30th April 2016
The thorny subject of finance – the little-explored but nevertheless crucial aspect of driving the circular economy. This topic was recently explored at the ‘Finance, the Catalyst to the Circular Economy’ conference hosted by ING Wholesale Banking, the Dutch Embassy and Green Alliance last month (March). The circular economy relies not only on new technologies that recover and recycle materials
24th March 2016
The news that the Environmental Regulation Unit located within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) will transfer to Defra on 1 April 2016 is to be welcomed. Covering the majority of EU producer responsibility (PR) legislation enacted in the UK (batteries, WEEE, end of life vehicles, and parts of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive) the Unit’s rightful
18th March 2016
Britain’s departure from the European Union (EU) would leave a large void in environmental policy and could undermine a decade of improvement, according to SUEZ recycling and recovery UK CEO, David Palmer-Jones. As the country moves closer to the EU referendum vote in June 2016, David warned that a move away from the EU might increase red-tape associated with the trade
16th November 2015
The revelation following the BBC Sunday Politics show (8 November, 2015) that the private sector operated as a “cartel” and that their involvement in waste collection did not increase competition is a curious inversion of the argument generally put forward for outsourcing waste collection, as opposed to keeping the service in-house.
13th November 2015
The news that Defra is to face a budget reduction of 30 per cent over the next four years will not come as much of a surprise to most waste-watchers if that departmental cut is salami-sliced across to Rory Stewart’s waste and resources team. Given the low-key approach to waste management that Defra has taken over the past few years,
23rd October 2015
The news that Birmingham City Council (BCC) has not only missed its 2014/15 household waste recycling target of 35 per cent by six percentage points, but has also downgraded its 2015/16 target from 35 per cent to 30 per cent highlights many of the concerns SUEZ and others in the waste management sector have expressed to the new government. Firstly,
26th August 2015
The news that Wales has hit an overall recycling and composting rate of 56 per cent in 2014/15 with an increase of two per cent from the previous year comes as a welcome corrective to the gloomy news from England, which only managed an increase of 0.6 per cent to 44.8 per cent over the same period.
13th August 2015
December 2014 saw the launch of the report Triple Win: The Social, Economic and Environmental Case for Remanufacturing. It is generally forgotten that the target in Article 11 of the Waste Framework Directive requires the UK to achieve 50 per cent recycling and reuse of paper, glass, plastics and metals from households by 2020. But reuse, which broadly speaking includes
28th July 2015
With former Secretary of State Sir Eric Pickles out of DCLG and into his new post-election role of anti-corruption tsar, the brakes appear to be lifted off the previously taboo subject of waste collection frequency.
17th July 2015
Green and Responsible Conservatism, a new report from Bright Blue, purports to show “how the centre-right of British politics could better embed sustainability and long-termism within the UK economy”. In truth, a preference for market mechanisms and incentives over prescriptive policy instruments is hardly the sole preserve of the right; there are not many recommendations here that would make a left-winger
