Ella's Kitchen, a leading manufacturer of organic baby-food, is launching a programme for the collection of non-recyclable baby-food containers. The company, which claims they are the first to launch such a programme, will be targeted towards kids, parents, and teachers attending preschool, nursery, or toddler groups. By saving the packaging from Ella's Kitchen baby food containers, customers of the popular baby-food suppliers can receive up to 2p per pouch to be donated to either charity or a local school of the customer's choice. Participants can simply download a Royal Mail label for free and send the pouches into Ella's Kitchen. The collected ... Full Story

The British Plastics Federation issued a statement in the wake of the Government's Consultation publishing their paper 'Implementing the Packaging Strategy" in which they proposed that 56.9% of plastic packaging be recycled by 2020. In the statement the British Plastics Federation claims that the target, which would constitute a 32% increase over the course of under ten years, is unachievable and sets an impossible standard. They continued stating that even if the amount of funding needed was given to build adequate facilities to up the recycling infrastructure, the goal could still not be reached in time. The statement continues to criticise the ... Full Story

Last year, UK paper mills produced roughly 4.3m tonnes of board and paper. Although these numbers indicated a 14% drop from figures in 2008, the trend over the last five years has shown that paper production across the UK has been dropping steadily. In all the paper packaging industry has dropped in production by 31% since 2004. However, industry officials are arguing that the industry was struggling before the recession hit, and in some cases, according to Andrew Barneston, corrugated sector manager for Confederation of Paper Industries, this made the industry more prepared to handle the economic downturn. It seems that now ... Full Story

Under pressure from governments, businesses and industries around the world are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and the amount of waste that they send to landfills.  Governments have started to put the responsibility for clean up and collection of rubbish on the shoulders of the people who are producing it in an effort to increase recycling rates and divert more waste from landfills.  The idea is that strictly regulating industries is much easier than regulating the behavior of individuals.  This is why the European Union has started a battery collection initiative which puts the responsibility of collection ... Full Story

The United Nations summit on climate change was a failure by most accounts even though it did succeed in increasing awareness about the issues.  Even though many countries left the meetings with a bad taste in their mouths as leaders were unable to come up with a binding resolution, they did leave knowing that change was going to be put on the shoulders of individual nations, councils, and people, as the world leaders cannot be counted on to save us. This led to the UK reevaluating it own recycling goals and making them stiffer.Currently the United Kingdom is in the ... Full Story

When the British Retail Consortium announced that it was launching a new universal recycling logo for packaging many thought that it was just a silly idea that would go away.  After all, there were already several symbols to let people know which products were made from recycled materials and which were not.  However, this was part of the problem, as the variety of symbols, each with their own set of standards, made it confusing for customers who just want to know what kinds of products that they are buying.  The new symbol aimed to lessen confusion and to make things ... Full Story

With all of the talk of the environment over the last few months it has become the hottest issue in the world.  After the Copenhagen summit, which many are calling a failure, it became even clearer that it would fall upon the shoulders of local authorities to produce real change.  This is why the government of the United Kingdom has put pressure on local authorities to roll out more innovative schemes that will motivate their residents to recycle more and produce less waste.  This has led to some of the better plans coming from small towns, where they are much ... Full Story

One of the newest trends in waste management and recycling is the idea of traceability.  Customers and businesses are increasingly interested about how their products are made and where they end up.  By being able to trace a product from production to trash is a way for businesses and individuals to ensure that they are not contributing an extra waste or carbon emissions to the environment.  Currently, the highest standard for traceability has been set by the Forest Stewardship Council, who will only endorse products which can be traced from forest to consumer. In a recent announcement it was revealed that ... Full Story

Currently, the United Kingdom is in the middle of the pack of Europe when it comes to recycling.  This may all be about to change as a recent announcement by Environment Minister Dan Norris revealed a plan to set new packaging recycling targets over the next few months that will launch the United Kingdom into the upper echelon of European recycling. Some in the retail sector are claiming that Norris' plans are misplaced and that far more emphasis should be put on food waste, which actually contributes more to landfills than packaging. Currently, the United Kingdom is recycling about sixty percent of ... Full Story

The Food Climate Research Network did a study which many are now using as the benchmark for judging the carbon footprint left by consuming alcohol.  Those who care about the environment have often wondered if the beer, wine, or whiskey that they drink is hurting the environment.  The study found that the carbon footprint left behind by alcohol varies depending on a bevy of potential variables such as where the beverage was produced and what type of container it is in. The study found that if you are having a dinner party that there isn't a large difference between serving beer, ... Full Story

During the first year of a new scheme residents of Wiltshire have recycled over one million Tetra Pak beverage cartons. Last July, bins were placed at the 10 household recycling centres in the county for the milk, soup and other liquid food cartons that had previously been sent to landfill. In just the first year, over 23 tonnes of cartons were recycled, which is the equivalent of around 1.1 million cartons. The cabinet member for waste and the environment, Toby Sturgis, said: “We are always looking at new services we can offer residents to help them recycle more. We looked at how we ... Full Story

Red Bull admitted that it was in violation of UK recycling laws in 2007, and notified the Environment Agency of the fact and rectified the problem. Regardless of its actions at that time, the company was fined more than a quarter of a million pounds last week. With its guilty plea to 16 counts of failure to recover and recycle packaging waste over an eight-year period, Red Bull became the UK’s top recycling offender. It must now pay fine and fees amounting to £271,800 for failing to register as a packaging waste producer and for not meeting waste recovery and recycling requirements ... Full Story