The new Labour Government has placed a circular economy at the heart of its environmental mission. This is positive news that will help ensure the UK can maximise the value of its materials and position itself as a leader in sustainable resource management.
The Environmental Services Association (ESA) has expressed concerns over a lack of permitting capacity at the Environment Agency (EA) in response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of a significant infrastructure investment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has urged the government to accelerate the transition to a circular economy as part of a Covid-19 recovery plan that prioritises the climate crisis, reiterating its call for a ban on biodegradable waste to landfill by 2025.
A group of 119 experts and scientists have signed a statement reassuring the public that reusable containers are safe to use during the Covid-19 pandemic, provided hygiene measures are followed.
Enforcement undertakings accepted by the Environment Agency (EA) for breaches of environmental regulations have totalled £1.65 million for the past six months.
The risk posed to the waste and resources sector by Brexit has increased over the last few months, with the UK falling further behind EU standards and ambition, according to Greener UK’s latest Brexit Risk Tracker.
Plans to include fuels made from non-renewable materials in the EU’s renewable energy plans could undermine recycling progress, according to a new policy briefing by Zero Waste Europe, Bellona Europe and Rethink Plastic.
Most classes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the UK must now be classed as hazardous waste or containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs) unless it can be proved otherwise, according to updated guidance by the Environment Agency (EA).
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced yesterday (8 June) that any methodology for calculating the 2020 waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) compliance fee will take the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic into account.
Almost half of councils have plans to reopen their Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) within the next two weeks, according to the latest Covid-19 local authority impacts survey, while recycling collections have experienced a slight increase in disruption.
The government has stated that there is ‘no reason in law’ why Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) shouldn’t be open and has yet again urged local authorities to reopen sites, issuing guidance on how to do so safely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The WEEE Fund has announced that it will be providing more than £5 million of financial support to electronic waste recyclers during the Covid-19 pandemic in the form of its WEEE Support Grants and Loans Package.
The Environment Agency has released two new Covid-19 Regulatory Position Statements removing the need for physical signatures on waste transfer documentation and removing penalties for packaging producers that were unable to register with a compliance scheme during the crisis.
The Environment Agency (EA) has released a regulatory position statement that allows municipal waste incinerators to accept Covid-19 infectious waste without varying their environmental permits.
The Environment Agency (EA) has announced that waste storage limits on permitted waste sites can be ‘temporarily’ exceeded if Covid-19 restrictions mean that waste cannot be removed from those sites.
The waste sector has largely welcomed the government’s Budget 2020, though stakeholders have called for further clarity on the forthcoming Plastics Packaging Tax.
The European Commission has today (11 March) published its new Circular Economy Action Plan, outlining measures to ensure that products are designed to last longer and are easier to reuse, repair and recycle.
