Ockendon solar farm to generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 15,000 homes
The largest solar farm in Europe to be built on a closed landfill site has begun generating renewable electricity from a former rubbish dump in Essex.
The Ockendon solar farm, the third largest in the UK, includes more than 100,000 solar modules covering 70 hectares (173 acres) of land.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Japan’s decision to release radioactive water from the tsunami-hit power plant has divided groups – is it entirely safe or staggeringly stupid?
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Good morning.
Today’s newsletter comes to you from Manchester, original home of the Guardian (est 1821), and me, Helen Pidd, your friendly north of England editor. I’ll be writing the daily briefing alongside Nimo for the next few weeks.
Continue reading...People will be able to claim back €6-€25 of cost of repairing clothes and shoes in latest environmental measure
A broken heel, a rip in trousers, buttons missing from a shirt? Don’t throw them away if you live in France, where the government will pay a “repair bonus” to have them mended in a new scheme aimed at cutting waste.
An estimated 700,000 tonnes of clothing is thrown away in France every year, two-thirds ending up in landfill.
Continue reading...While South Korea offers official support, China and other voices in region continue to express concerns over discharge from nuclear plant
The publication this week of the UN nuclear watchdog’s positive assessment of Japanese plans to pump more than 1m tonnes of water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean has failed to placate opponents.
China is fiercely opposed to the plans, despite a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) backing the scheme, while the support of the government of South Korea has failed to quell widespread public opposition to the idea in the country.
Continue reading...Inquiry launched by Environment Agency into huge pile of medical aprons found in Calmore, Hampshire
The “dumping” of hundreds of thousands of pieces of unused personal protective equipment near a nature reserve on the edge of the New Forest has mystified and angered local people.
But the council has revealed the giant pile of boxes containing medical aprons in Calmore, Hampshire, will be recycled into plastic bags.
Continue reading...New rules agreed at meeting of environment ministers welcomed as breakthrough by conservationists
Industry will be forced to do more to cut waste and boost recycling after Australia’s federal and state governments agreed for the first time to impose mandatory packaging rules on manufacturers and retailers.
The agreement, at a meeting of environment ministers in Sydney on Friday, was welcomed by conservationists as a major breakthrough after years of voluntary industry action has failed to reduce waste.
Continue reading...With 100 tonnes of clothing from the west discarded every day in Accra, ‘fast fashion’ brands must be forced to help pay for the choking textile waste they create, environmentalists say
A group of secondhand clothes dealers from Ghana have visited Brussels to lobby for Europe-wide legislation to compel the fashion industry to help address the “environmental catastrophe” of dumping vast amounts of textiles in the west African country.
The traders from Kantamanto in Accra, one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets, met Alice Bah Kuhnke, an MEP with Sweden’s Green party, environmental organisations and representatives from the European Commission and the European Environment Bureau to argue that proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation should ensure Ghana receives funds towards managing the 100 tonnes of clothing discarded at the market every day.
Continue reading...Amite BioEnergy, which was fined $2.5m in 2021, notified Mississippi facility had breached emission limits
A US plant that supplies wood pellets to the UK power generator Drax has violated air pollution limits in Mississippi, it has emerged.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has written to Amite BioEnergy notifying the Drax-owned company that it had violated emissions rules.
Continue reading...As consumers turn to renewable and recyclable products, protests over industry’s use of misleading terms have proliferated
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking aim at greenwashing by big business with an update to its “Green Guides”, which would give the agency stronger legal cases against polluters by clarifying when companies’ deceptive marketing around sustainability and environmental responsibility violates federal law.
The move follows years of formal complaints filed with the FTC about often highly questionable claims made by fossil fuel companies, big agriculture, major food producers and other polluting industries.
Continue reading...Dozens of storage sites found across Australia but estimated amount of plastic reportedly falls from 12,350 tonnes to 11,000
New stockpiles of soft plastics from the failed REDcycle recycling scheme have been uncovered as the work to develop an alternative program continues.
