News: May 2025

Pink vape discarded on a beach
Single-use vape ban takes effect across UK from 1 June
By Resource |
30 May 2025 |
Trading Standards enforcement begins, to tackle the five million devices discarded weekly creating £200 million waste burden
Revantis pilot plant equipment
Start-up secures Series A funding for plastic recycling technology
By
Beth Jones
| 30 May 2025 |
Scottish start-up Reventas raises investment to scale chemical recycling process for polyethylene and polypropylene from pilot to commercial operation
Compostable packaging being sorted in facility
London-based partnership to manage compostable packaging reaches milestone
By
Beth Jones
| 29 May 2025 |
Recorra and Vegware celebrate five years of collecting compostable food service packaging from commercial premises in South-East of England
TOMRA reuse collection point
TOMRA unveils reverse vending machines for reusable food packaging
By
Beth Jones
| 28 May 2025 |
Reuse Collection Point (RCPs) will accept QR-coded containers and provide instant deposit refunds, with rollout planned for Q1 2026
Environment Agency waste crime map
EA publishes heatmap of waste crime hotspots
By
Beth Jones
| 28 May 2025 |
Environment Agency data shows nearly 17,000 incidents across the country, with West Midlands, Yorkshire and East Anglia recording highest levels
Bales of plastic waste
€400 billion investment needed for chemical recycling viability
By
Beth Jones
| 28 May 2025 |
Bain & Company analysis suggests pyrolysis costs more than twice virgin plastic production, with 20-30 years needed to achieve cost parity
Workers disposing of vapes
Retailer take-back schemes must expand for post-ban vapes
By
Beth Jones
| 27 May 2025 |
Material Focus warns that big puff and pod models could undermine June legislation benefits without sufficient steps to improve current recycling systems
A box full of recovered vegetables and fruits
Cross-industry consortium pilots AI food redistribution platform
By
Beth Jones
| 27 May 2025 |
Seven-partner project uses artificial intelligence to tackle UK food waste through automated surplus reallocation initiative
Pile of tyres
EuRIC proposes five changes to European tyre recycling policy
By
Beth Jones
| 22 May 2025 |
Trade body sets targets for recycled content and export bans to strengthen circularity of end-of-life tyres
Loom weaving
SMEs outperform high street retailers in textile circularity
By
Beth Jones
| 22 May 2025 |
New research from WEFT shows smaller fashion businesses typically achieve better environmental scores than larger competitors