The launch of the new Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) has spurred a wide range of measures to "strengthen and modernize environmental regulation in Northern Ireland". The NIEA, introduced by NI Environment Minister Sammy Wilson on July 1, is slated to replace the former Environment and Heritage Service. Wilson stated that the NIEA will be "better equipped to provide clear guidance" to businesses and will continue to "crack down on waste crime". Mr. Wilson stated that approximately £2 million would be invested over the next three years. The funds will go to Better Regulation, the creation of 40 new jobs ... Full Story

To date, the landfill tax has proven to be successful in reducing waste: the waste sent to landfills fell by 18% between 2001 and 2006. On Wednesday a new LGA study was published, calling for an overhaul of the landfill tax. There have been comments that the tax could negatively affect council recycling efforts. A spokeswoman for Defra said it was an act of "scaremongering". The spokeswoman referred to the fact that the tax has already been a success, achieving huge benefits in the UK. She said: "We expect recycling to be higher, not lower, as a result of the landfill tax escalator. ... Full Story

The Campaign for Real Recycling launched its new hierarchy yesterday in an effort to encourage local authorities to choose source-separated kerbside schemes over other programmes. Last month, a WRAP study showed that kerbside sort is still the most economic scheme versus commingled schemes. A Camden study, published last week, also found that source separated collections in the borough had a smaller carbon footprint than its commingled service. Campaign members were given the opportunity to state which they believe is the most sustainable and cost effective method of collecting recyclables. The top three were source-separated schemes, triple stream and twin stream collections. Commingled collection ... Full Story

Meath County Council has taken action to stop "substantial abuse" of domestic/household use recycling centres by commercial businesses. A new payment schedule for green waste will increase change the current charges for large trailers. New charges for green waste will now be: cars and single-axle trailers €2; car with a double-axle trailer €20; commercial vehicles under two tonnes €50: and commercial vehicles from two/five tonnes €100. Vehicles over five tonnes will not be accepted. Meath County Council spokesman Bill Sweeney claims that under the old system there had been the opportunity to abuse the recycling centre system because a charge of €2 ... Full Story

The UK has introduced a multiple producer compliance scheme system in order to meet the requirements of the EU Batteries Directive. However, the government has revealed that the new regulations may not be put into action until late this year. In a response to December's consultation on the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries, Defra and BERR outlined schemes for the implementation of the Batteries Directive, which is scheduled to be entered into UK law on 26 September. Despite the efforts of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Council (LARAC), Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Local Government Association (LGA) ... Full Story

Recycling of waste electronic and electrical equipment, including laptops and mobile phones, needs to be given special attention in the UK, experts have warned, following poor examples set in Germany. Surprisingly, for a country admired for its forwarding thinking initiatives in recycling over the years, Germany has been criticised for its failure to sufficiently track the extraction and disposing of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) from old appliances in an environmentally friendly way. Capital Magazine, a German publication, recently revealed that the country has an extraction rate of just 42 per cent, compared with 91 per cent in neighbouring Austria. According to the magazine, old ... Full Story

Some farmers grow wheat, others barely, but one farmer in Crook, County Durham cultivates a field full of wheelie bins. A political debate over the collection of waste and the practice of recycling has left the bins stranded in the field, with taxpayers paying the parking bill. The green plastic receptacles have been sitting in the field for close to a year now where they rack up a parking bill of around £1,000 a week. Until the Wear Valley District Council in County Durham can come to a decision on what to do with the bins, they are likely to remain ... Full Story

An effort to get more families to recycle may be making more people confused and even angry. Families in the near future will be forced to use a total of five recycling bins in an effort to get recycling rates up, but the scheme is not meeting with much approval at the community level. Ministers say that the separate bins for glass, paper, food, plastic and other waste will make a significant contribution to decreasing waste headed for landfills. Community members are not thrilled with the idea and many people say the scheme will lead to chaos as household members lack time ... Full Story

New reports in the Express indicate that despite opposition from Gordon Brown, ministers are continuing to promote a plan to institute a pay-as-you-throw bin tax. Five pilots programs are being tested across the UK. The schemes include a fine of up to £1,000 a year for families which do not adequately recycle. The Prime Minister recently decided to scrap the plans in order to gain more votes from middle class Britons. According to one source, “Punitive rises in council taxes are not what we need.” But Shadow Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles says that the public has merely been misled into believing they ... Full Story

A meeting between local authority leaders and DEFRA has been planned. The aim of the meeting is to iron out a clause in the waste law which requires local authorities to offer waste disposal services to educational and penal institutions for instance at no cost. The meeting was proposed by Joan Ruddock of DEFRA. In a letter to council chief executives, the chairperson of the Local Government Association's environment board, councillor Paul Bettison, had earlier said that providing free waste disposal services to the said institutions would be too expensive for the local authorities. On the financial implications of the clause, Mrs. ... Full Story

A lawsuit was filed today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in hopes of protecting the already threatened Jaguars in the southern Arizona region. The suit was filed today by the Center for Biological Diversity in protest of a statement issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's director, H. Dale Hal in which a plan for the recovery of the jaguar population was rejected stating that such a plan "would not promote the conservation of the jaguar". This decision was used as an approval for the construction of a border wall between Arizona... Full Story

East Riding council has been instructed by the Information Commissioner to make public the details of its waste management deal with Waste Recycling Group. This was just a few days after South Downs Waste Services was directed to disclose environmental information concerning its waste contract in East Sussex. This was after a request made by an unidentified person to the council in 2005 for particular details on the deal where Waste Recycling Group has been offering waste management services to the council since 1999. Initially East Riding had declined to reveal the information asked for but with the Information Commissioner’s ruling, the ... Full Story