The European Commission has proposed a full ban on some of the most commonly used and littered disposable plastic products in Europe, including single-use cutlery, plates, drinks stirrers, straws, cotton buds and sticks for balloons.

The final legislative hurdle to creating a more resource efficient Europe has been overcome after the EU Council approved the EU’s Circular Economy Package (CEP) in Brussels on Tuesday.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has presented the final draft of his London Environment Strategy to the London Assembly for consideration, with targets such as becoming a zero-carbon city and reducing the capital’s food waste by 50 per cent by 2030 among the proposals in the revised document.

The UK’s food waste data, setting out how much food is consumed, recycled and wasted across the country, has been restated by WRAP using new international standards of measurement, resulting in a reduction in the figure for overall household food waste.

UK supermarket chain Morrisons has published its food waste figures for the first time, revealing that 11,000 tonnes of food went to waste from its stores in 2017/18, while its food waste reduction schemes go from strength to strength.

Supermarket chain Iceland has adopted the world’s first plastic-free trust mark, launched yesterday, to help consumers make more environmentally-conscious purchasing decisions.

In a bid to reduce its plastic footprint, the UK Parliament has announced a series of measures aiming to ‘virtually eliminate single-use avoidable plastics’ from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords by 2019.

A report from environmental think tank Green Alliance says the UK government needs to reduce the carbon output from the process of making and using products in order to meet its climate targets.

The Resourcing the Future 2018 conference is little under a month away, providing the opportunity to join stakeholders from across the resources and waste supply chain to discuss the industry's hot topics.

James Lee, Managing Director of Cromwell Polythene, explores the simple steps that can be taken to reduce food waste.