With over 600,000 tonnes of disposable nappies being sent to landfill each year, the organisers of this year’s Real Nappy Week, launched on April 26th, are hoping that the message will get through that the reusable nappy is the way forward. The last available figures from research carried out by Mintel in 2008 showed that only 9% of families used or had ever used reusable nappies. B...

In support of its mission to increase packaging recycling rates across the country, the government has just released a new publication which contains plans to revise the Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations 2007. In the new document it calls for the recycling of packaging to be increased to over 70% by 2020, a target that has attracted strong criticism from many quarters for being u...

The problem of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is one that has been growing in recent years. As this waste cannot simply be thrown out with normal rubbish and sent to landfill, often a lot of it ends up in third-world countries for sorting. Now a new WEEE recycling facility has been opened in St Helens by Viridor. The plant will recycle electrical products from all ove...

As the days gradually become longer and also are ultimately warmer, our thoughts tend to turn towards our neglected gardens. Trimming hedges, removing weeds and D.I.Y tree surgery all result in a lot of recyclable garden waste. What follows is an inevitable trip to the local recycling depot where unsurprisingly we discover everyone else has had the same idea. Now a new scheme proposed...

The Scottish government has pledged an additional £7 million to help local authorities in Scotland meet their recycling targets. The money will be put into the Zero Waste Fund and will go to the 14 of Scotland’s 32 councils that have not yet met the recycling target of 40% of municipal waste. This target has been set for the whole country by the end of 2010, with the target figure r...