Figures published recently by the Environment Agency under its corporate scorecard show that tackling illegal waste sites still remains a challenge for the organisation. Out of its eight measures for protecting the environment, only “reducing the number of high risk illegal waste sites” received a “red” forecast. The scorecard is based on quarter one for…
Monthly Archives: January 2019
Environment Bill for after Brexit
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published its draft Environment Bill, which sets out how the government will be held accountable on environmental principles once the UK leaves the European Union. The draft, published in December sets out clauses on environmental principles and governance “to be included in an ambitious, broader Environment Bill…
Waste paper sector under pressure
Market pressures continue to weigh on the waste or recovered paper sector on many fronts. The export market continues to be dominated by the quality control measures imposed by China which means that exports of used cardboard for use in papermaking by mills in China have to be of the very highest quality, almost without…
Defra consults on higher carrier bag charge
As the UK starts to get used to paying for single use bags and their usage falls, there remain concerns that too many are still used and that ‘Bags for Life’ are also being used in greater volumes than needed. So, in the wake of the Resources and Waste Strategy and its emphasis on reducing…
Waste Strategy sets out future direction
Just before Christmas 2018, the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove published the long-awaited Resources and Waste Strategy for England and Wales. An important aspect of the strategy is that businesses and manufacturers are to pay the full cost of recycling or disposing of their packaging waste. This relates to the UK’s PRN system whereby money is…