Category Archives: Waste

Bodies of missing men found – as it happened

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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.

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Tanya Plibersek urged to intervene to stop stockpiled soft plastics from being dumped

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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.

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Environment groups call for urgent action on hazardous waste from e-cigarettes

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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.

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Refuse firm Lord of the Bins ordered to change its name by Tolkien franchise

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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.

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Howard ministers considered extinguishing native title over SA site earmarked for nuclear waste dump

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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.

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Thousands of tonnes of recycling to be transported interstate after fire at ACT processing facility

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Materials Recovery Facility near Canberra had processed 60,000 tonnes of waste a year which will be moved to other capital cities

Thousands of tonnes of waste will have to be transported from the Australian Capital Territory to other metropolitan capitals after a fire at one of the largest recycling centres in Australia.

The fire largely destroyed the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Hume on Monday night – another setback for the nation’s recycling efforts, which have been struggling to keep pace with demand.

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German trains to offer coffee in porcelain cups to cut waste

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Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to opt for reusable cups, plates and bowls for their food and drink from next year

Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to get their coffee in a porcelain cup from next year, the German rail operator has announced, as it seeks to cut waste.

Travellers would be able to choose a “high-quality porcelain or glass” option when ordering food and drink on its intercity and high-speed services, the company said in a statement.

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EU unveils plans to cut Europe’s plastic and packaging waste

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Draft regulations would ban mini-shampoo bottles and throwaway cups, with push towards reuse over recycling

The EU executive wants to ban mini-shampoo bottles in hotels and the use of throwaway cups in cafes and restaurants, as part of sweeping legal proposals to curb Europe’s mountains of waste.

A draft EU regulation published on Wednesday also proposes mandatory deposit and return schemes for single-use plastic drinks bottles and metal cans, as well as an end to e-commerce firms wrapping small items in huge boxes.

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Wax worm saliva rapidly breaks down plastic bags, scientists discover

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Its enzymes degrade polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could ‘revolutionise’ recycling

Enzymes that rapidly break down plastic bags have been discovered in the saliva of wax worms, which are moth larvae that infest beehives.

The enzymes are the first reported to break down polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could lead to cost-effective ways of recycling the plastic.

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Food waste: Australian households throw out more than $2,000 of shopping a year

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One in three households is wasting the equivalent of a shopping bag full of food each week, according to survey

One in three households is wasting the equivalent of a shopping bag full of food each week, a new study has found, despite food waste costing Australians more than $2,000 each year.

Nearly half of Australian households (42%) said they are throwing away as much food or more than they did this time last year, the study from climate action group Wrap and Mayonnaise brand Hellmans has shown.

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Children as young as nine say they are ill from work recycling plastic in Turkey

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Human Rights Watch says failure to enforce laws worsens health impact at centres, amid steep rise in EU and UK waste exports

Children as young as nine are working in plastic waste recycling centres in Turkey, putting them at risk of serious and lifelong health conditions, according to Human Rights Watch.

Workers including children, and people living in homes located “dangerously close” to the centres, told researchers they were suffering from respiratory problems, severe headaches and skin ailments.

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Rats to the rescue: could pesky rodents finally get New Yorkers composting?

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Campaigners hope to harness revulsion at booming rat numbers to expand composting services throughout the city and cut waste

At an August rally on the steps of New York’s city hall, rats were in the crosshairs. “No to rats”, read one poster. “Starve a rat”, read another. On a third, a pink rodent in a crown lounged on a throne of black garbage bags.

The demonstration wasn’t a generalized expression of anti-rat fervor. It was a gathering of sustainable waste activists. They had a proposition: composting could solve an escalating rodent problem that’s spreading across the city. “Our streets and sidewalks will be cleaner”, said New York City council member Carlina Rivera, “They’ll smell better and they’ll provide less food for rats, which is a public health crisis right now.”

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Switzerland picks site near German border for nuclear waste storage

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In ‘project of the century’ country will bury spent nuclear fuel deep underground in clay

Swiss authorities have selected a site in northern Switzerland, not far from the German border, to host a deep geological storage repository for radioactive waste.

