23rd September 2013
It’s that time of year when thousands of young people are leaving home and finding their feet at university. When it comes to environmental issues, students can sometimes get a bad press. If I’m honest, I think I spent more time worrying about how many friends I’d made rather than how or where I could recycle my cans. And it’s
17th September 2013
According to performance data collected by Letsrecycle.com (30 August 2013), Rochford District Council should anticipate top position in the English household waste recycling league for 2012/13 – a contract operated by SITA UK. The Council is expected to achieve a recycling and composting rate of 66.78 per cent, down from 67.4 per cent in 2011/12. Despite complaints from some quarters
6th September 2013
True to form, Defra has followed up a disappointing consultation on a waste management plan for England with an equally disappointing consultation document on a waste prevention programme for England. As with the former, the abiding impression is that of another tick-box exercise intended to meet the UK’s obligations under Article 29 of the European Union Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC.
6th August 2013
Scotland is gearing up for the implementation of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 with a strong communications and awareness-raising drive. From 1 January 2014, local authorities and businesses will be required to comply with new legal duties relating to the separate collection of dry recyclables and of food waste, and further treatment of residual waste before it is sent for
23rd July 2013
For a government that aspires to be the ‘greenest ever’, the recent unveiling of two documents – the Defra/BIS-supported circular economy taskforce report ‘Resource Resilient UK’ and Defra’s consultation on its ‘Waste Management Plan for England’ – has gone almost unnoticed. No fanfare, no trumpeting of the Government’s green credentials or of new initiatives to support green growth.
15th July 2013
In October 2012, SITA UK launched a report ‘Creating Social Value – the Role of the Waste and Resource Management Industry’. The report highlights the broader social benefits that the waste and resource management industry, in partnership with the third sector, could offer local authorities alongside the delivery of waste management services. The legal framework for procurement of these services,
20th June 2013
Recent reports in the trade press of the difficulties experienced by plastics recycling facilities in England and Wales should come as a warning to policy-makers who base their waste management strategies on ever-higher materials recycling targets, while at the same time placing a ceiling on the percentage of waste sent to energy recovery. A successful recycling-based strategy requires all elements
21st May 2013
It’s not difficult to make the case to reduce, reuse and recycle waste – a point made by the Labour Party in the Resource Security* Policy Review, released on Friday 19 April 2013. It’s also not difficult to understand that recovering the maximum amount of energy from the waste left over is an obvious thing to do. However, neither point
7th May 2013
One of the world’s most endangered insect species, the Tansy Beetle, has been given a helping hand along the road to survival by a grant of £25,000 from SITA Trust. This project is run by Buglife, as part of the national B-Lines initiative, which aims to address the loss of wildflower-rich grasslands, to benefit bumblebees, butterflies and moths and in
2nd May 2013
I’ve always felt a sense of satisfaction when I separate out my food waste at home, but a recent TV news report made me question if I’m doing the right thing. The report came from an anaerobic digestion facility and talked about the problems of food waste in the UK. All absolutely true, of course, and campaigns by WRAP and
