Environment Secretary Michael Gove has launched a call for evidence on how reward and return schemes for beverage containers in England could help to tackle the nation’s littering problem.

The UK’s waste and resources sector has been upgraded to a ‘high risk’ environmental policy area on Greener UK’s Brexit Risk Tracker, as Defra admits that the UK is likely to miss 2020 recycling targets.

The extent of the incredible change in technology and how it is recycled in the 10 years since UK WEEE regulations were introduced, has been detailed by the European Recycling Platform.

Supermarket chain Costcutter has made a donation of £650,000 to resource efficiency charity WRAP as part of a set of enforcement undertakings announced by the Environment Agency.

Online sellers should be legally required to take on the duties of ‘producer’ under the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive amid accusations of freeriding, say WEEE collection and recycling associations.

A circular economy could reduce London’s waste by 60 per cent by 2041 and should be implemented in order to combat falling recycling rates, according to a London Assembly Environment Committee report.

Businesses from the Consumer Goods Forum and Champions 12.3 coalition have issued a call to action to simplify and standardise food date labels worldwide by 2020 in a bid to reduce food waste as Champions 12.3 releases a progress report on global efforts to reduce food waste.

The Health and Safety Executive has released its sector plan for increasing safety in the waste and recycling industry, identifying reducing fatal injuries from moving vehicles and incidence of musculoskeletal disorders and lung disease among employees as priorities.

Cardiff faces fines of up to £21 million unless it takes action to recycle an additional 32,000 tonnes of waste a year in order to meet its 2020 recycling target of 64 per cent.

Three days of expert discussion and presentations covered a lot of waste and resources ground at the RWM Conference in Birmingham this week. Here’s a snapshot of some of the things that we picked up wandering the show floor.