Plastic straws, drinks stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds will be banned in England from April 2020, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced.

Victoria Hutchin, Associate Waste & Resource Management Consultant at WYG, assesses how extended producer responsibility reforms could impact how we deal with litter.

Key stakeholders from across the packaging supply chain have written to Environment Secretary Michael Gove to outline their priorities for the next stage of delivery of the Resources and Waste Strategy.

Drinks containers made from aluminium, steel, glass and PET plastic will now carry a 20 pence deposit in Scotland as part of the Scottish Government’s new deposit return scheme.

A report from the Committee on Climate Change says the UK can reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but will need to invest in low-carbon energy technologies and implement a ban on biodegradable waste to landfill by 2025.

The Environment Agency (EA) has restricted access to an illegal waste site in Birmingham and prohibited the delivery of waste for six months, using new legal powers for the first time.

MPs have expressed serious concerns with proposed environmental policy after Brexit, saying that environmental principles are being ‘severely downgraded’.

Local authorities and waste management contractors in Scotland are not adequately prepared for its upcoming landfill ban, according to a Scottish Government report published today (24 April).

Waste management company Biffa has called on the government to recommend the separate collection of paper and card from households in addition to food waste in its eventual core materials collection model.

The government is consulting on reforms to the UK’s packaging producer responsibility regime. So what are Defra’s proposals for a new system and how have businesses responded so far? Ecosurety and SUEZ comment.