A new recycling plant in northeast England will be the first to accept different kinds of plastic. The site at Redcar, Teesside, is the first of its kind that will allow yoghurt pots, bags, bottles and other forms of plastic to be recycled at the same location. The £1.87 million project, which is being run by Wrap and Biffa Polymers, will also provide jobs for 28 members of staff from the area of high unemployment. The money for the scheme was released by the government-funded Wrap organisation in January after research revealed that different types of plastic could be recycled from ... Full Story

Recycling plant pots has just got a little bit harder after The Garden Centre Group shut down all 120 of its drop-off points. Formally known as Wyevale, The Garden Centre Group was one of few places in the UK where some of the nation’s 500 million plastic plant pots could be taken for recycling. Speaking in a report by Which?, marketing director Lorrie Robertson said the recycling programme was very popular but that the group ran into difficulties when they failed to find a company that could recycle all of the types of plastic used in the manufacturing of the pots. ... Full Story

A new study by the Environment Agency has concluded that plastic bags are not as bad for the environment as previously thought. The organisation, which is charged with improving the green credentials of England and Wales, found that depending on how many times they are reused, different types of bags have different impacts on the environment. As well as typical high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags, the research also looked at low-density polyethylene (LDPE) products - often called “bags for life”- as well as non woven cotton bags made of polypropylene (PP). The agency concluded that if a HDPE bag is reused for shopping, ... Full Story

Sita announced a new scheme to build 10 plants designed to turn old plastic into diesel fuel. The Suez Environment-owned waste company will create 120 jobs and spend nearly £50m building 10 state-of-the-art facilities, which will convert ‘end-of-life’ plastic waste into oil-based petrol. The move will prevent previously unusable plastic waste from ending up in landfill. In what will be Europe’s first plastic-to-diesel plant, the scheme will see 60,000 tonnes of mixed plastics rubbish recycled in to fuel per year. The pioneering technology is made by Irish firm Cynar and marks the first commercially-capable plastic-to-diesel machinery. Chief executive of Sita, David Palmer-Jones said ... Full Story

Marks & Spencer announced today that it would begin using recycled polyester to make its more than 300 million clothing labels each year. The move will feature a message on each label – ‘Recycle with Oxfam’ – in a bid to make the clothing range more environmentally friendly. The labels will also serve as a reminder to customers to use the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange, which offers rewards to customers that donate old clothing to Oxfam stores in exchange for an M&S money-off voucher. Two million garments each year are recycled through the initiative and M&S – has part of its ... Full Story

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) are promoting a new initiative aimed at increasing recycling rates for tins, plastic containers and bottles. Anti-litter campaigners have said the new scheme would utilise deposits to achieve a 90 per cent return rate on recyclable materials like glass bottles, plastic containers and tin cans, in a programme that proponents claim would be largely self-funding. CPRE said today that mandating a refundable deposit on plastic and glass bottles would give consumers more incentive to reduce litter and recycle more. Under the proposal, the environmental pressure group has said that any consumers purchasing containers smaller than ... Full Story

Popular UK grocer, Waitrose is gearing up to roll out a brand new way of packaging its meat products that will help save the environment. Beginning next month, the food retailer will package all meat items in a way that could save up to 90 tonnes of plastic waste per year. The 'snip and slide' containers will hit shelves in October with its debut in minced and diced meat. The way it works is by allowing the package to simply be snipped open and the meat slides right into the pan. Waitrose has said that after the initial launch of the packaging ... Full Story

Plans to ban certain materials from being sent to landfills, which would have included food, metals and paper, have been scrapped by ministers after a government report warned that doing so could increase fly tipping. Householders will no longer be faced with the requirement of having to install slop buckets within their kitchens in the wake of the government report indicating that forcing people to separate out food waste could lead to more fly tipping instances. Furthermore, the year long consultation culminating in the report found that by forcing households to collect food waste councils would have to use more taxes ... Full Story

According to survey data from recycle body Recoup, the UK has recorded a six per cent rise in plastic bottle recovery. Recoup's 2010 UK Household Plastics Packaging Collection Survey is set for publication next month and will reveal that nearly 260,000 tonnes of plastic bottle waste was collected for recycling in 2009. Previously at a rate of 39 per cent, the UK has increased its PET collection rate to 45 per cent for a six per cent rise in collection rates. Marcel Arsand, Recoup's senior project manager, said that the group was encouraged to see such a positive increase in progress in ... Full Story

Just as California was poised to push through a statewide ban on plastic bag use, the legislation was shot down in a 21-14 vote within the state senate yesterday. Environmental groups have come forward to express disappointment over the failure of the bill, which had even gained support from local retail bodies like the California Grocers Association. Despite the motion being quashed on the Senate floor, however, California still continues to lead the US with many local authorities banning single-use plastic bags around the state. The US, in comparison to other world powers, is behind the curve in stopping plastic pollution. So ... Full Story

European Plastics Recyclers (EuPR) are speaking out against a new Swiss report that states that sending PET bottles to landfill is a better option than recycling. SRI Consulting’s ‘PET’s Carbon Footprint: To Recycle or Not to Recycle” suggests that the carbon footprint generated by recycling PET bottles is greater than sending them to landfill. The report concludes based on evidence from the production of raw material down to the secondary packaging of PET bottles that recycling is not the ‘greener’ option for the item. However, Casper van den Dungen, chairmen of EuPR’s PET working group, scoffed at the report, saying that the ... Full Story

In a Jersey car park in St Aubin, numerous recycling bins will be installed in  an effort to increase on-the-go recycling for local residents. Beginning Friday, islanders will be able to deposit recyclable items in the form of cans, paper, plastic and glass bottles directly into the new recycling banks being setup in the back of St Aubin’s parish hall. The facility will increase the number of recycling sites on the island to a total of 15. The bid comes in a move to reduce the growing number of fly-tipping incidents with glass bottles. Additionally, the Parish of St Brelade has put ... Full Story