The government cannot rule out diverging from EU environmental laws transposed into UK law post-Brexit, new Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers told MPs.

Resources Minister Therese Coffey has been appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following Amber Rudd’s departure from the Cabinet, leaving no minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs directly responsible for resources and waste.

The UK Resources Council has announced an extension to its consultation on a new Sector Deal between the resources sector and the government.

Municipal waste data from Eurostat shows that the UK’s recycling rate remains some way short of the EU’s top recycling nations, though it performs better when it comes to diverting waste from landfill.

Sainsbury’s and TOMRA are teaming up to trial the first supermarket return scheme for drinks containers that includes glass – as Scottish support for an ‘all-in’ DRS builds.

The UK Resources Council is asking for input from across the resources and waste industry as it develops its proposal for a ‘Sector Deal’ between the UK resources sector and the government.

Since the five pence charge was introduced in 2015, single-use plastic bag sales by the seven biggest retailers in England have fallen by 90 per cent, according to new figures from Defra.

A new report from Imperial College London recommends that the tax on plastic packaging should be set at £150 per tonne in order to incentivise producers to include more recycled content in their products.

Boris Johnson has continued his Cabinet reshuffle by appointing Zac Goldsmith MP to the role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Defra, while Therese Coffey has been promoted to Minister of State in the department.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of Alupro, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation, gets his teeth into the issues surrounding deposit return schemes and their impact on aluminium can recycling.