After nearly 50 years of searching for the best way to store its radioactive waste, Switzerland is gearing up for its “project of the century”, entailing burying spent nuclear fuel deep underground in clay.

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As more space junk falls to Earth, will China clean up its act?

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Parts of a 23-tonne piece of rocket will come crashing down – somewhere – in the next few days

In the next few days, a 23-tonne piece of rocket will plummet to Earth at about 15,000 miles an hour. Much of it may burn up on re-entry, but a significant amount will not.

It could land as one piece but more probably as many, scattered over an area up to several hundred miles across. Scientists have narrowed down the likely impact zone to within the latitudes of 41 degrees north and 41 degrees south, a region covering much of the US and South America, Africa, the Middle East, most of Asia, and all of Australia except the island of Tasmania.

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Ofwat extends sewage dumping inquiry to include South West Water

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Regulator expands investigation after suggestions water firm was not complying with legal obligations

The regulator Ofwat has expanded its investigation into the dumping of raw sewage to include South West Water after finding “shocking” failures in the way the majority of water companies run their waste treatment works.

Ofwat said on Tuesday it had extended its inquiry after heightened concerns about South West Water’s environmental performance and suggestions it was not complying with its legal obligations.

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Fast-fashion giant Shein pledges $15m for textile waste workers in Ghana

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Gesture announced at Copenhagen sustainability summit earns praise – and some cries of ‘greenwashing’

Chinese fashion behemoth Shein might be the organisation least expected to win applause at an international conference on fashion sustainability, but that’s what happened at this week’s global fashion summit in Copenhagen.

The industry’s largest forum for sustainable progress saw the ultra-fast fashion brand praised for making a donation of $15m (£12m) over three years to a charity working at Kantamanto in Accra, the world’s largest secondhand clothing market.

Liz Ricketts, director of the Or Foundation, a Ghana- and US-based not-for-profit working with Accra’s textile waste workers, announced the fund, tearfully telling the audience that the workers are doing “backbreaking” work.

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Landfill tax rises boosting fly-tipping, says spending watchdog

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National Audit Office says tax has increased amount of money criminals can make from waste crime

Organised criminals have accidentally been given incentives by the government to fly-tip, a damning report by the National Audit Office has found.

Fly-tipping has increased year-on-year in England since 2012-13 and reached 1.13 million recorded incidents in 2020-21 – at a cost of £11.6m to clear large-scale incidents.

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Toxic fumes fill Delhi’s skies after vast landfill site catches fire

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Blaze at 65-metre high ‘mountain of shame’ in Ghazipur still not completely put out

Parts of a fire that broke out on Monday at a gigantic landfill site on the outskirts of Delhi known as the “mountain of shame” were still smouldering 24 hours later, choking local residents who have complained of breathing in toxic fumes.

Dozens of firefighters struggled to douse the flames at the landfill site in Ghazipur, due to its height and a lack of access roads.

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How ‘super-enzymes’ that eat plastics could curb our waste problem

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Nudged along by scientists and evolution, micro-organisms that digest plastics have the potential to create an efficient method of recycling

Beaches littered with plastic bottles and wrappers. Marine turtles, their stomachs filled with fragments of plastic. Plastic fishing nets dumped at sea where they can throttle unsuspecting animals. And far out in the Pacific Ocean, an expanse of water more than twice the size of France littered with plastic waste weighing at least 79,000 tonnes.

The plastic pollution problem is distressingly familiar, but many organisations are working to reduce it. Alongside familiar solutions such as recycling, a surprising ally has emerged: micro-organisms. A handful of microbes have evolved the ability to “eat” certain plastics, breaking them down into their component molecules. These tiny organisms could soon play a key role in reducing plastic waste and building a greener economy.

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Swedish firm deploys crows to pick up cigarette butts

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Clever corvids become newest weapon in Södertälje’s war against street litter

Crows are being recruited to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of a Swedish city as part of a cost-cutting drive.

The wild birds carry out the task as they receive a little food for every butt that they deposit in a bespoke machine designed by a startup in Södertälje, near Stockholm.

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