Resource Media

31/03/2026

We checked what 294 English councils are actually offering residents on day one of Simpler Recycling.

63% have food waste collections live. 107 do not.

Only 36% collect paper and card separately. Nearly half put all dry recycling in one bin.

Full council-by-council data: https://buff.ly/FcZgXbq

A Resource Media review of 294 English councils finds only 36 per cent are separating paper and card, with nearly half placing all dry recyclables in a single bin.

25/03/2026

Havering's MPs, councillors and campaigners have jointly written to the PM calling for Zane's Law - legislation to give local authorities stronger powers over contaminated land and historic landfill sites.

Named after 7-year-old Zane Gbangbola, who died in 2014 when floodwater from a landfill site carried hydrogen cyanide into his home.



https://buff.ly/WbIPUYk

25/03/2026

52% of textile carbon emissions sit at yarn and fabric production. 32% at consumption. End-of-life? Still partly unknown. A new open-source system map from H&M Foundation and Accenture maps where the emissions actually fall.

A free toolkit maps the fashion industry as interconnected islands rather than a linear chain, allocating carbon emissions by stage and identifying the systemic forces that lock high-carbon models in place.

24/03/2026

The four UK governments have launched a long-overdue consultation on reforming the PRN system, proposing powers to cancel fraudulent recycling notes and mandatory registration for brokers and trading platforms.

The four UK governments have opened a six-week consultation on reforms to the packaging recycling note system, proposing new powers to cancel fraudulent PRNs and mandatory registration for brokers.

20/03/2026

Government publishes Waste Crime Action Plan with £45m for EA enforcement. Fly-tippers face clean-up squads. Carriers, brokers and dealers moving to full environmental permits. Three exemptions removed. EA officers to get police-style powers.

Regulatory reform for carriers, brokers and permit exemption holders sits alongside new enforcement powers and government-funded clearance of the worst illegal sites.

19/03/2026

Only 16% of UK councils currently collect plastic film at kerbside, but 78% of those without the service plan to launch before the March 2027 Simpler Recycling deadline. Nearly half are targeting the final day itself. End market confidence remains low. .

https://buff.ly/bk8lFqr

RECOUP's latest survey finds 78 per cent of English councils not yet collecting plastic film at kerbside intend to start by the Simpler Recycling deadline, but almost half are targeting the final day itself and end market confidence is low.

05/03/2026

Three quarters of a smartphone's environmental impact occurs before the device leaves the factory. According to Fairphone, analysis of its materials used found that mining and mineral processing – not the charging cable – is the main place where the damage concentrates.

The report traced 24 minerals in smartphone supply chains to their source regions, identifying 11 global hotspots where extraction pressure is most acute. The same provinces in the DRC, Indonesia, Guinea and Brazil appear across multiple mineral supply chains, compounding the burden on a small number of places.

With the EU's Ecodesign Regulation now requiring seven-year spare parts availability and the Critical Raw Materials Act targeting 25 per cent recycled content by 2030, there is a clear direction of travel (at least in the EU): extend device lifespans and reduce demand for virgin materials.

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05/03/2026

The construction sector generates more than 100 million tonnes of waste in the UK each year, with over five million tonnes still reaching landfill. A new facility in east London is trying to change that equation.

The UK's first Circular Construction Hub has opened on a 20,000 sq m site in the Royal Docks, operated by charity Tipping Point East – a partnership between Material Cultures, Yes Make and RESOLVE Collective. The hub will salvage materials from demolition projects, fitouts and film sets, processing them for redistribution to new builds. It sits within the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone, where 36,000 new homes are planned, and is the first phase of a Circular Economy Village expected to become Europe's largest.

The hub has backing from the Mayor of London, Newham Council, Innovate UK and the GLA, and is designed to support both green jobs and low-carbon housebuilding across the area. With London Plan policy already requiring Circular Economy Statements for major developments, projects like this give us a practical model for what large-scale material reuse looks like.

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A 20,000 sq m site in Newham will salvage and redistribute construction materials, with plans to become Europe's largest circular construction facility within five years.

04/03/2026

The economy part of the circular economy is apparent in Zero Waste Scotland's first Circular Economy Jobs Tracker.

It reports that circular activities generated £37.33 in GVA per hour in 2021, nearly £5 more than the £32.22 Scottish average. The 56,000 FTE workers in reuse, repair, recycling and resource management contributed £4 billion to GDP, with signs that demand for circular skills is outpacing supply.

The research adds to a growing evidence base that circular economy activity in Scotland is not a niche environmental concern, but a key part of the national economy. With the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 now in force, the tracker gives policymakers a baseline to measure progress against.

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Zero Waste Scotland's first Circular Economy Jobs Tracker finds 56,000 circular sector workers are 16 ...

21/01/2026

Ciaran McGuigan has been appointed chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, succeeding founding CEO Iain Gulland who led the organisation for 11 years. McGuigan, previously Finance and Corporate Services Director, takes up the role from 1 February 2026.

The appointment comes as Scotland implements its Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 – with material consumption currently at 22 tonnes per person, ZWS's Corporate Plan aims to reduce raw material extraction by one-third by 2030.

McGuigan has already played a key role overseeing ZWS's transition to Non-Departmental Public Body status and was a key architect of its Corporate Plan.

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Finance director promoted to lead Scotland's circular economy Non-Governmental Public Body.

21/01/2026

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have developed circuit boards where 99 per cent of materials can safely degrade. The zinc-based approach performs comparably to conventional copper boards, but it offers two improved end of life options – composting, or dissolving the PCBs in dilute vinegar to recover the components for reuse.

The substrate of most circuit typically cannot be easily recycled, and with e-waste hitting 62 million tonnes globally last year, innovations like this offer new pathways to tackle the issue.

The work comes out of the UKRI-backed REACT centre, and a life cycle assessment shows 79 per cent lower carbon footprint than standard boards.

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Life cycle assessment shows 79 per cent reduction in global warming potential compared to conventional PCBs