Milton Keynes Council has agreed a £1.75-million legal settlement with Viridor over contamination of recycling, and has called on residents to help improve recycling to avoid future costs.

A Swindon-based waste dealer has been handed a six-year ban from running limited companies after two of his enterprises were found to be in breach of environmental regulations.

A round up of news from the waste and recycling sector, including new contracts for FCC Environment, plans for a recycling facility in South Gloucestershire, new JCB loaders for Countrystyle Recycling and the launch of a tool to help councils assess the impact of government waste policies.

MEPs in the European Parliament have approved plans to ban some single-use plastic products and increase the collection and recycling of plastic bottles, with legislation to be implemented in member states by 2021.

The government has warned waste exporters to expect delays at container ports such as the Port of Dover in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal, and says businesses should seek ‘alternative’ export, recovery or disposal routes for their waste.

The UK will not be able to meet its 2035 recycling targets without sweeping change, according to a new report from packaging producer DS Smith.

A Wiltshire-based man has been fined £200,000 for illegal waste operations at a number of waste sites, two of which were the locations of serious fires.

Coral Products (Mouldings) Ltd has just launched its new 360-degree circular economy plastic recycling plant in Haydock, Merseyside, as it seeks to minimise plastic waste sent to landfill.

All further scheduled industrial action by refuse workers in Birmingham belonging to the trade union Unite has been called off after Birmingham City Council approved an agreement to bring the strike to an end on Friday 15 March.

The HERU (Home Energy Resource Unit), a new domestic waste disposal appliance found to be less impactful in terms of CO2 emissions than more traditional waste collection methods by environmental consultants Ricardo Energy and Environment, has gone out for technical trials this month.