Greater Manchester calls for a repair revolution

Greater Manchester is marking Repair Week 2024 (11-17 March 2024) with a rallying call for a ‘repair revolution’, as an eye-opening new survey reveals...

Guide plots course to improving plastic recycling rates

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste has published the first two in a series of ‘Solution Model’ playbooks, to improve the understanding of the...

Plastic recycling innovations sought for Recoup 2024 awards

The Plastic recycling charity behind the RECOUP Awards 2024 says entries are now open. "Recognising outstanding achievements in plastics resource efficiency and recycling, contributing...

Consumers unaware of dangers of PFAS in food packaging, finds research

A recent survey appears to find that the majority (80%) of consumers are not familiar with ‘forever chemicals’ and the term PFAS. The survey was...

A bright idea for recycling rare-earth phosphors from used fluorescent bulbs

Recycling facilities collect glass and mercury from thrown away fluorescent bulbs, but discarded lighting could also supply rare-earth metals for reuse. The 17 metals...

Generating electricity using low-grade heat recovered from lignin-derived membranes

A new study explores an apparently sustainable method of efficiently converting waste heat into electricity using certain wood products, while minimising costs and environmental...

Electric sweeper barrows introduced in Wood Green

Haringey Council and Veolia are introducing three new electric sweeper barrows as well as an electric caged tipper vehicle to the streets of Wood...

White paper presents circular value chain solutions for textiles

Recycling equipment manufacturer TOMRA has published a new white paper titled ‘Transforming Textiles: 4 Key Beliefs to Enable Textiles Circularity’. The paper addresses the...

Carton Ready campaign to support Simpler Recycling reforms in England

There are challenges to surmount when it comes to achieving circularity for cartons, but a trade group for the sector, the Alliance for Beverage...

Measurement of persistent organic pollutants: Recent progress profiled

By Gauthier Eppe Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that pose a significant threat to human health and the environment. Widely used during the...

Leftover cooking oil, lamb fat and agricultural waste provides greener marine fuel

A recent project blends leftover cooking oil, lamb fat and agricultural waste to develop a cleaner fuel for ships. The researchers - from Aston University...

Ireland deposit return scheme built on cloud infrastructure

On 1 February Ireland became the 15th European country to introduce a Deposit Return System (DRS) for single-use beverage packaging, with the system aiming...

Bio-waste yields valuable acetone and isopropanol

In what appears to be a major stride towards sustainable industrial fermentation, a team of researchers has made advancements in the purification of isopropanol...

Growth in UK plastic packaging recycling being shipped abroad, including to non-OECD countries

By Tom McBeth, Policy & Infrastructure Manager with plastics resource efficiency group RECOUP New data reveals an increase in the amount of plastic exported for...
Phone tower in city

As cities and systems scale up, does waste scale accordingly?

A recent study attempts to predict the future state of urban ecosystems, and suggests the need for a new science of waste. Living systems have...

Trials identify “five key ingredients to successful reuse systems”

The impact and learnings from six reuse projects, funded by over £1.4 million from the Bring It Back Fund are published in a new...

Development of first UK dry anaerobic digestion plants on the table in Greater Manchester...

At a meeting on 17 January, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) Waste and Recycling Committee approved an option to commission the building in the...

Plasma gasification produces hydrogen-rich syngas from surgical masks

Events of recent years have obviously seen thousands of tons of used surgical masks dumped every month without a real vision of how to...

New trial aims to make paper from agricultural waste

A new trial aims to create paper-based packaging from ‘second harvest’ materials. According to one of the firms involved - DS Smith - second...

Experts welcome the new WEEE consultation

Measures that will make it easier to recycle and reuse electrical goods appear in the government's WEEE consultation, launched on 28 December 2023. The...