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).

Liverpool charity CREATE UK has received £25,000 of government funding to recycle and reuse discarded white goods.

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).

Collection targets for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) for 2017 have been missed, according to the latest statistics from the Environment Agency (EA).

Recruitment has begun for researchers to study the circular economy as part of an EU-funded project led by the University of Hull, which will examine methods of improving resource efficiency and their implications.

In the wake of China’s tighter import standards for recycling, the problem of contamination has been thrown into the spotlight. Gareth Morton discusses what the US is doing to tackle the issue – and what the UK can learn.

The Queen has given the royal seal of approval to banning single-use plastic, with the news that the royal estates will join the growing number of organisations to phase out disposable plastics.

Work is continuing on a disposable plastics tax in Wales, despite it not being chosen from a shortlist of four new taxes to be introduced by the Welsh Government.

A round-up of news from the waste and resources sector including WasteAid UK’s annual fundraising walk, an award for Biffa’s RCV road safety campaign and a £115,000 fund for community waste prevention schemes in Merseyside and Halton.

More than 100 MPs have committed to substantially reducing their consumption of single-use plastics as part of Sky Ocean Rescue’s #PassOnPlastic campaign.