A hosepipe ban in Oxfordshire will apparently be beaten by gardeners such as Richard Preston making use of personal alternatives. Thames Water and at least six other firms have said that they are to impose water restrictions after a pair of unusually dry winters in 2011 and 2010 resulted in reservoirs, aquifer,s and rivers being below normal levels. Although this could be disastrous for Oxfordshire gardeners and owners of allotment owners, many will turn to their own supplies and will beat the ban. Richard Preston, a retired allotment owner that grows vegetables in Steeple Ason, admitted that he stands in an envious ... Full Story

A council in Scotland has called on the government to charge residents who do not recycle £60. Highland Council, one of the biggest local authorities in Scotland, wants residents who contaminate their recycling or throw away recyclable items to be fined. The idea was submitted to the Scottish Government as part of a Zero Waste consultation for 2011. The submission recommends that fixed penalty notices should be used for recycling offences in the same way as they are in England. According to estimates, only 15,000 tonnes or Scotland’s 200,000 tonnes of household plastic waste is currently recycled. The Highland Council, which suggested ... Full Story

Consumers are no longer going to have to pay recycling fees for large home appliances to be removed, said Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration. After numerous complaints were received, the EPA has drafted revisions to current policy that will ban retailers from charging fines for old appliance removals and disposals. According to Cheng Chi-pu, the EPA’s Recycling Fund Management Board division head, said the new rules would make it difficult for businesses to charge for such services. New rules will cover televisions, washing machines, air conditioners and refrigerators. Furthermore, the new policy is expected to go into effect ... Full Story

The Scottish Government along with Defra and the Welsh Assembly Government have agreed to scrap plans to impose a statutory collection scheme for waste known as non-packaging agricultural plastics (NPAP). The NPAP proposals would have seen waste like fleece plant jackets, silage wrap and mulch film all fall under the new statutory. However, following a review of the scheme, Defra announced the ministers have decided against government intervention. The reasons for abandoning the proposal are mostly fiscal as ministers concluded that such large costs for such a small waste stream could not be justified. Nearly 85,000 tonnes of NPAP waste is produced ... Full Story

The US Environmental Protection Agency said that it will propose new regulations to reduce the amount of mercury waste generated by dental offices beginning next year. The proposed law, which could be finalised by 2012, will reverse an EPA policy from the Bush administration that gave dentists voluntary guidelines to reduce mercury waste. The new rule will require dentists to install a device that allows the mercury from old fillings to be reused or recycled. According to Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project and a forerunner on the National Mercury Products Campaign, the proposal by the current EPA to end ... Full Story

Environmental watchdogs have halted an illegal shipment of waste headed for West Africa. Leaving from Scotland, the Environment Agency managed to halt the shipment of thousands of old televisions and tyres that were being illegally sent to Western Africa. According to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), its inspectors were able to stop four containers from being shipped to Nigeria and Ghana after a tip-off was received. The tyres were found in an industrial estate, whereas the broken TV sets were located in industrial units in Glasgow. SEPA experts have warned that shipping hazardous waste illegally has become a growing trade. The ... Full Story

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced on Wednesday that over 50 per cent of the cruise lines operating ships in the Baltic Sea are dumping their toilet water straight into the sea water. According to the WWF, cruise ships have taken to dumping sewage and toiled water straight into the sea while out on voyages. Despite having access to the proper disposal techniques, the wildlife fund said that cruise ships continue to dump waste directly into the sea. Vanessa Kloetzer, an expert in marine sciences, said that she blames not only the cruise companies, but the law as well for not properly ... 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 retailer Sainsbury’s has been dragged into a landmark packaging case by a local council just hours after it announced improvements to its cereal packaging. For Sainsbury’s, the timing was slightly unfortunate. Not a day after the retailer had announced it would do away with cereal boxed in favour of bags to cut down packaging waste, Lincolnshire County Council brought charges against the group for violating an obscure packaging law. According to trading standard officers, Sainsbury’s violated the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations with their latest meat promotion – Taste the Difference. The law, which indicates that items must be wrapped in ... Full Story

De Bortoli Wines, which imports and distributes wines throughout the UK, has been slapped with a fine of over £8,300 from the Environment Agency. After failing to comply with the Agency's waste packaging regulations, the wine company pled guilty to failing to recover, recycle and register its packaging waste. According to the Environment Agency, the firm, based in Farnham, had failed to provide the required certificate of compliance leading to the fine, which includes costs - £2,128 - and compensation - £1,686. UK manager for the wine importer, John Thorne said that the firm readily accepted their error and had paid the ... Full Story

Military personnel and contractors are bringing down lawsuits on Halliburton Co and KBR Inc after alleging that the two firms contaminated water supplies and air quality with toxic emissions from burning rubbish in Afghanistan and Iraq. US District Judge Roger Titus rejected the companies appeal for immunity based on combat-related activities in a Greenbelt, Maryland court yesterday citing that it may limit legal remedies for individuals that claim to have been injured by the incident. Judge Titus is overseeing the 43 lawsuits that have been brought against the two firms. According to the judge in a written statement, courts need to prepare ... 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