Peter James, partner and head of health and safety at national law firm BLM, explains what waste management companies need to be aware of when it comes to Covid-19 inspections.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced that it will be extending the plastic bag charge in England to all retailers from April 2021 as part of its ‘war on plastic waste’.

The Environment Agency (EA) has announced that it will be increasing storage limits at waste transfer stations under its new standard rules permits, with details revealed in a consultation response document on Monday (24 August).

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is set to introduce legally-binding targets for waste and other environmental issue areas as part of the government’s Environment Bill.

The UK’s municipal recycling rate continues to sit well below those of leading European recycling nations such as Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, according to municipal waste data from Eurostat, although its recycling rate has improved slightly.

A round-up of news from the waste and resources industry, including Biffa, First Mile, J&B Recycling, Recycling Technologies and Fulcrum.

Glass recycling company Recresco has reiterated concerns from the glass industry over the mooted ‘all-in’ UK deposit return scheme (DRS) for beverage containers, warning it could have a “negative rather than a positive impact” on the UK recycling.

The Chinese Government is set to ban all imports of solid waste from 2021, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has learned.

85 per cent of Brits believe that food packaging should be compostable, with two thirds of those asked agreeing that the food industry should lead the move towards compostable packaging, according to the results of a new Populus poll released today (8 July).

The latest figures released by the Health and Safety Executive show that there were five fatal injuries in the waste and recycling sector in 2019/20.