Waste Management

Christmas: The most wasteful time of the year

The UK produces and discards an extra 30% of rubbish throughout the festive period. That’s 100 million bags of rubbish to landfill each Christmas

UK devolution and EU harmonisation

By Kathy Illingworth, Head of Sustainability Consulting

In the UK, waste is a devolved issue. The devolved administrations are responsible for setting their own waste regulations. Whilst in the past, packaging regulations have remained consistent across the nations of the UK, this is set to change with the introduction of deposit return schemes (DRSs) and the reform of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging. It seems like having different packaging regulations across the four nations is likely to bring many issues for producers and retailers in terms of labelling, supply chain management and data reporting.

The managing director of Pro Carton makes a statement on the European Week of Waste Prevention

By Winfried Mühling, General Manager, Pro Carton

Against the backdrop of the COP26 climate change conference earlier this month, European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) has never had more meaning. The thematic focus this year on the circular economy underlines the need to ensure that both individual citizens and wider society are involved and engaged.

Greycon’s charity walk from London to Athens

On Friday 1st October, members of the Greycon team started a collective walk covering the distance between their London office and their office located in Athens to raise money and awareness for WasteAid. Each member of the team is contributing their steps towards the challenge, which is an estimated 3,466,000 steps covering 1,733 miles.

Vattenfall signs decommissioning agreement for radioactive components at Ringhals 1 and Ringhals 2

Vattenfall has signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB for dismantling of reactor tanks and their internal parts as well as fuel racks in Ringhals 1 and 2 in southern Sweden. It is thus clear how these large radioactive components are to be dismantled and disposed of, which also sets the framework for other dismantling work at Ringhals 1 and 2.

Antalis joins with Reconomy to improve waste management

Antalis and Reconomy’s new alliance is designed to support customers with managing their waste in the most responsible way possible.

Dow and Sport Singapore partner to establish permanent shoe waste collection ecosystem in joint commitment to sustainability

Leading materials science company Dow (NYSE: Dow) and national sports agency Sport Singapore (SportSG) today announced the establishment of a permanent shoe waste collection ecosystem, which aims to recycle 170,000 pairs of used sports shoes per annum. This collaboration also involves partners such as B.T. Sports, Alba WH, Decathlon and Standard Chartered Bank.

First fully recyclable plastic museum in the world

EsPlásticos, the community platform of the Spanish plastics value chain, together with the Mayor of Madrid and other high-ranking politicians, opened the world's first 100% recyclable plastic museum. It is located in the Plaza de Juan Goytisolo in the centre of Madrid, directly opposite the Spanish National Museum, and can be visited free of charge from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. until 16 May.

Global E-Waste Surging: Up 21% in 5 Years

A record 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste was produced globally in 2019;

$57 billion in gold and other components discarded — mostly dumped or burned

Material Recycling in a Circular Economy for Plastic – A Critical Assessment

In order to raise the discussion on the topic of Circular Economy for plastics to a fact-based level, CreaCycle GmbH, EPC Engineering & Technologies GmbH and LÖMI GmbH have developed a position paper that addresses all parties involved in this topic. They call for the improvement of the current terminology of the relevant waste directives, including the incorporation of the latest available technologies for plastics recycling, such as solvent-based purification/dissolution.