Local law 60 of 2012, to give the legislation its full name, is due to come into effect on January 1st 2014, and calls either for a fire-proof internal room with space for waste to be properly segregated, or for similar sufficient space for outdoor recycling bins.

At present, the legislation states, many such dwellings in NYC do not have rooms large enough for different types of recyclable waste to be collected separately.

The new local law highlights the importance of recycling to a city that is currently lagging behind its global equivalents – in NYC, around half of all domestic waste is recycled, whereas some of the best-performing cities elsewhere are closer to the 75% mark.

Whether for domestic or business use, however, there are ways to keep recyclable waste separate that need not take up an excessive amount of space.

A combination of small indoor recycling bins and larger outdoor recycling bins can allow each type of waste to be collected conveniently inside the premises, and then transferred to storage outdoors until it can be taken away.

The Victoria Street garden, which will re-use materials from RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2012 centrepiece, the Urban Oasis garden designed by Chris Beardshaw, will also include allotment-style grow boxes for local residents and businesses, a temporary cathedral building and chalets for community events.

The play area will feature a sandpit and wooden apparatus such as balancing beams and stepping posts.

Cllr Pat Karney, Manchester City Council’s City Centre spokesperson, said: “Manchester is full of underused pockets of space, many of which have already been innovatively transformed for the public to enjoy. This play area is another example of how we can be creative with our public spaces and bring life to a quiet corner of the city centre.”

The project is the sixth in the Manchester Garden City Scheme, which aims to bring nature back to the city centre, to encourage gardening and sustainable eating and to create a 21^st century garden city.

The scheme began with the Piccadilly Basin canal-side initiative which incorporates wild flower planting to attract butterflies, bees and dragonflies and vegetable grow boxes managed by residents.

It also includes Manchester’s first urban orchard. The garden, designed by Daniela Coray, RHS Young National Designer of the Year 2011, was transplanted from the RHS Flower Show in Tatton Park to St. John’s Gardens to be cared for by the local community. The design incorporates a grid of twelve crab apple trees underplanted with Viper’s Bugloss, Ox-Eye Daisies and Red Campion.

The Manchester Garden City Scheme is led by city centre management  company CityCo, design agency BDP and Groundwork.

The design, created by Behance user Stefania Minnella and entitled ‘Elica Idroponica’, is a futuristic spiral-shaped self-watering planter that claims to also automatically deliver the right levels of light and nutrients.

However, it’s worth remembering that while this concept does not yet have a place in the real world, self-watering planters are already a reality.

At Amberol, we have self-watering barrels that are designed to reflect the natural world, rather than being a spiral of steel or aluminium that would look more at home in a science-fiction movie.

Our self-watering barrel looks like wood, but does not rot, giving years of performance and reliable aesthetic appeal.

Its 20 litre water reservoir means minimal maintenance is required; the Aquafeed system ensures the correct amounts of moisture are released to the plants.

And thanks to its wide 63cm diameter, all the plants are able to get the light they need naturally from the sun, with no need for artificial lighting.

Concept designs give a glimpse into what a far-off future might look like, but Amberol’s self-watering barrels are a reality – and a practical one at that – that’s ready for you to order today.

The centre’s awards for its recycling initiatives include a Green Apple award for community projects and a Green Hero award. They were also the only arts organisation to be shortlisted for the prestigious Best Green Business award in 2011.

As part of their sustainability drive, the centre uses recycling bins known as the ‘Slim Bin Recycle’ range. The 100 litre bins, which can be used to recycle glass, plastic, paper and cans, are designed to use minimum space with maximum capacity. They are used in corridors and walkways as they don’t impede footfall and are manufactured by British horticultural supplier Amberol at their Derbyshire factory.

“We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously at the Barbican and are keen to ensure that our visitors have ample opportunity to recycle their rubbish,” explains Zed Major, Facilities Manager at the centre. “Our Slim Bins are an important part of our sustainability campaign and were key in winning the Chairman’s Cup at the Clean City Awards.”

The centre received the Chairman’s Cup in 2010 in recognition of its ‘Bin the Bin’ campaign, which involved the removal of desk waste bins in favour of a central office recycling station for paper, plastics, packaging and stationery.

“The recycling bins are used for all public areas and back of house offices for the Barbican Centre and we plan to continue using them as we expand our recycling programme,” adds Zed.

“We are delighted to be able to help the Barbican fulfil its environmental targets,” comments Amberol’s Marketing Manager John Williamson. “It is great to see their commitment recognised in the form of some of the industry’s most prestigious awards.”

A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbican programmes events across dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts and is home to the London Symphony Orchestra. The centre attracts an estimated 1.8 million visitors every year.

All Amberol bins are made from recyclable roto-moulded polyethylene, suitable for indoor and outdoor use.

Self-contained planters offer a compact but visually pleasing alternative in built-up areas where there is no parkland, bringing a touch of nature into an urban environment.

Research conducted by academics from Leicester, Exeter, Cornwall and Michigan, and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, highlights how this contact with nature can have a positive effect on city dwellers.

The researchers looked at 312 visitors to 13 parks in the city of Sheffield, and found their visits were motivated by a desire to walk, the quality of the green space, and their children.

While self-contained planters may not offer the open space of parkland, they serve a similar role in a different walking environment – city pavements.

As such, they may reasonably be expected to evoke some of the same positive outcomes observed in the study, albeit on a smaller scale.

