Resource Magazine

Packaging producers will not face reissued invoices or higher fees in Year 1 of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR), after the UK government agreed to cover a funding shortfall that threatened to force a recalculation of per-tonne charges.

Microplastics have been found in the droppings of freshwater birds nesting near urban and agricultural land in Scotland and Spain, according to a new study led by the University of Glasgow. The research, published in the journal Environmental Research, examined the faeces of White-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus) nestlings at sites across both countries and detected microplastics – predominantly fibres – in 62.5 per cent of nesting broods.

Environmental network Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) has proposed splitting Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees into two separate budgets - one for waste management and another for waste reduction - as part of measures it wants included in the upcoming EU Circular Economy Act. The proposals, set out in a policy brief published this month, respond to the EU's stagnating circularity rate.

The recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans across the European Union, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland reached a record 76.3 per cent in 2023, according to data from Metal Packaging Europe (MPE), the trade body for Europe's rigid metal packaging industry, and European Aluminium (EA), which represents the aluminium sector across 30 European countries.

The UK Government has granted the Welsh Government an exclusion from the UK Internal Market Act (UKIM Act) to include single-use glass bottles in its deposit return scheme, enabling Wales to proceed with a scheme that diverges from the glass-free approach adopted by England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The exclusion, published by Defra on 12 February, comes with conditions.

Dedicated large-scale Plastics Recovery Facilities processing at least 100,000 tonnes per year should replace the current model of individual recyclers managing their own sorting if flexible packaging recycling is to move beyond downcycling, according to a new insight report from the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW).

Birmingham's striking bin workers have voted to extend industrial action past the city's May local elections and into September, Unite the Union announced today. Both directly-employed council refuse workers and agency staff employed by recruitment firm Job & Talent backed the extension, with Unite reporting 100 per cent yes votes on a turnout of 70 per cent among council workers.

WRAP has published a new report comparing UK residual waste policy with four other countries, commissioned by energy-from-waste operator enfinium. Circular Economies: Residual Waste Policy – International Findings benchmarks the UK against Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal across seven policy categories. It finds the UK has most of the elements of a best-practice system in place or planned, but still landfills 12 per cent of its municipal waste.

Nearly three million tonnes of waste wood could lose its primary domestic market from next year unless the government introduces transitional support for biomass plants, the Wood Recyclers' Association (WRA) has warned. The UK generates approximately 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood annually, according to WRA data. The majority of this – close to three million tonnes, including lower-grade material that cannot easily be recycled – is sent to biomass plants for energy recovery.

The Welsh Government has launched a 12-week consultation on extending the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) scheme to cover the cost of managing littered and street-binned packaging waste in Wales. The consultation, open until 24 April 2026, presents three options for how producers could be required to fund approximately £15 million per year in estimated costs currently borne by Welsh local authorities.