18th August 2011
The shock waves are still reverberating around the financial markets following Standard & Poor’s financial downgrading of the US, which saw billions wiped off the stock values of companies in the US before spilling over into the Eurozone with equally devastating effects. In the aftermath, one can reflect that if a similar downgrading occurred in one of the many sustainability
29th July 2011
The ‘nudge theory’, which was borrowed by the Conservatives from the Obama administration, was a central ideological platform at the last election. The idea of ‘nudge’ is to incrementally push society towards positive behavioural change. However, as with the concept of the ‘big society’, it is perhaps ideological in its desire to reduce the activity of the State.
7th July 2011
I have been consistent with my messages over the past two years related to the inertia of waste planning decisions, the desperate need to find new sources of energy and the role that energy-from-waste could play in bridging the energy gap.
20th June 2011
As the inevitable media storm around the Waste Review and the Government’s decision not to reintroduce weekly bin collections begins to subside, we need to ask ourselves what the lasting impact of this review will be.
1st June 2011
Front page news in the Telegraph at the weekend read “Government deal means councils will restore weekly bin days”. This is a personal preference of not only Eric Pickles but now David Cameron too.
17th May 2011
I read with interest Philip Johnston’s column in the Daily Telegraph last week where he previewed the new documentary “The street that cut everything”. The programme is hosted by the BBC’s Political Commentator Nick Robinson and centres on the idea of how local residents would cope if all their council services were cut for a six week period.
12th May 2011
The world is waking up to the realisation of the need for resource efficiency. With Government highlighting the short and medium term risk of sustaining the UK economy due to dwindling and ever more expensive raw materials in its National Security Strategy 2010, our ability to adapt to these new constrictions will determine if we can ever achieve real sustainable
21st April 2011
There is a tendency in the UK to abdicate responsibility and wait for someone else to fix the problem. This is particularly evident in the arena of wasted resources. Every year our nation disposes of 8.3 million tonnes of food and an estimated £12 billion worth of drinks.
28th March 2011
Like many of us, I awaited what George Osborne was going to reveal in the 2011 Budget, hoping for creativity in the development of more sustainable energy and environmental solutions for the UK.
21st March 2011
I’m David Palmer-Jones, CEO of SITA UK, one of UK’s largest waste and recycling companies. Since I became SITA UK’s CEO in late 2008, I have been quite vocal in the press. This has been mainly to reflect my frustration at the lack of ability for our industry, due to the vagaries of local planning, to provide the essential new
