Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is set to announce a public consultation on a plastics tax, along with a £20-million innovation fund to develop alternatives to the problem material.

Swindon-based Recycling Technologies Ltd, which turns waste plastic into a crude oil equivalent, has appointed two new non-executive directors to its leadership board.

Waste and recycled material is given a new life as art in a show at GroundWork Gallery in King’s Lynn, the UK’s only gallery to specialise in art and the environment.

The government has offered “warm words” but “no real action” today (9 March) in response to the report by the Environmental Audit Committee on disposable coffee cup waste, according to the committee’s Chair Mary Creagh.

Progress on the EU’s Plastics Strategy continues unabated as Europe’s environment ministers reached agreement on the content of the strategy at a meeting of the Environment Council on Monday (5 March).

China has announced the launch of a new customs crackdown on the smuggling of foreign waste, entitled ‘Blue Sky 2018’, which will run from March to December 2018.

Plans for a groundbreaking ‘waste-to-chemistry’ facility in Rotterdam to recycle waste into methanol are moving forwards after the project received £8 million of funding.

Certain LEGO bricks will soon be made from a sustainably-sourced sugar cane bioplastic, with a view to using the material for every piece by 2030.

The UK’s plastic packaging recycling rate could be 9-10 percentage points lower than official figures, according to a report from Eunomia Research & Consulting.

The UK’s leading tea brand PG Tips is switching to fully biodegradable tea bags in a bid to reduce plastic pollution, it was announced on Wednesday (28 February).