China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has released a list of materials that will be banned from import from the start of 2018. Steel, copper, nickel, aluminium, zinc and tin were notable absences, according to Reuters.

Beverage carton recycling provision by local authorities has jumped from 10 per cent to 92 per cent in the past decade.

The Recycling Association and the Confederation of Paper Industries have urged ministers to contact the Chinese government over its proposed ban on all waste plastics and unsorted paper from 2018.

Tesco’s single-use carrier bags will be completely replaced by a ‘Bag for Life’ made from 94 per cent recycled plastic from the end of August, with sales funding community projects across the UK.

A bottle deposit return scheme is among five actions put forward by think tank Green Alliance that could help to reduce marine plastic pollution by up to two thirds, after new analysis from the think tank revealed that current government policy will only deal with two per cent of the problem.

The quality and quantity of Scotland’s recycling is being held back by contamination of the waste being sent to the country’s MRFs, according to SEPA.

The UK is currently on course to meet recycling obligations for all key packaging materials, according to new figures, though the potential Chinese ban on some imports could see more price volatility on the horizon.

A consortium of plastics processors and manufacturers has been awarded a £1.47-million European investment to investigate alternatives to the ‘urgent’ problem of unrecyclable black plastics.

New research from a team at US university UC Santa Barbara have discovered that humans have produced 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic since the 1950s and the advent of industrial scale production of synthetic materials.

The government is to introduce legislation to ban the sale and manufacture of plastic microbeads in cosmetic products from 2018, as new Environment Secretary Michael Gove pledges greater action on ocean plastics.