Among those positive outcomes for the park visitors studied were a sense of connection with the place, a boost in spiritual wellbeing, and a general sense of relaxation.

The container, developed and manufactured by horticultural suppliers Amberol at their Derbyshire headquarters, comes in the form of a cube with slots for plants on each side to make a 360° floral display which completely masks the frame. The planter can also be stacked to create a tiered effect.

The Quad Planter is made from durable polyethylene with an impervious water proof lining that retains compost and holds plants in position. The containers use Amberol’s Aquafeed™ wick and matting system with a built in water reservoir and a series of capillaries to ‘suck’ up the water which is then evenly dispersed via an expander pad. Because the water is stored under the soil, it doesn’t evaporate whatever the weather conditions. This means that even in the hottest, driest conditions, the planters only need to be watered once or twice a week, saving on both water and maintenance.

“It’s hard to imagine after the wet winter we have had so far, but water conservation and maintenance are important issues for council departments, which is why we developed our trademarked self watering system,” comments John Williamson, Marketing Manager at Amberol. “Not only do the Quad Planters and other containers in our self watering range reduce maintenance costs, but because the compost retains optimal moisture, plants tend to grow better and stay healthy for longer.”

Many local authorities across the UK already use the company’s self watering containers, including Birmingham City Council. “With the use of our self watering system we are able to manage with one or two visits a week by our watering crews in most summers,” explains Tim Oakes of Birmingham Parks and Nurseries DSO. “This would compare to daily visits required for other non-reservoir types of containers during the warmer months.”

Amberol specialise in sustainable gardening products as well as recycled garden furniture and talking litter bins. The self watering containers come in a range of shapes and sizes including hanging baskets, barrier baskets, tiered planters and half barrels.

But there’s a crucial difference between the contents of recycling bins, and the waste that goes into general refuse containers.

In particular, there are set rules that govern what is ‘waste’ and what is still considered to be a secondary raw material, suitable for use in manufacturing, despite having been placed into a bin.

The European Commission Joint Research Centre has now introduced new legislation, which came into effect on December 31st 2012, to govern whether recycled glass is considered to be waste or not.

As long as collected glass is free from contaminants like stones, metal and organic material, there is now a good chance that it will not need to be designated as ‘waste’.

With increasing focus on cutting down on landfill, and some organisations effectively being taxed or charged based on the amount of waste they generate, there are clear benefits to being able to denote some of your collected refuse as ‘secondary raw materials’ instead.

The new legislation follows previous rules introduced in October 2011 for recycled aluminium, iron and steel, which allow metal to be treated as non-waste based again on its levels of cleanliness.

The headline statistic making news nationwide this week is that of how many men, women and couples recycle their household rubbish.

Couples are most likely to do so, at 79% of those surveyed, followed by single-women households (69%) and single men at 58% of those questioned.

Hazel Pettifor, of the University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research, says gender plays a further role in determining people’s use of recycling bins.

For instance, she says women are more likely to regularly rinse out glass bottles and jars, and remove their labels ready for recycling.

They are also more willing to go out of their way to find and use recycling facilities beyond their regular kerbside collection.

Men, by contrast, will take bottles to be recycled at their local bottle bank, or will put out their kerbside recycling bins, but need more of an incentive to make extra effort beyond those basic weekly chores.

For couples, though, the job is a shared one – and the research indicates that the effort of recycling is balanced between the genders in a similar way to other household chores, gardening tasks and DIY jobs.

“Women still do the most part of waste separation in most households,” says Ms Pettifor, “but there’s no strong evidence that they are assimilating recycling into their domestic routine.”

At this month’s annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, urban green spaces were on the agenda for several of the guest speakers.

They included Dave Stone from Natural England, who spoke of air quality and excess heat as two key issues for consideration, given that over 50% of the global population now live in towns and cities.

He pointed out evidence that “vegetated urban areas experience lower temperatures” and that shrubs and trees planted in cities can help to reduce concentrations of particulates in the air.

Together, these effects demonstrate the value that urban planters could have in contributing towards a more stable climate in the nation’s towns and cities.

Planters are a simple way to create urban green spaces in built-up areas where it is impossible to fit parks or woodlands in amongst the existing structures.

With self-watering planters in particular, flowers, shrubs and trees can be given the essential fluids they need in order to survive, without demanding the daily attentions of a gardener.

In this way, all of the usual benefits can be achieved, without placing an undue administrative burden on local authorities due to ongoing maintenance.

Updated guidance published on the Inside Government website explains that there are thresholds above which recycling of a certain proportion of packaging materials becomes mandatory.

This is the case for any company with a turnover of more than £2 million and which handles 50 tonnes or more of packaging in a year.

Overall use of packaging should be minimised for these companies, and that which cannot be removed completely should be placed in recycling bins for collection.

The guidance adds that heavy metals should not be used in this packaging, either.

For all manufacturers, products should be checked for recyclable parts before disposal, and these parts in turn should not release any harmful or toxic substances.

“Increasingly, there is pressure from stakeholders, such as the government, regulators, the supply chain and customers, to design products that don’t have a negative impact on the environment or society,” the guidance asserts.

The rules were published this week on the Inside Government website at Gov.uk as a reminder to businesses working in manufacturing disciplines.

They add that adhering to the guidance not only ensures compliance with legal and technical requirements; it can also help firms to gain a competitive edge and save money.