The program was wound up in November 2022 after it emerged that plastics consumers had returned to supermarkets to be recycled were instead put into storage.
Continue reading...Shadow minister submits bill to curb spills as Environment Agency reveals sewage was dumped for almost 1m hours last year
Ministers have treated coastal communities as if they are “open sewers”, Labour has said, after a damaging analysis of Environment Agency (EA) data revealed sewage was dumped for almost a million hours last year.
In total, the data – which was analysed by the party – shows 141,777 sewage-dumping events occurred across 137 constituencies on the coasts of England and Wales in 2022.
Continue reading...Tests show recycled concrete could safely be used in new buildings in war- and quake-stricken country
Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.
Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.
Continue reading...Australia has a 227,000 tonne a year fashion waste problem, but thanks to a lingerie designer’s campaign, some of it could soon rot productively
Australians could be the first people in the world to confidently compost their worn out clothing, thanks to a campaign led by a lingerie entrepreneur.
For the last 18 months, Stephanie Devine of the Very Good Bra has worked with sustainability experts, academics and industry to create a proposal for Standards Australia: a technical specification for compostable textiles.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
Acting prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles has spoken to ABC News Breakfast this morning after the $368bn announcement of the Aukus deal yesterday.
In response to the reaction from China accusing Australia, the US and Britain of embarking on a “path of error and danger”, Marles defends making a decision that is in Australia’s national interest:
We are seeking to acquire this capability to make our contribution to the collective security of the region and the maintenance of the global rules-based order.
And one of the issues within our region we are witnessing the largest conventional military build-up that the world has seen since the end of the second world war. And it’s not Australia who is doing that, but that shapes the world in which we live.
We’re completely confident these are in complete compliance with non proliferation.
Continue reading...More than 25m panels are expected to be installed across the state over the next decade
Queenslanders would be banned from dumping solar panels in landfill within the decade in order to reduce electronic waste under a proposed recycling expansion program.
The Palaszczuk government on Sunday announced its draft e-products waste action plan, which outlined the proposal to ban the dumping of solar panels within five to 10. The plan also aims to encourage the repair and reuse of household electronic products like fridges and mobile phones.
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Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches
Where the parties stand
So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.
We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.
Continue reading...Environmentalist alliance says plastic waste from failed supermarket-backed recycling scheme can be safely warehoused until it can be recycled
Environment groups are urging federal and state governments to ensure thousands of tonnes of soft plastic that could end up in landfill are safely warehoused by supermarket chains until recycling facilities become available, even if that takes years.
The Boomerang Alliance – a coalition of 55 conservation groups – has accused the packaging industry of using a failed scheme run by REDcycle which led to more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic collected by the public being stockpiled since 2018 as a marketing ploy to mask how little is being done to improve recycling rates.
Continue reading...Head of Clean Up Australia says disposing of vapes is ‘a new and serious environmental issue’
Environment groups have called for urgent clarity and regulation to respond to an increase in hazardous waste from e-cigarettes as vaping becomes more popular.
The number of people using e-cigarettes doubled between 2016 and 2019, according to the federal government, with a survey showing more than 30% of 14- to 17-year-olds have tried vaping.
Continue reading...Two-man business contacted by lawyers of Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns rights to Lord of the Rings
A refuse firm in Brighton called Lord of the Bins has been ordered by lawyers to change its name after being accused of breaching trademark laws.
The two-man waste collection business was contacted by Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the worldwide rights to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Continue reading...Cabinet papers 2002: documents shed light on strategy amid decades-long battle to create national storage centre
John Howard’s government considered extinguishing native title over a South Australian site earmarked for a nuclear waste dump “by agreement or by compulsory acquisition”, the 2002 cabinet papers reveal.
The records, released on Sunday by the National Archives of Australia, shed light on the Howard government’s part in the decades-long battle to create a national storage site for Australia’s low- and medium-level nuclear waste.
Continue reading...