Circular Economy

Backed by Denmark's environmental protection agency, the CIRCUIT project pairs a low-temperature molten-salt recovery method with component reuse and design changes spanning the whole circuit board value chain.

Ceres report, commissioned by Viridor, says closing the gap could attract up to £5.9 billion of private investment and £28 billion in gross value added, but warns new plants take years to build.

The trade body warns the UK is the only G7 nation without a national bioeconomy plan, and points to research valuing a 30 per cent switch to biomass feedstock at up to £204 billion a year.

Charges of 50p to £1 a garment could raise up to £4 billion a year for textile recycling, with most shoppers preferring a visible, traffic-light label over a hidden fee.

Malaysia has banned e-waste imports and projects domestic volumes could reach 1.4 million tonnes a year by 2030, with around 75 per cent currently handled by an informal recycling sector.

A new sector-led Mission Board will steer 12 interventions, from a national network of material reuse hubs to procurement, insurance and finance reform.

Clean Growth Fund leads round for female-founded company growing partition walls from mycelium and agricultural waste, with £338m in supply agreements secured.

Project backed by H&M Group, C&A and Reformation produced T-shirts, sweaters and blouses from Indian wheat straw that would otherwise be burned.

Circuit boards from end-of-life televisions dismantled in supervised prison workshops are sent to Llantrisant for gold and platinum group metals extraction.

EPSRC and Defra-funded project will develop chemical processes to recover usable components from products too complex for conventional recycling systems.

One-step chemical process replaces oxygen with sulphur in polyester bonds, creating materials that degrade faster and can be recycled back to their original building blocks.

Company also announces construction of an anaerobic digestion plant in Northumberland and expanded lithium battery recycling capacity in Northamptonshire.

The 12-week consultation closes on 10 August and asks whether businesses claiming the Plastic Packaging Tax recycled content exemption should be required to hold independently audited chain-of-custody certificates.