One of the final hurdles in ratifying new European circular economy legislation has been cleared as the European Parliament votes through the Circular Economy Package, fixing a 65 per cent recycling target for 2035.

A new policy paper from LARAC, released today (11 April), calls on the government to introduce direct charging for household waste collections and PRN reform to increase recycling and tackle the funding crisis crippling UK local authorities.

The UK is set to throw away a third more single-use coffee cups by 2030, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Eunomia Research & Consulting, which predicts the UK’s total plastic waste will increase by 20 per cent.

Wales could be set to target an 80 per cent municipal waste recycling rate by 2035, according to Welsh Minister for Environment Hannah Blythyn at the CIWM Resource Conference Cymru yesterday (14 March).

The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement of a consultation on how the tax system can be used to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics has received widespread acclaim from the waste and resources industry following the Spring Statement yesterday (13 March).

The River Tame, which flows through the Greater Manchester area was found by geographers at the University of Manchester to have a microplastics concentration of 517,000 particles per square metre.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is set to announce a public consultation on a plastics tax, along with a £20-million innovation fund to develop alternatives to the problem material.

The government has offered “warm words” but “no real action” today (9 March) in response to the report by the Environmental Audit Committee on disposable coffee cup waste, according to the committee’s Chair Mary Creagh.

Progress on the EU’s Plastics Strategy continues unabated as Europe’s environment ministers reached agreement on the content of the strategy at a meeting of the Environment Council on Monday (5 March).

The UK’s plastic packaging recycling rate could be 9-10 percentage points lower than official figures, according to a report from Eunomia Research & Consulting.