Plastic straws, drinks stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds will be banned in England next year, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced.
A consultation on the proposal closed on 3 December 2018 and received 1,602 responses, the vast majority of which (1,213) were from individual members of the public, evidence of the scale of interest around the issue of plastic waste and... More
Victoria Hutchin, Associate Waste & Resource Management Consultant at WYG, assesses how extended producer responsibility reforms could impact how we deal with litter.
Key stakeholders from across the packaging supply chain have written to Environment Secretary Michael Gove to outline their priorities for the next stage of delivery of the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Drinks containers made from aluminium, steel, glass and PET plastic will now carry a 20 pence deposit in Scotland as part of the Scottish Government’s new deposit return scheme.
A report from the Committee on Climate Change says the UK can reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but will need to invest in low-carbon energy technologies and implement a ban on biodegradable waste to landfill by 2025.
The government is consulting on reforms to the UK’s packaging producer responsibility regime. So what are Defra’s proposals for a new system and how have businesses responded so far? Ecosurety and SUEZ comment.
MEPs in the European Parliament have approved plans to ban some single-use plastic products and increase the collection and recycling of plastic bottles, with legislation to be implemented in member states by 2021.
Greener UK states that the ‘increasingly ominous prospect’ of leaving the EU without a deal ‘poses potentially dire consequences for the environment, in the short and longer term’ across all areas of environmental policy.
Consultations have been opened on four key measures in the Resources and Waste Strategy, seeking views on producer responsibility, consistent collections, deposit return schemes and the plastics tax.
The European Union could be banning a range of microplastics in products by 2020 – but critics say the proposal needs to be tightened up to ensure it will have “real impact”.
The Environment Secretary Michael Gove has outlined Defra’s preparations for the stockpiling of waste in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit in a letter to Lord Teverson, Chair of the European Union Energy and Environment Sub-Committee in the House of Lords.
The Welsh Government has revealed a range of environmental projects set to benefit from more than £1 million of funding raised through its Landfill Disposals Tax Communities Scheme.
The French Government is set to introduce new rules obligating online marketplaces, such as Amazon, to ensure that the collection and recycling of waste arising from products sold through their sites is properly financed.
The EU will introduce legislation obliging manufacturers to make their products longer-lasting and easier to repair following ratification by European environment ministries.
The South Korean Government has banned single-use plastic bags, with potential fines of over £2,000 for businesses that do not comply with the new rules.
Who across the waste and resources world has done enough to etch their name into the pantheon of greats as this year’s Legend of Waste? You can tell us now by voting in this year’s Hot 100.
Key stakeholders have largely welcomed the publication of the Resources and Waste Strategy by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), calling it a “blueprint for the future” and “bold and radical”, though some reservations remain.
Plans to introduce separate food waste collections to every household in England by 2023 and ensure producers pay for the costs of managing their waste packaging have been included in the long-awaited Resources and Waste Strategy.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has devised a new sector plan to make Scotland’s metal sector part of the nation’s emerging circular economy.
The European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD) has called on the European Commission to simplify the Waste Shipment Regulation and harmonise enforcement across EU member states.
