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.
The Local Government Association has called for tougher sentences for fly-tippers and more funding to investigate and prosecute offenders as fly-tipping incidents rise by 40 per cent since 2012.
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.
Four food redistribution organisations across England have been awarded a share of £4.2 million in government funding to redirect unwanted food from bins to plates.
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.
MPs have expressed serious concerns with proposed environmental policy after Brexit, saying that environmental principles are being ‘severely downgraded’.
A report by Greenpeace and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives critiques the “inefficient” and “predatory” system of plastic waste exports from wealthy countries to communities in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Local authorities and waste management contractors in Scotland are not adequately prepared for its upcoming landfill ban, according to a Scottish Government report published today (24 April).
Waste management company Biffa has called on the government to recommend the separate collection of paper and card from households in addition to food waste in its eventual core materials collection model.
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.
Scotland has reported a slight drop in its recycling rate to 58.9 per cent for 2017 amid an increase in total waste generated, according to official figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
A round up of news from the waste and recycling sector, including new contracts for FCC Environment, plans for a recycling facility in South Gloucestershire, new JCB loaders for Countrystyle Recycling and the launch of a tool to help councils assess the impact of government waste policies.
The government has warned waste exporters to expect delays at container ports such as the Port of Dover in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal, and says businesses should seek ‘alternative’ export, recovery or disposal routes for their waste.
An inquiry has been launched by Parliament’s Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee into the effects of the new Resources and Waste Strategy on English local authorities.
“16 full-time civil servants” will fill the environmental governance gap in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement, a situation Environment Secretary Michael Gove has described as “sub-optimal”.
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.
New reforms, including a deposit return scheme (DRS), could see aluminium recycling almost double if implemented, preventing around £50 million of wasted resources each year, according to a new report by environmental think tank Green Alliance.
The one-day operation last Thursday (7 March) discovered six sites where waste had been burned, three where construction and demolition waste had been stored, one that contained household waste and one that was operating as a scrapyard.
The top 10 in Resource’s annual list of influencers, the Hot 100, has been announced, with Cat Fletcher, Reuse Manager at Brighton and Hove City Council and co-founder of reuse network Freegle, taking the top spot.
