Newcastle could make the leap to a 65 per cent recycling rate by 2030 and reduce waste by up to 10 per cent by 2025, according to a new report from the Newcastle Waste Commission.

The Factor10 initiative from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, aiming to implement the circular economy across the world, has been launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, with signatories from over 30 international companies.

Industry figures have told MPs the Chinese ban on waste imports is ‘the biggest problem the UK recycling industry has ever faced’ and have called for domestic secondary market development to counteract its effects.

With the release of the Global Circularity Report claiming only nine per cent of the world’s resources are cycled back into the economy after use, the circular economy is front and centre at this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

Five recyclable and compostable packaging innovations will share $1 million of funding after being announced as the winners of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Materials Challenge in Davos, Switzerland, designed to finding alternatives to plastic packaging.

The European plastics industry has responded positively to the release of the EU’s first Europe-wide plastics strategy, expressing support for improved EPR and the headline goal of ensuring that all plastic packaging is recyclable by 2030.

In the wake of the government’s commitment to eliminate ‘avoidable’ plastic waste by 2042, supermarket Iceland has promised to make its own-brand products plastic free within five years, and other retailers are offering pledges of their own.

The EU has adopted the first ever Europe-wide plastics strategy, placing an emphasis on creating secondary markets for recycled plastics in its bid to create a truly circular economy in Europe.

A new ‘holistic’ initiative to bring together producers, processors, governments and NGOs to transform the UK plastics system and tackle the problem of plastic pollution is being developed by WRAP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The UK waste and resources industry has largely welcomed the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, although calls remain for more substance to shore up the proposals.