Water treatment plants in Europe – new data viewer

A new data viewer from the European Environment Agency (EEA) allows users to access data on urban wastewater and treatment plants. The new data viewer, part of the Water Information System for Europe (WISE) has been developed to facilitate the use and display of data already reported under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). The new UWWTD data viewer...

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The Consequences of REACH for SMEs

REACH is widely regarded as expensive by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The overall (direct) cost estimates of REACH specified in the 29 October 2003 Impact Assessment turned out to be an underestimate by nearly one half. By 2012 the difference added up to around EUR 1 billion; by 2018 this might have gone...

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Waste: Thoughts from clever people

Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous? – Bill Watterson Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy.  There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple. – Edward de Bono Waste is worse than loss.  The time is coming when every person who...

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Water is Water – Here is some food for thought for the weekend

Well, Art is Art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water and east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like apple sauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know. – Groucho Marx. Have a good weekend...

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Excellence Award for Limerick County Council Water Project

Limerick County Council have seen off competition from 33 other Local Authority areas to be named winner of the ‘Strategic Water Initiative of the Year’ award for the Kilmallock Water Supply. Limerick County Council earlier this year become the first Irish recipient of a prestigious internationally-recognised quality standard for the delivery of drinking water when...

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Efficiency boost for water treatment plants

There are more than 65,000 wastewater treatment plants in Europe, each providing an essential service to local populations. By simply installing innovative new equipment, plants could cut energy use by up to 25% while increasing nutrient removal by up to 20%. Operationally, a plant is designed to address the average waste water flow and composition...

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Plastics Packaging – Maximize Return and Minimize Impact

Have you ever thought about the “life cycle” of plastics packaging? Current best practice thinking is that packaging should be designed to Satisfy technical, consumer and customer needs Minimises environmental impact. ie. – Use the minimum amount of resources to serve its core purpose and maximise the opportunity for recycling. A key UK and European...

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Environmental Risk Observations: Read to the bottom and pick a winner

Many great thoughts have been communicated over the real and significant environmental risks which have been presented.  Here are a few of our favourites.  Read to the bottom and pick a winner.       Today we’re dumping 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the environment, and tomorrow we will dump more, and there...

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€40 million: 14 resource-efficiency research projects

The European Commission has approved funding for 14 new research projects to shape a more resource-efficient economy in Europe. A summary of the 14 resource-efficiency research projects that will receive a total €40 million funding is presented below.   ANAGENNISI (Innovative Reuse of All Tyre Components in Concrete, EU budget contribution: € 3.12 million, Project coordinator: The University...

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EU Funding research on resource efficiency

The European Commission has approved funding for 14 new research projects with the stated aim of shaping a more resource-efficient economy in Europe. The projects, which involve the collaboration of over 140 partners from research organisations and private companies, will tackle the challenges of recycling waste materials from manufactured products and the agricultural sector to...

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