The European Commission has promised action to make products more durable, repairable, and recyclable as a new study shows just how smart design can transform products.

Evolve Polymers, one of the largest plastics recyclers in Europe, has been sold to US-based Plastipak Packaging.

Industry groups have both supported and criticised Waste Minister Therese Coffey’s move to reject a proposal by the Liberal Democrats to bring in a 5p charge on disposable coffee cups to reduce waste.

A round-up of news from the waste and resources sector, including new appointments at Biffa and Cromwell Polythene, and the opening of a new EfW facility in Buckinghamshire.

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.

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.

LARAC, the body representing local authority recycling officers, has joined the board of OPRL, the UK’s packaging recycling label scheme – the third industry body to buy into the scheme in the past year.

A new set of guidelines on recycling is hoping to clear up once and for all what materials can and can’t be recycled at the kerbside in an attempt to remove the confusion holding back recycling the UK.

Councils could save around £300 million every year if producers of the most littered products were made to pay levies towards their clean-up, says the Environmental Services Association (ESA).