Apps targeting food and DIY waste and a CO2–absorbing urban tree are among the innovations chosen as finalists for this year’s Green Alley Award.

A ‘world-first’ industrial-scale facility to create a chemical intermediate for plastic production from renewable sources has opened, as CEP Rapporteur Simone Bonafe calls for the mainstreaming of the circular economy approach.

Companies and councils with ‘outstanding projects, innovation or successful resource management endeavours’ have until Friday to apply for a 2016 CIWM Sustainability and Resource Award [http://www.ciwm.co.uk/ciwm/events/sustainability-and-resource-awards-2016/ciwm/events/sustainability-and-resource-awards-2016/home.aspx?hkey=3f7f4c7a-453e-4011-abd9-8ffa932e9328].

What could the future of resource use might look like if everything we saw could be enhanced with layers of digital information?

No longer the stuff of science fiction or Pixar films, robots are starting to make inroads into the world of recycling.

Waste and recycling technology supplier AMCS has expanded its reach with the acquisition of GMT Europe.

A report due later this year will ‘explore how the UK can move from creating waste to valuing resources’.

A round-up of news from the waste and resources sector, including Amey’s new Environmental Services business, Gloucestershire waste, recycled plane products and sustainable visionaries.

Car manufacturer Ford is partnering with Jose Cuervo to turn tequila waste into new bioplastics to make car parts.

The Department of Energy & Climate Change is to be abolished in a rearrangement of government departments as Theresa May prepares her government for Brexit.