Inspired by this year’s surge in environmental activism, the 2019 Recycle Week, which will run from 23-29 September, is on a mission to encourage the public to recycle more of the right things more often.

The Environment Agency has announced that it will be reviewing permitted waste sites within the bio-waste sector.

MP since 2017, Anna McMorrin joined Parliament with a drive to tackle the UK’s environmental issues, hitting out against single-use plastic waste and tabling a bill on extended producer responsibility for packaging. Resource finds out more

Enthusiasm to simplify the recycling instructions on packaging risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater, writes Simon Weston, Director of Raw Materials for the Confederation of Paper Industries.

Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has called on the government to focus on reducing all single-use packaging, rather than switching to alternative materials such as compostable plastic packaging.

Rebecca Pow MP has been appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for International Development, while Zac Goldsmith MP has been made Minister of State.

The government cannot rule out diverging from EU environmental laws transposed into UK law post-Brexit, new Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers told MPs.

Resources Minister Therese Coffey has been appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following Amber Rudd’s departure from the Cabinet, leaving no minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs directly responsible for resources and waste.

The UK Resources Council has announced an extension to its consultation on a new Sector Deal between the resources sector and the government.

Municipal waste data from Eurostat shows that the UK’s recycling rate remains some way short of the EU’s top recycling nations, though it performs better when it comes to diverting waste from landfill.