A study by popular product testing charity Which? Has found that we are recycling more than ever before in England. Our rates for recycling, reuse and composting have increased by 2.1 per cent – though some councils saw much bigger rises than this. Rugby achieved an increase of 18.8 per cent and South Oxfordshire achieved…
Welsh councils faced with recycling fines
Local authorities in Wales will face penalties of £200 for every tonne of waste that exceeds assembly government recycling targets under new proposals. This is part of a bid to increase recycling to 70 per cent of waste by 2025. Councils say the potential penalties are an “unwelcome development” at a time of falling budgets….
New recycling body launched
The Construction Recycling Alliance (CRA) has been launched to help to reduce, re-use and recycle unwanted materials in the construction industry. The construction industry is responsible for one third of the UK’s total waste, but it is estimated that 85 per cent of this waste can be reduced, reused or recycled. The CRA is a…
Islington proposes compulsory recycling
Islington Council is considering bringing in a policy that will make recycling compulsory in the borough. Under the proposed scheme, households that fail to recycle could be fined up to £110 through a fixed penalty notice. The council is considering this move not only for the good of the environment, but also because more recycling…
Kerbside plastic recycling up
The amount of plastic bottles collected from kerbside recycling has risen 27 per cent on previous years according to a survey carried out by Recoup and Nampak. They found that 215,576 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected through kerbside recycling schemes in 2009. This represents a rise of 46,610 tonnes on the previous year’s figure….
Push to recycle more in Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Council has reported that it is spending over £200,000 per month on landfill bills. This is due to the fact that all authorities have to pay a levy to the government for every tonne of waste that they send to landfill. According to Martin Stott, Head of Environment and Resources at Warwickshire County…
Retailers cut waste by half
A new report commissioned by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has found that UK retailers have cut the amount of waste that goes to landfill by 50 per cent in the last five years. In fact, less than a quarter of the discarded food, packaging, bags and building materials produced by retailers is now sent…
Bottle deposit scheme considered
Following research published by the Campaign for Real Recycling (CPRE) the Government is considering the introduction of a new bottle deposit and refund scheme for England. The report, entitled ‘Have we got the bottle’ was undertaken by consultant Eunomia and analyses the environmental and financial implications of introducing a UK deposit refund scheme for drinks…
Battery recycling on the up
The general public are returning more batteries for recycling according to the latest figures from the Environment Agency. In fact in the last three months the recycling rate has gone up by 7 per cent. 16.15 per cent of batteries were recycled in the second quarter of 2010 compared to 9.15 per cent in the…
Household WEEE collection rising
Figures released by the environment agency have shown that the household WEEE collection rate has increased dramatically during the second quarter of 2010. For the period of April to June 2010 the figure reached 44.3 per cent compared to just 33.6 per cent for the whole of 2009. This rise comes despite the fact that…