Visiting Hertsmere for the first time

A group of delegates from the Chinese government arrived in Potters Bar to find out more about waste management and health and safety practices in Hertsmere.

Delegates with Steve Burton, Head of Waste and Street Scene at Hertsmere Borough Council, Cllr Jean Heywood, Environment Portfolio Holder and Mr Shu, Head of delegation.

Around 25 Chinese regulatory officials and academics attended Hertsmere Borough Council’s Potters Bar Waste Depot, to find out more about aspects of the borough's waste and recyclables collection regime, including the composting of kitchen and garden waste and the recycling processes for plastic and cans. The visit focused around the health and safety aspects of all of this work.

Cllr Jean Heywood, Environment portfolio holder, said: "This is the first time we have hosted such a trip and it is a great honour for us. I hope the delegates found it useful - it was a privilege to have them as our guests."

Failing to enforce health and safety rules in the waste and recycling business results in a number of deaths each year and is one of the biggest killers in the UK and abroad. The group, from Chongqing, visited Hertsmere to learn more about this aspect of work and to see what tips they could take back to their own country.

The trip was organised by the Charted Institute of Environmental Health. Steve Burton, Head of Waste and Street Scene at Hertsmere Borough Council, recently became a member of the CIEH and was interviewed by the body’s principal who decided that Hertsmere would be a significant point of interest for the delegates when they arrived in the UK.

The group visited the waste depot in Potters Bar, then Agrivert, a composting facility, in South Mimms,  and Pearce Recycling, in St Albans, to find out how we recycle plastic and cans.