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TWIRLS: Treating Waste for Restoring Land Sustainability

What's been happening?

Prague, March 2007

TWIRLS team members Susan Tandy and Julie Williamson recently gave a workshop on composting for contaminant removal, hosted by the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. Delegates included students, academics and consultants to industry. During their visit, Susan and Julie visited a number of contaminated sites including Spolana's chemical plant contaminated with lindane and dioxins. Read more about the event and see some photos of the event here.

TWIRLS project open day and restoration workshop in Greece, December 13th

The TWIRLS project team from Bangor University and NAGREF / Soil Science Institute of Athens (SSIA), in partnership with Titan Cement Co. S.A. hosted a successful restoration worksop and a visit to TWIRLS field sites near Athens. See some photos of the event here.

Insect photographic database

Urban brownfield sites are potentially important refuges for a variety of insects and a key concern of the TWIRLS project is to establish whether the addition of composted organic wastes to brownfield sites has a positive or negative effect on insect biodiversity. In addition to calculating the abundance and diversity of ground dwelling beetles at our urban brownfield site in Shotton, we have compiled a database consisting of high quality digital photos of each species found. Read more about the insect sampling methodology, see some results and a selection of insect photos here.

Project Launch, European Parliament, Brussels, November 6-7th

TWIRLS research and demonstration work was recently showcased in an exhibition at the European Parliament in Brussels. All five TWIRLS staff travelled to Brussels armed with display materials (boy did we get some strange looks passing through customs armed with five, 1.5 m poster tubes!). On the evening of the 5th November, approximately 50 people attended presentations and a wine reception hosted by the TWIRLS project. TWIRLS research and dissemination officer Dr Julie Williamson introduced the project and was followed by Proffessor John Farrar (Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at Bangor University) and Andrew Davies, Welsh Assembly Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks. Pictures of the exhibition and reception are here.

Blaenau Ffestiniog open day, October 12th

The TWIRLS project held a successful open day at our in-vessel composting site and habitat creation experiments at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd. Approximately 25 people, including members of the local community and respresentatives of the UK Environment Agency and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds joined us to discuss our slate quarry restoration work on a landrover tour of our trial plots and during poster presentations. Read more about the open day and see the pictures here.

Royal Welsh Show, July 2006

The TWIRLS project featured prominently at Bangor's Royal Welsh Show display. Over 260,000 people visited the show and those visiting the Countryside Care Area, including Rhodri Morgan (first minister of the Welsh assembly) will have been attracted to the TWIRLS display by a large slate waste tip! The tip was constructed by TWIRLS project staff using 7 t of local material and 4 t of slate waste kindly provided by Alfred McAlpine Slate. The tip was then planted with native trees and heathers using composts made from garden waste and paper pulp (a by-product of recycling paper) to highlight the potential for using wastes to create habitats of conservation value on bare post-industrial sites. Read more about the display and see the pictures here.

Welsh Soils Discussion Group (WSDG) visit to Blaenau, 15th June 2006

The TWIRLS project recently hosted a visit by the Welsh Soils Discussion group to our slate quarry restoration trial site at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd. The group toured the natural vegetation adjacent to the quarry and visited TWIRLS composting and heather moorland establishment trials on slate quarry waste - and the sun shone! You can see some pictures of the event here.

Site Open Day, Shotton, 18th May 2006

The TWIRLS project held a successful open day at our in-vessel composting and meadow grassland establishment trial site at Shotton, on Deeside. Approximately 30 visitors toured the trials and witnessed a demonstration of our in-vessel composting techniques. Many thanks to everybody who visited us, you can see some photos of the event here.

Recent additions to the TWIRLS website...