The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has criticised the government’s management and sale of the Green Investment Bank, saying it ‘failed to live up to’ its green objectives.

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).

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.

New waste crime powers have been approved by the National Assembly for Wales to prevent access to problem waste sites and force operators to remove illegally-dumped waste.

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.

In the wake of concerns from the Environment Agency that hazardous waste wood is being wrongly classified, the Wood Recyclers Association has published a best practice guide for reporting hazardous waste.

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

The UK’s annual lamp recycling rate for 2017 has increased to 48.5 per cent, up from 47.5 per cent in 2016, according to data released by the Environment Agency yesterday (1 March).

EU ambassadors have endorsed the provisional agreement on the four legislative proposals that make up the Circular Economy Package, including a target of a 60 per cent municipal recycling rate.