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.

The government has launched a review into serious and organised waste crime in England, asking for input from the public about how the growing problem might be tackled.

An £8-million fund for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been raised through the use of the WEEE compliance fee system in 2017.

The refuse derived fuel Industry Group has called for urgent action from the UK Government and the EU to ensure that the export of RDF from the UK to Europe will continue unhindered after Brexit.

Investment in energy-from-waste could boost UK GDP by £3 billion a year while diverting 60 million tonnes of waste from landfill, paving the way towards a circular economy, according to a new report by the Environmental Services Association.

The Paper Cup Alliance, which represents UK cup manufacturers, has claimed that a levy on disposable coffee cups could cost the economy £819 million and result in 11,000 job losses in the coffee retail sector.

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.

UK councils could meet EU recycling targets by reducing residual waste collections and increasing separate food waste services – but at a significant extra cost without government intervention, according to a new report from the Environmental Services Association.

The European Commission has proposed a full ban on some of the most commonly used and littered disposable plastic products in Europe, including single-use cutlery, plates, drinks stirrers, straws, cotton buds and sticks for balloons.

The final legislative hurdle to creating a more resource efficient Europe has been overcome after the EU Council approved the EU’s Circular Economy Package (CEP) in Brussels on Tuesday.