New-sprung: the project turning PPE offcuts into Covid patient mattresses

At the height of the pandemic in the Indian state of Kerala, fashion designer Lakshmi Menon, 46, heard that every new Covid care centre had to have 50 beds. Mattresses were in short supply. Every time a patient was discharged, the mattress had to be incinerated. “I thought: that’s a lot of mattresses and a […]

Cautious waste sector welcome for Brexit trade deal

Formal approval of the post-Brexit trade deal from the European Parliament and the European Council as well as the UK Parliament is still awaited, but there are strong expectations that approval will happen. The Environmental Services Association said that a Brexit deal which enables the free flow of materials from 1 January “has to be […]

Phil Conran awarded OBE in New Year Honours

Mr Conran’s award, in the New Year Honours list 2021 published on 30 December 2020, is for his “services to recycling and the environment”. The announcement brought a warm response from other members of the Advisory Committee (ACP), who spoke of Mr Conran’s ‘hard work’ and ‘breadth of understanding’. He stepped down from the chair […]

Compostable bags ‘most cost-effective option’ for food waste collection

Improving the costs of food waste collection: enhancing economic and environmental outcomes by choosing the right caddy liner is a detailed cost analysis of the implications of different food waste caddy liners – including PE bags, compostable plastic bags, paper bags and no bags – to determine the best option for the impending food waste […]

Louise Grantham to be WEEE Europe director

The compliance scheme said she would be one of six supervisory board members that support WEEE Europe chief executive Christian Ludwig. Others are from not-for-profit compliance schemes based in France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. WEEE Europe has the role of providing a Europe-wide compliance service for producers and has 19 partnerships across 30 countries. […]

Environment Agency achieves ‘huge amount’ in 2019-20

The Environment Agency confirmed in its annual report for the 2019/20 financial year that it cut the number of ‘high risk’ illegal waste sites from 260 to 233, the lowest total of such sites since 2013-14. However, it is more than the target of 196 the Agency had hoped to meet by the end of […]

CIWM rebukes sector over Covid information

The waste sector faces a challenge in delivering services especially over the Christmas period with a compounding of some of the existing challenges relating to the pandemic, the CIWM has warned. And, the CIWM has called for stakeholders to “understand their responsibilities” after revealing that the Environment Agency changed its approach on discussion of the […]

NLWA urges switch to reusable facemasks

To tackle the problem, the NLWA launched a campaign today (15 December) to encourage the nation to switch to reusable facemasks. NLWA chair Councillor Clyde Loakes said: “The progress we’ve all made in reducing our reliance on single-use plastics is at risk of being undone during the pandemic, and disposable facemasks are a major culprit. […]

Modulated fees research project launched

The project is backed by the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It will look at how producers’ fees for packaging could be used to “financially incentivise greater use of recyclable packaging”, and what higher charges could apply to producers who do not use recyclable packaging. There will be a focus on “modulated […]

94% of Brits want more on-the-go recycling points

That’s the findings of a recent consumer research survey, conducted by the LUCID polling agency in association with Every Can Counts. While 89% of UK respondents said that they recycle drinks packaging when at home, this number drops to just 41% when out and about. 89% admit that they face numerous problems recycling on-the-go – […]

Plastics recyclers reflect on challenging year

While prices for scrap material are expected to slightly harden this month, on the back of higher transitional PRN prices, recyclers have pointed to incoming changes to the Basel Convention which threaten to cause disruption to waste plastic exports from January 2021. This follows a year in which the sector has struggled with low virgin […]