The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has unveiled a new sustainability plan for the city, which includes zero waste to landfill by 2030 and a switch to co-mingled recycling.

The EC will launch the roadmap for its Circular Economy Package ‘within the next few weeks’, and consult on the topic ‘before summer’, according to Director-General for Environment Karl Falkenberg.

The Labour Party unveils its Green Plan for 2015, which reiterates its commitment to undertake a review of resource security and make the UK the ‘most resource-efficient economy in the world’.

The Labour Party makes no mention of resources in its manifesto, but says it would invest in green innovation to reach ‘ambitious’ carbon reduction targets, if given power in the upcoming election.

The Liberal Democrats would set a 70 per cent recycling target for England, and introduce an incineration tax, if they were voted into power.

The Conservative Party makes no mention of waste, resource or sustainability policy in its new manifesto, despite claiming to have been the ‘greenest government ever’.

The Green Party has released its election manifesto for 2015, outlining that it would spend an extra £4 billion a year on recycling to ‘do away with damaging incineration and landfill’.

The Material Security Working Group has written an open letter to party leaders calling on them to ‘publicly commit’ to establishing an Office for Resource Management.

Reforms in government machinery are ‘urgently needed’ if the UK is to meet its environmental commitments and protect the economy, says WWF-UK.

The UK Green Investment Bank is to invest £200 million in renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects in developing countries.