The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has criticised the government’s management and sale of the Green Investment Bank, saying it ‘failed to live up to’ its green objectives.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement of a consultation on how the tax system can be used to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics has received widespread acclaim from the waste and resources industry following the Spring Statement yesterday (13 March).

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is set to announce a public consultation on a plastics tax, along with a £20-million innovation fund to develop alternatives to the problem material.

Liverpool charity CREATE UK has received £25,000 of government funding to recycle and reuse discarded white goods.

The government has offered “warm words” but “no real action” today (9 March) in response to the report by the Environmental Audit Committee on disposable coffee cup waste, according to the committee’s Chair Mary Creagh.

New waste crime powers have been approved by the National Assembly for Wales to prevent access to problem waste sites and force operators to remove illegally-dumped waste.

Progress on the EU’s Plastics Strategy continues unabated as Europe’s environment ministers reached agreement on the content of the strategy at a meeting of the Environment Council on Monday (5 March).

China has announced the launch of a new customs crackdown on the smuggling of foreign waste, entitled ‘Blue Sky 2018’, which will run from March to December 2018.

The UK’s plastic packaging recycling rate could be 9-10 percentage points lower than official figures, according to a report from Eunomia Research & Consulting.

In the wake of concerns from the Environment Agency that hazardous waste wood is being wrongly classified, the Wood Recyclers Association has published a best practice guide for reporting hazardous waste.