Walker, who is chairman of Muirhall Energy, Scotland's largest independent renewables developer, joins the LRM board alongside Alan Frain, a financial and turnaround specialist with more than 25 years in corporate banking.

Angus Hamilton, LRM chief executive, said the funding "not only secures our financial foundation but provides the necessary capital and industry expertise to develop our business to the next level." Levenseat operates recycling and resource management facilities in central Scotland, including a materials recycling facility and energy-from-waste plant.

The UK has had no domestic synthetic fertiliser production since 2022, leaving farmers reliant on more than one million tonnes of imports annually. ADBA's letter warns that disruption to gas supplies through the Strait of Hormuz could push prices above £700 per tonne and potentially towards £900 during the spreading season. The trade body said digestate could offset around £170 million of economic risk in the first year.

ADBA chair Chris Huhne, the former energy secretary, said crises had shown "how quickly markets can destabilise" and that disruption to strategic chokepoints could quickly translate into higher costs for UK agriculture. There are currently more than 750 biogas plants operating across the UK, producing digestate as a by-product of biogas generation.

GMB organiser Craig Prickett said members at FCC Dartford are being left behind on pay compared to refuse workers on neighbouring contracts. FCC Environment, which acquired the contract when it took over Urbaser in 2024, said it is in negotiations with the union but would not negotiate through the media. Workers on the contract previously struck over pay in July 2023 under Urbaser’s management.

The campaign, which launched on 2 March, covers items including food and drink cans, foil, aerosols, screw tops, trays and tubes. Funded by the metal packaging industry, MetalMatters has run in more than 100 local authority areas since 2012, reaching over 6.3 million households. According to Alupro, these campaigns result in an increase in metal capture rates average of between 9-12 per cent, with some authorities seeing increases of 25 per cent within months.

An estimated 38 million tonnes of waste are illegally dumped across the UK each year, according to the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee. Local authorities spend up to £150 million annually on clearance, and the UK has at least 8,000 illegal waste sites containing roughly 13 million tonnes of rubbish. Many contain hazardous materials and persistent organic pollutants requiring specialist treatment.

Veolia said it is the only company able to handle all elements of the clearance process in-house, from site assessment to collection and treatment. The company is also calling for increased Environment Agency enforcement funding, with specific targets and performance indicators attached.