Strike action among North Norfolk Council’s refuse and recycling collectors has been called off after last-minute talks between members of the GMB union and Kier Environmental Services.

A round-up of news from the waste and resources sector, including a new chair for the ESA, a new look for Viridor and a new range of 70 per cent bioplastics for Novamont.

Police in the West Midlands are investigating after a seven-year-old girl was killed by an empty skip lorry on a busy road in Coventry on Tuesday.

A Lancashire-based plastics recycler has been fined after a worker’s arm was crushed by a conveyor belt.

Funding of £1.5 million is to be made available for businesses and research institutions working in the bioeconomy in Scotland to support innovative work that will help deliver circular economy growth.

Defra has launched a consultation on which of two proposed WEEE compliance fee mechanisms should be used, if any, for 2016.

Professor Margaret Bates, the new President of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, has prioritised action on waste prevention and reuse for the coming year, as a report on the state of reuse in the UK is launched at her inauguration.

The potential for a post-Brexit shake-up of the UK’s packaging waste compliance system has been investigated in a report commissioned by the Environmental Services Association.

All five of the waste treatment facilities operated by New Earth Solutions before its sale earlier this year have been acquired by PandaGreen Ltd, Ireland’s largest waste management company, as it seeks to move into the UK market.

The amount of metal packaging being recycled by Warwick’s kerbside collection service rose by 28 per cent in the six months after the council signed up to the MetalMatters communication campaign.