Key stakeholders have largely welcomed the publication of the Resources and Waste Strategy by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), calling it a “blueprint for the future” and “bold and radical”, though some reservations remain.

Plans to introduce separate food waste collections to every household in England by 2023 and ensure producers pay for the costs of managing their waste packaging have been included in the long-awaited Resources and Waste Strategy.

A proposed amendment to the Basel Convention tabled by Norway has been criticised by the European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services, arguing it could negatively affect the European market for plastic waste.

More than 300 refuse collectors, members of the Unite union working for Birmingham City Council, are set to strike between Christmas and New Year over payments made by the council to workers in a different union that did not take part in strike action during last summer’s bin dispute.

A trial in London will see plastic KeyKegs, commonly used to store beer and wine, collected for recycling into new kegs by reprocessors OneCircle.

Graham Stuart MP has stated that the upcoming Resources and Waste Strategy will “require separate food waste collections” in order to reduce carbon emissions and act as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has devised a new sector plan to make Scotland’s metal sector part of the nation’s emerging circular economy.

England’s ‘waste from households’ recycling rate has once again fallen following an increase last year, dropping 0.3 per cent to 44.8 per cent over 2017/18.

Refuse workers who are members of the trade union Unite and employed by waste management provider Veolia UK have a series of strikes planned over the next month in a feud over unpaid extra shifts.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has launched a new sector plan for Scotland’s landfill waste sector in a bid to drive environmental compliance at sites, harness innovation and help the sector responsibly manage site closures and aftercare.