Almost half of councils have plans to reopen their Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) within the next two weeks, according to the latest Covid-19 local authority impacts survey, while recycling collections have experienced a slight increase in disruption.

The government has stated that there is ‘no reason in law’ why Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) shouldn’t be open and has yet again urged local authorities to reopen sites, issuing guidance on how to do so safely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Environment Agency (EA) has released two further Covid-19 regulatory position statements (RPS) for waste operators concerning the temporary storage of waste at unpermitted sites and the temporary storage of incinerator bottom ash aggregate (IBAA) during the crisis.

The WEEE Fund has announced that it will be providing more than £5 million of financial support to electronic waste recyclers during the Covid-19 pandemic in the form of its WEEE Support Grants and Loans Package.

The consultation period for the Plastic Packaging Tax has been extended by three months due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Environment Agency has released two new Covid-19 Regulatory Position Statements removing the need for physical signatures on waste transfer documentation and removing penalties for packaging producers that were unable to register with a compliance scheme during the crisis.

The Environment Agency (EA) has released a regulatory position statement that allows municipal waste incinerators to accept Covid-19 infectious waste without varying their environmental permits.

The Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH) has updated its Covid-19 safety advice for the waste sector.

The Environment Agency (EA) has announced that waste storage limits on permitted waste sites can be ‘temporarily’ exceeded if Covid-19 restrictions mean that waste cannot be removed from those sites.

The Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum has published its finalised guidance on reducing the risk of Covid-19 in the waste management sector.