The British Plastics Federation (BPF) has stated that the new government target of a 32% increase over 10 years of the amount of plastic packaging to be recycled is unachievable and will be impossible to meet. The Federation said that even if new recycling facilities were built the target could still not be met.

The BPF went on to say that by aiming for such a high target it could jeopardize UK recycling by pushing the recycling industry into uneconomical and non Eco-safe measures through the heavy consumption of water and energy needed to meet such a target.

The BDF did point out they they would support any responsible plans that the Government would like to propose in stopping plastic waste from ending up at landfill, but the infrastructure to meet such high targets is not yet in place.

The new target was set in a Government paper called ‘Implementing the Packaging Strategy’ in which they proposed that 56.9% of all plastic packaging should be recycled by 2020.

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is set to be the focus of this years UK Recycle week campaign between June 21st and 27th this year. This is the first year that one particular waste stream will be the main focus over others.

Recycle Week has been held every year since 2004 and is usually used to encourage recycling in general, this year is different as the organizers are keen to get the nation recycling more electrical equipment.

The EU’s WEEE directive came into force in 2007 which made IT manufacturers and importers responsible for their their own waste and recycling. According to the Environment Agency, WEEE is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK growing by 5% every year. In the UK households generate over 1.2 million tonnes of WEEE every year which would be enough to fill Wembley stadium 6 times over, the same amount is generated by non household sources.

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As most people now use the Internet to find names and numbers, Yellow Pages and Phone Books are being thrown straight into recycling bins and clogging up landfill.

According to the local government association phone books are creating over 75,000 tonnes of waste paper every year and costing taxpayers £7.5 million to dispose of them.

The data publishers association said that phone directories are still an important resource even with many people using the Internet.

Householders who are just dropping the Yellow Pages or BT Phone directories straight into the recycle bin should contact the companies and ask for the directories not to be delivered.

All three directories can be cancelled at once by visiting the website Junk Buster

A new report has found that airlines are generating over 800 million pounds of waste every year but only 20% is actually being recycled.

Most of the rubbish from airlines is generated in flight. The report uncovered that many airlines are not even recycling aluminium cans and in 2004 enough cans were thrown in the bin to build 58 Boeing 747 jets. In the same year just less than 10,000 tonnes of plastics and enough newspapers to cover a football pitch 250 meters deep were chucked in the bin.

Only 16% of passengers feel that enough is being done to recycle onboard waste.

In the UK Monarch Airlines was the first to introduce a recycling scheme, where they place all cans, magazines, newspapers and champagne bottles in a recycling bag and recycle them when landing at Gatwick airport. Thomas Cook UK Airlines also launched a national onboard recycling scheme in January 2009.

British Airways have also recently announced that they will be building a new plant in the UK to turn 500,000 tonnes of waste materials into 16,000,000 gallons of fuel for their planes.

Mobile Phones are very useful for human beings but very harmful to Gorillas. The majority of mobile phones contain a black mineral called coltan which is mined in the Congo, the homeland of endangered lowland gorillas.

Coltan is used in the electrical capacitors in mobile phones and the majority is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo where many Gorillas live.

The people that mine the coltan are a long way from shops and other places where food can be bought so have no option but too illegally poach mountain Gorillas for what they call ‘bush meat.’ Up to 1 million tonnes of bush meat is eaten in the Congo every year and is causing major problems to the Gorilla population.

In the past 5 years Gorilla numbers in this area have dropped drastically by as much as 70%.

In order to help save Gorillas more people should recycle their old mobile phones which will help to reduce the amount of mining that is done in the Congo. There are many mobile recycling sites available where people can earn up to £300 in cash for their old and unwanted handsets.

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British Airways has recently announced that they will be making a new deal with American Biofuel to create a plant in the UK that will recycle 500,000 tonnes of waste material into 16,000,000 gallons of fuel for them to use in their planes.

The new plant is the first time British Airways has made a move into the recycling market and will probably mean they will get big tax breaks from the government. The government has not comment on the deal yet but this will be seen as a major breakthrough for the green movement in Britain.

The new recycling plant will be built within the next two years after planning permission has been given and is expected to create up to 1200 jobs.

Thanks to a new recycling scheme, RecycleBank which rewards householders with gift vouchers for recycling their waste, residents in one of the trial areas, Halton have already significantly increased their recycling efforts.

The new scheme which started in October 2009 has shown an increase of 20% more people recycling household rubbish after 10,000 people were invited to take part in the trial. Phase 1 will end in April 2010 when Halton borough councillors will meet to discuss extending the scheme to the whole borough.

RecycleBank rewards households with shopping vouchers for Leisure centres, local; retailers, M&S, MacDonald’s, Subway and lots more for the amount of materials that are put in their blue recycling bins. Households have the opportunity of earning on average around £135 in rewards every year.

RecycleBank is a great recycling program that will benefit national and local retailers, customers and the environment. The scheme is expected to roll out across the whole of the UK in the near future.

Householders in the Taunton Dean area of Somerset will pay an extra 2.5% on their council tax from February 2011 to pay for recycling schemes.

Ross Hanley, the council leader in the area said recycling is people’s top priority. He also said that around 5000 householders in the area already have doorstep recycling.

Many people in the Taunton area are sending plastics and cardboard to landfill or have to drive to recycling centres to dispose of it correctly, a doorstep recycling service would make a huge difference.

The higher rate of council tax in the area would mean that a band D property would pay an additional £135 per year.

The extra money will also pay for the under 16’s and over 60’s to go swimming in the area for free.

With the UK still not hitting EU recycling targets many people are starting to ask why we are nearly ten years behind the rest of Europe when it comes to recycling.

In the 1990’s the UK was only recycling less than 5% of all waste that was created whilst other countries in Europe like Germany were already recycling up to as much as 50% of their citizen’s waste.

The government is now being blamed for holding back the recycling rates in the UK because it took them so long to raise landfill fees. Back in 1996 businesses only had to pay £7 per tonne to dump rubbish in landfills compared to today’s rate which is almost £50 per tonne. With today’s charge being applied to every council in the UK it has made people recycle more even if it comes 10 years late.

People are also blaming the government for not creating more national recycling regulations as instead most of the responsibility has been put on the shoulder of local councils.

From today all shops selling over 32kg of batteries in a year have to provide recycling points under new laws for people to drop off their old batteries.

The new recycling schemes have been put into place to help the UK hit recycling targets put in place by the EU. At the moment only 3% of batteries are being recycled it is hoped that the new laws will bring this figure up to 10% by the end of the year.

If recycling targets are not hit then the UK government could face fines of millions of pounds, these fines will be passed to battery manufacturers which in time will raise the price of batteries to consumers.

It’s hoped that consumers will take all their old batteries to points to drop them off for recycling however if people are not aware of the new laws then the recycling effort could fail straight away.

The new recycling schemes are also expected to cost battery manufacturers around £3 million per year.