MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News update

L to R. Governor Huckle, Geoffrey Stevens and George Burroughs

Headlines:
Falklands take first steps to recycling waste; Hill Cove takes on Chinese domination of the sheepskin tanning business; Data collection sheet annoys parents

Falklands take first steps to recycling wasteSHORTLY after two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, His Excellency the Governor, Mr Alan Huckle, emerged from his office in shirt sleeves to drop an empty bottle into a neat blue machine, which promptly and with very little fuss reduced it to a small amount of "cullets" or non sharp particles. This was the discreet launch of the first of PWD's glass imploders, centre of a low cost project, the brain child of Maintenance Manager George Burroughs, which is designed to save money, protect the environment and produce a usable product from what would otherwise be wasted material. It sounds like magic and possibly is. Imploders reduce glass to usable rubble, occupying some 5% of its original volume by using sound waves in very much the same way that sopranos have been known to shatter glasses with their high notes. The process was developed by a cruise line, after a judge offered to halve a one million dollar fine imposed on one of its ships for dumping waste off the coast of Florida, if the company agreed to implement a total waste management system. Imploders are now universally used on large ships, carrying up to 3,000 passengers who each created up to 5lbs. of waste glass per day in the form of champagne and wine bottles. This used to present a unique problem, because the bottles could not be incinerated and occupied the same space whether full or empty. The Falklands have a similar problem. According to a study carried out by George Burroughs, approximately 230 tonnes of glass bottles are thrown out from Stanley's public houses, restaurants and hotels every year - a sufficient quantity to cover Victory Green to a depth of 75mm - of which the vast majority is currently being sent to land fill. PWD has bought four imploders: three like the one in the photograph and a larger one, which will all be strategically sited in Stanley. The glass cullets produced can be used as a coarse or fine aggregate, or as a partial cement substitute in a wide range of concrete-based products, thus reducing the need for sand. Cullets from the imploders will be used first in a heat sink planned for Stanley Dairy. Hill Cove takes on Chinese domination of the sheepskin tanning businessONE time Gloucestershire farmer and part-time Hill Cove resident, Henry Boughton, is preparing an attack on the Chinese global domination of the sheepskin business, from a shed in Hill Cove. With the aid of a new tanning formula and expert assistance from Somerset tanning consultants, Andrew and Jane Tinnion, who arrive in the Falklands on August 1, Henry is confident that next month he will be able to produce three hundred locally grown and locally tanned sheepskins for the Pink Shop in Stanley. In March, he has plans to produce a further four to five hundred with an initial target of one thousand skins for the year. After having imported English sheepskin products into the Falklands for the past six or seven years, Henry is convinced that cruise ship visitors will supply a sufficiently large niche market to make a local tannery viable. Globally, fierce competition in sheepskin production has recently come from the Chinese who, says Henry, appear to be engaged in a deliberate attempt to extinguish all competition by paying well over market price for salted skins from Australia and selling the finished product in huge volumes with very little profit margin. A new, much less labour intensive formula for the tanning process and the presence of the tourist market in the Falklands give Henry hopes of success. Henry has deliberately not sought financial backing in the Falklands, but has received a start-up grant from the FCO and is lavish in praise of the support he has received from the people of Hill Cove. He says that he feels he will "have arrived" if his efforts create even one full time job there. Data collection sheet annoys parentsINFANT and Junior School Head Teacher Nick Barrett, has apologised for a data collection sheet sent home with children to collate their particulars that annoyed parents who were horrified to discover "Malvinas" alongside Falkland Islands on the addresses on the form. Proving that people do not wish to be associated with Argentina in any way, even through a database quirk, parents quickly registered their distaste with the school. Head Teacher Nick Barrett explained that the data collection sheet sent home from the Infant and Junior School is the standard sheet generated by the SIMS database, a system used by over 20,000 schools in the UK. "The database provides us not only with contact details but also supports the analysis of data from which we will set targets for children's achievement. We have just installed the database at school and after populating the database we sent the sheet to all parents to confirm that the details we have on file are correct and up-to-date," said Mr Barrett. Unfortunately the database uses the standard internet and United Nations listing for countries and the Falkland Islands is followed by the word "Malvinas" in brackets. "Now that this has been drawn to my attention, and bearing in mind the understandable sensitivity of the issue, I have now contacted the software suppliers to see if the database can be amended", the Head teacher explained. "In hindsight perhaps we could have found a way of obliterating Malvinas, say with a black pen, before sending the sheet home. Certainly there will be no repeat of this unfortunate episode", he assured. "Finally I would like to make it clear that I take full responsibility for issuing the Data Collection Sheet and I would like to apologise unreservedly for any affront or hurt caused".