THE regenerative braking systems of Heathrow Express trains have captured and fed back to source enough energy to have boiled 400 million kettles since 1998 – and that’s a lot of cuppas.

Now a culture of ‘re-use and recycle’ is gathering pace at the operator’s Old Oak Common depot in west London to reduce the amount of waste being turned into landfill.

Service proposition director Steve Chambers said: “We are now recycling 50 per cent of our non-hazardous waste at the depot. Our recycling programme over the past year is starting to show results.”

Heathrow Express was one of the first train companies to be accredited the ISO 14001 standard – the environmental management system benchmark for all companies.

“Our objective is to achieve ongoing reduction of waste until we cut landfill waste to zero by 2020 and increase contract waste recycling to 90 per cent,” said Mr Chambers.

-    Network Rail is planning to trial sleepers made from recycled plastic as a replacement for timber sleepers on some rural lines.

The plastic sleepers are being developed and supplied by a Halifax-based plastic waste recycling company, and the trial will involve around two tonnes of reclaimed waste.

Each year, some 185,000 timber sleepers have to be replaced, and NR says using recycled plastic could reduce costs as well as landfill waste.