A wide-ranging government review of waste management and recycling has a perceived excess of wheelie bins in its sights. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman reckons some people have too many wheelie bins and there needs to be a review of whether this clutter should and can be reduced. Details of the review were presented in a report in the Daily Telegraph. Other points being considered in the government waste review include packaging, council bin collection frequencies, and how to incentivise Britons to recycling. It has already emerged that some homes seem to have an inordinate number of wheelie bins. Many households have ... Full Story

UK firm Dairy Crest is expanding the availability of its more environmentally-friendly milk in bags. Dairy Crest recently announced sales figures that illustrate the success the milk producer has already demonstrated in trials of the new format of bagged milk. The format has proved popular with both consumers and several national retail chains. Dairy Crest offers a unique, patented bagged milk product called Jugit. Jugit features a reusable, easy-to-pour jug into which Jugit pouched milk (milk in a special bag) is inserted. The design requires substantially less packaging material for retail handling and delivery of the milk to the customer, whilst ... Full Story

Aberdeen has seen waste recycling hit record levels since the city’s council implemented its alternate-week collection system. The new system was launched in May and the benefits showed immediately. Not only was May a record month for recycling, but in the weeks before the new system and even since, residents eager to maximise the usefulness of the new system deluged the council with requests for extra recycling containers. May was Aberdeen’s best month ever for recycling. The recycling rate hit 32 per cent. Initial figures indicate rose to 33 per cent in June. The figures for May and June are both ... Full Story

The latest figures from the Environment Agency show a marked increase in the amounts of packaging being recovered and recycled in the second quarter of 2010 but aluminium recovery is down. Some reprocessors have yet to report their data but about 1.8 million tonnes of packaging was recovered or recycled. This represents a 7.5 per cent increase over the same period of 2009. The amount of glass recovered was up by a handy 18 per cent, to 472,912 tonnes. However, some 3,000 tonnes less aluminium was recovered compared to last year. That’s a drop of 20 per cent. The lower ... Full Story

An entrepreneur, who tamed the intimidating investors on Dragons’ Den, has won a major national recycling award. Rachel Watkyn, who owns a recycled packaging business in Horsted Keynes, has been given the title of ‘Small Business of the Year’ at the National Recycling Awards.   Miss Watkyn’s Tiny Box Company, which three years ago was given a £60,000 cash injection after hardnosed investors Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis backed her idea on the popular BBC show ... Full Story

Students at 40 schools in Ealing have been instrumental in keeping 80 tonnes of waste out of landfills. Thanks to the pupils and a recycling programme launched just a year ago, 32 tonnes of cardboard waste and 49 tonnes of food have avoided ending up in landfills this year. The recycling scheme was kicked off at the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year by Ealing Council. To begin with, only 15 schools were part of the programme, but another 25 schools joined during the year. Green-thinking kids have already demonstrated the hugely beneficial effect of their recycling efforts. Ealing Council is now ... Full Story

Northern Ireland continues to fall behind other parts of the United Kingdom in recycling. Figures just released show households in Northern Ireland were recycling less than a third of their waste in the first quarter of 2010. By contrast, homes in England were already recycling at the rate of 34 per cent by 2007/2008. Northern Ireland’s domestic recycling rate in the first three months of this year was up by just 0.2 per cent over the same period in 2009. Meanwhile, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is forecasting England’s recycling rate will hit 40 per cent by the ... Full Story

Greenpeace has accused massive international firms of contributing to species loss and deforestation in Indonesia. Companies such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour were slammed by the environmental organisation on Tuesday for buying palm oil and paper from global giant Sinar Mas. Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a subsidiary of Sinar Mas, was said to be “relentlessly trashing rainforests”, driving species into extinction and releasing carbon into the atmosphere in the Southeast Asian country. Greenpeace added that Sinar Mas’s sustainability commitments are not worth the paper they are written on, and expressed shock that some of the world’s best known brands are ... Full Story

A spokesman speaking on behalf of the London Assembly has incited the mayor's office to improve upon available recycling facilities for London's public transport system. According to Mike Tuffrey, environment spokesman for the Lib-Dems in the assembly, Transport for London's free morning newspaper deal was required to provide fully-integrated recycling facilities. However, Mr Tuffrey says that those services were never rolled out throughout the city, and are now seriously lacking. He added that each day more than 1.5 million newspapers are given away fro free across the city. Commuters do not have access to the facilities to properly recycling unwanted newspapers, ... Full Story

New recycling bins have been put in at the Newcastle Airport as a means of helping passengers dispose of plastic and paper waste in a more eco-friendly manner. The specially created bins were installed at 40 locations across the airport terminal during the past week as efforts across the country are being increased to boost recycling. Part of the larger, Recycle Zone project, the scheme will help passengers recycle in a more convenient manner. The Recycle Zone project is being managed in conjunction with WRAP, Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Recoup. Currently, the UK boasts over 50 set recycling zones, however, that number is ... Full Story

Popular furniture giant IKEA just launched a recycling initiative designed to encourage its employees to recycle more. The initiative, part of the retailer's overall zero waste to landfill programme, will aim to raise recycling awareness for its 700 employees that work in the firm's distribution centres. The scheme was launched at IKEA's Peterborough distribution centre last week in conjunction with Viridor. Viridor will be doing two roadshows, the first at the Peterborough site and a second in Doncaster later in the summer. The 'Recycle for IKEA' aims to improve recycling awareness, understanding, and efforts by offering employee training and awareness seminars. Viridor, ... Full Story

There’s a new phonebook in town. BT has announced the ‘compact’ phonebook, a new green alternative to the normal gigantic phonebook, millions of which are delivered every year. Sadly for BT, the phonebook is not nearly as sustainable as the company hoped. The ‘Say No to Phonebooks’ campaign reported that BT saved only mere 2200 tons of paper, a measly savings in comparison to the 62,000 tons of paper main phonebook suppliers BT, Yell, and Thomson use every year. The campaign claims that phonebooks produce an unwarranted amount of waste, ... Full Story