A new report published by Nextek and Resource Futures sets out frameworks for improving the role of the UK secondary plastics market, warning that many recent initiatives could ultimately detract from efforts to move to a circular economy.

From marine litter and the UK Plastics Pact to China’s waste ban and the future of waste and resources strategy, here are some of our key moments from a busy two days of discussion and debate at CIWM’s Resourcing the Future conference.

A new report by Green Alliance finds that £1.7 billion worth of plastics, food and electronics are lost to the UK economy each year because UK collection systems do not enable domestic reuse or recycling.

Hanson UK, a leading building materials supplier, has gone beyond its 2020 target of reducing the amount of non-process waste from its operations sent to landfill by 85 per cent since 2010, according to its latest sustainability report.

BRITA UK’s report finds that while eight out of 10 hospitality businesses view reducing waste as a priority, especially single-use plastics, cost is seen as a significant potential barrier to achieving this.

The global annual event on 8 June is focusing on the zeitgeist issue of plastic pollution in the oceans, and wants to encourage more young people than ever to make a stand.

The latest collation of waste and resource statistics has been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), bringing all the UK’s published data on the sector into one place.

Iain Gulland, CEO of Zero Waste Scotland, is the new president of the Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (ACR+), an international network of cities and regions aiming to promote sustainable development.

The programme for CIWM’s two-day policy event (13-14 June) is filling up with high-profile speakers, with Professor Richard Thompson confirmed as keynote speaker for day two.

Scotland has boosted its recycling rate above 60 per cent for the first time, according to new figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) released on 29 May.