14th December 2017
At this time of the year I unleash my inner-Scrooge and often find myself thinking of the over-consumption, gratuitous spending and general wastefulness that accompany the festive season. But, bear with me for a few minutes, as I think there are some important decisions to be made at this time of year. Children as drivers of consumption The advertising for
9th November 2017
I’m a rugby enthusiast and coach a youth team in my spare time. Very often, I find myself reminding zealous parents and spectators that the youngsters playing a game are still learning. Naturally, judging their performance and skills and expecting results worthy of a national team is not constructive nor supportive to relatively inexperienced players. At the end of the day, we
10th July 2015
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation continues its sterling efforts to mainstream the circular economy concept in Europe with a report titled Growth Within: A circular economy vision for a competitive Europe. Analysing three European sectors — food, mobility, and the built environment — the report identifies their current inefficiencies in terms of material use and wastage. It also examines strategies to
18th November 2014
The concept and meaning of an ‘employer brand’ has been widely discussed by human resource teams of our parent company, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, and here at SITA UK. Discussion around this topic has made me wonder what makes people join SITA UK. What is the overall message and impression that we give to potential employees?
18th November 2014
The new term of the European Commission has commenced with a Commission Work Programme (CWP) proposed by President Jean-Claude Juncker and First Vice President Franz Timmermans. As many waste-watchers suspected from President Juncker’s cool reception earlier, the Circular Economy Package introduced by outgoing Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik has not received an unqualified green light in the draft CWP. The so-called
3rd November 2014
The Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s Inquiry Growing a Circular Economy: Ending the Throwaway Society contains the now-familiar mixture of mild ambition and platitudes that characterised its evidence before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s Inquiry Waste Management in England. There, the Government was taken to task for ‘stepping back’ precisely at a time when vision, a
24th October 2014
Defra may have hoped that fences had been mended with the waste management sector since its now infamous letter last November, which announced that it would be “stepping back from areas where there was no sign of market failure”. However, those hopes must surely have been dashed by the publication of the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
5th June 2014
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is “small island developing states” or SIDS, nations that are particularly vulnerable to climate change and rising seas. How might this apply to the UK, and what relevance might this have for the waste and resource management sector?
6th May 2014
Demographic changes in the UK have occurred not just in the general population, but also in the business population. These changes make interesting reading in terms of the future prospects for waste and resource management. Latest figures published by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills in October 2013 estimated that there were 4.9 million private sector businesses in the
14th January 2014
Two years ago, SITA UK published a document called ‘Driving Green Growth’ , which aimed to help Government understand the potential of the waste and resource recovery industry. We listed the potential opportunities, which included: Investment of £20-£25 billion 84,000 direct and indirect new jobs Millions of tonnes of resources recovered and reinserted into the economy A 10 per cent
