The UK Government has announced that it is to carry out a full review of waste policy in England, looking at the most effective ways of reducing waste, maximising the money to be made from waste and recycling, and how waste policies affect local communities and individual households. Announcing the review at the Futuresource conference, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: “There is an economic and environmental urgency to developing the right waste strategy. We have been slowly moving in the right direction with recycling rates. The direction of travel is right – it’s the pace that’s the problem. We need to go faster and we need to go further”. Source: DEFRA

The UK’s Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles visited the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to see the authority’s recycling reward scheme. The scheme rewards householders who volunteer to participate with points worth up to GBP135 a year, from over 100 reward partners including Marks & Spencer, Coffee Republic and Cineworld. Caroline Spelman commented: “Windsor and Maidenhead Council have got it right by rewarding people for voluntarily doing the right thing, not penalising them for doing the wrong thing – that is how we can change behaviour, improve the environment and get people to play their part”. Source: DEFRA

Greenpeace scored the environmental highs and lows of manufacturers exhibiting at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and highlighted variance between their announcements and action taken in reducing toxic materials in their products. Source: IDG News Service

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory in the USA have found a better way to recycle cars. Clean Skies News reports on recent developments in automotive shredder downstream separation processes and recycling options for non-metallic shredder residue developed at Argonne’s Automotive Recycling Pilot Plant.
Source: Clean Skies News

Karen Hendren reports how engineers in the United States have developed an organic packaging material they hope will one day replace expanded polystyrene to protect packages and the environment. Source: Reuters

Scientists in Poland say they have found a new way of using carbon as energy. The scientists at the University of Technology in Czestochowa say using carbon powder, instead of rods to power cells, is a far more efficient way of generating energy. Basmah Fahim reports.