposals are currently being looked at in order to address the problem of food waste including a ‘pay as you throw’ charge to fine people that throw the most recyclable rubbish in the bin, alternate weekly collections for food refuse and recyclable waste or banning supermarkets from promoting buy one get one free deals because they encourage the most food waste.