The Environment Agency (EA) has announced that it will be reviewing permitted waste sites within the bio-waste sector, which includes composting, anaerobic digestion and mechanical biological treatment.
MP since 2017, Anna McMorrin joined Parliament with a drive to tackle the UK’s environmental issues, hitting out against single-use plastic waste and tabling a bill on extended producer responsibility for packaging. Resource finds out more
Enthusiasm to simplify the recycling instructions on packaging risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater, writes Simon Weston, Director of Raw Materials for the Confederation of Paper Industries.
Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has called on the government to focus on reducing all single-use packaging, rather than switching to alternative materials such as compostable plastic packaging.
Rebecca Pow MP has been appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for International Development, while Zac Goldsmith MP has been made Minister of State.
The government cannot rule out diverging from EU environmental laws transposed into UK law post-Brexit, new Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers told MPs.
Resources Minister Therese Coffey has been appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following Amber Rudd’s departure from the Cabinet, leaving no minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs directly responsible for resources and waste.
Municipal waste data from Eurostat shows that the UK’s recycling rate remains some way short of the EU’s top recycling nations, though it performs better when it comes to diverting waste from landfill.
Sainsbury’s and TOMRA are teaming up to trial the first supermarket return scheme for drinks containers that includes glass – as Scottish support for an ‘all-in’ DRS builds.
The UK Resources Council is asking for input from across the resources and waste industry as it develops its proposal for a ‘Sector Deal’ between the UK resources sector and the government.
Since the five pence charge was introduced in 2015, single-use plastic bag sales by the seven biggest retailers in England have fallen by 90 per cent, according to new figures from Defra.
A new report from Imperial College London recommends that the tax on plastic packaging should be set at £150 per tonne in order to incentivise producers to include more recycled content in their products.
Boris Johnson has continued his Cabinet reshuffle by appointing Zac Goldsmith MP to the role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Defra, while Therese Coffey has been promoted to Minister of State in the department.
Rick Hindley, Executive Director of Alupro, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation, gets his teeth into the issues surrounding deposit return schemes and their impact on aluminium can recycling.
Theresa Villiers will replace Michael Gove Environment Secretary after Boris Johnson’s extensive cabinet reshuffle following his confirmation as the UK’s next prime minister.
Defra’s response to the resources and waste consultations confirm that big changes will be on the cards for 2023, with a deposit return scheme, extended producer responsibility regime and consistency of collections all proposed for introduction by then.
The Labour Party is ‘putting ideology ahead of evidence’ with its proposal to push councils into bringing services such as waste and recycling back in-house, according to the Environmental Services Association.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has announced new joint business and government investment in R&D around new forms of packaging made from plants, wood chippings and food waste.
£1 million of funding has been announced by the Waste and Resources Action Programme to support business waste recycling in England as part of a larger investment package provided by Defra.
If targets in the Resources and Waste strategy are to be met, the government must provide adequate funding and allow local authorities to develop recycling strategies and collection systems that are appropriate for their communities, says the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.
Resources Minister Therese Coffey said that there was “no threat to the sustainability of kerbside collections” from a deposit return scheme as she backed an ‘all-in’ model at an evidence session of Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has put his weight behind an ‘all-in’ DRS for drinks containers as part of a speech on the need to act on climate change, pollution and natural degradation.
