Local Government Secretary of State Eric Pickles is making waves ahead of the election, with a view to stopping councils from charging residents to use household waste recycling centres (HWRCs). Mr Pickles (pictured right) is consulting on how the sites, or “dumps” as the public often see them, can be kept open. The issue is…
Zero Waste Awards
As lead sponsors, we are delighted to unveil the new-look website from the Zero Waste Awards – www.zerowasteawards.com If you haven’t yet been involved in the scheme, why not? It is the only non-competitive scheme that awards businesses, public authorities and third sector organisations who are realising the benefits of a zero waste approach to…
Circular Economy package thrown out by Commission
The European Union package of measures around the Circular Economy have been effectively scrapped. The measures are of interest to the business sector because they would have set higher recycling targets and seen the introduction of voluntary and then potentially legislative rules about the amount of recycled material to be used in the production process. The Circular…
2015 – A new year and new challenges
The UK economy is trying desperately to move back to sustainable growth. However, the head winds of a continuing global slowdown, high debt levels in the UK and the US, resulting in a lack of corporate investment, stagnant wage growth and declining commodity prices are likely to be a drag on growth for some time…
New waste collection rules
New rules covering the collection of commercial and municipal waste came into force from the beginning of January. Under revisions to the Waste Framework Directive, waste must now be separately collected from recyclable materials although this is already the case for many businesses. Just ahead of the New Year, the Environment Agency wrote to businesses…
Reporting EEE that has been exported from the UK
If you are an EEE Producer in the UK, read on. Following a recent consultation between BIS and Industry we are writing to inform you of a change in guidance with respect to EEE that is exported outside of the UK. If during the 2014 compliance period you have exported any EEE outside of the…
Plastics recycling ‘better than expected’
Research for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has found that the recycling of plastic packaging is actually being carried out at a rate ‘4% higher’ than thought. The significance of this is that the government had set particularly tough recycling targets for plastics which may now be easier to meet: the recycling…
Commodity values fall
Recyclers have warned that the value of a number of recovered materials has fallen over the past few months. Local authorities are particularly badly hit as the value of used newspapers and poorer quality mixed paper have fallen. In the plastics sector, prices paid for film and used bottles are also down and this is…
Parliament passes Welsh landfill tax powers
Wales has come a step closer to setting its own landfill tax from April 2018, after legislation containing devolved powers cleared the final hurdle at the House of Commons on December 10. Scotland already has its own powers to set landfill tax and is keeping it at a similar level to England. The landfill tax…
WRAP becomes a charity
The government-supported Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has officially registered as a charity, chief executive Dr Liz Goodwin has announced. The organisation hopes that the move will give it access to more sources of funding, after its budget from government has been cut in successive years. Funding for WRAP was reduced from £38.9 million…