UK Government announces new waste strategy for a circular economy

The UK Government has announced a new strategy to combat the UK’s growing waste problem.

The UK Government has announced a new strategy
 to combat the UK’s growing waste problem

The new strategy will result in businesses and manufacturers having to pay the full cost of recycling or disposing of their packaging waste. This will transform the waste system by putting more ownership on the companies that produce the damaging waste.

The importance of reducing food waste is also highlighted in the new strategy. In the UK alone, an estimated 10 million tonnes of food and drink is wasted, this results in both costs to the economy and the environment. A fifth of UK greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food and drink.

To combat this, the Government will set up a pilot scheme to reduce food waste, supported by a £15 million fund. This will involve redistributing food to people in need, including homeless shelters and food banks.

Read the ClimateAction story by Rachel Cooper - “UK Government announces new waste strategy for a circular economy.”

Government must help farmers to meet climate challenge, NFU says

The UK government must do more to help farmers invest in their businesses to meet the increasing challenges brought by extreme weather, according to the NFU. 

The challenges faced by farmers grow
increasingly difficult as climate change worsens.

The union’s call for more government assistance to enable farmers to invest in their businesses was made as a new Met Office study showed the UK’s climate is changing, with an increasing trend for warmer and wetter weather.

A report by the forecaster, published on Friday (2 November), revealed further details about the UK’s climate since the 1960s.

Read the Farmers Weekly story by Philip Case - “Government must help farmers to meet climate challenge, NFU says.”

Deposit return scheme proposed in England to fight plastic waste

The UK Government has put forward plans to introduce a deposit return scheme to dramatically reduce the amount of waste from drinks.

UK Government looks to deposit return scheme to cut plastic waste.

Single use containers, either plastic, glass, or metal, could soon be subject to a small charge which consumers will get back if they return the item. Businesses involved are then responsible for the bottle.

Similar schemes in other European countries have seen an increase in recycling rates; in Germany, it has helped recycling rates climb to an astonishing 97 percent.

Read the ClimateAction story - “Deposit return scheme proposed in England to fight plastic waste.”

Banning fossil fuelled cars isn't enough; we have to rethink our transportation system

The UK and France have banned the sale of gas and diesel powered cars by 2040, but it is too little, too late.

Last month the French Government announced a ban on Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powered cars by 2040. Recently the British government followed suit.

2040 is a long way away, but a UK government spokesperson said “poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible.” According to the Guardian, it’s estimated that “outdoor pollution, much of it from vehicles, causes 40,000 deaths a year in the UK.” But that number is disputed, even by organizations such as Greenpeace who note:

…while a car crash can be said to be the exclusive cause of an individual’s death, nobody is dying purely as a result of air pollution. It could well have had a significant impact on somebody who died from heart disease, but it’s likely that other factors, such as diet or exercise, played a part too.

This is an important distinction. These French and British moves are encouraging, as is the wildly enthusiastic reception to the launch of the Tesla Model 3. But does a ban on ICE powered cars really make that much of a difference? Does it go far enough, fast enough? Is the pollution from cars their biggest problem? 

Read Lloyd Alter’s Treehugger story - “Banning fossil fuelled cars isn't enough; we have to rethink our transportation system."