Sainsbury’s has become the latest supermarket to trial a reverse vending recycling scheme at one of its superstores, which will allow customers to return plastic bottles with the potential of receiving £25 off their shopping.

The UK’s recycling efforts have received a timely boost in the form of a £4.7 million recycling grant from Defra. The funds will be managed by Wrap, the recycling charity, and they’ll be put towards growing the UK’s plastic and textiles recycling and reprocessing infrastructure.

Just when you thought that surely litter couldn’t get everywhere, ten tonnes of it has been collected from Mount Everest!

Portsmouth and Gosport have been ranked among the worst local authorities for recycling in the country. The figures, produced by Defra, show that both councils fell way short of the UK average recycling rate.

It seems like we hear the mantra almost every day; ‘Reduce waste, recycle more’ and there are more ways than ever to do this in the course of our every day lives. We can now buy clothes made from sustainable materials and swap our unwanted clothes for vouchers in some high street stores, but what about our personal care routines?

Black plastic has been a long-standing nightmare for recyclers, as sorting machines can’t detect it, but the consumer goods giant Unilever might have just found the answer. It’s developed a detectable black pigment for its TRESemmé hair care products and Lynx body sprays.

The Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced that plastic straws, drinks stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds will be banned in England in April next year.

The Recycling Association has said it believes that supermarkets could be doing a lot more to reduce packaging waste than they currently are.

A paper cup recycling scheme has been launched at Bristol Airport in a bid to reduce waste. The airport launched the scheme in partnership with SWRnewstar, the company that supplies its catering and waste management services. The company say that the scheme will make it easy as possible for passengers to recycle their paper cups.

 

The waste management firm Biffa has blamed confusing labelling and inconsistent recycling collection services for the apparent halt in recycling rates.