Environment Minister Rory Stewart has signalled his desire to work with local councils to slash the number of different recycling systems in the UK from around 300 to just five or six, arguing a more co-ordinated approach to waste management would help cut costs and boost recycling rates. Speaking at the Environment Industries Commission annual conference in London last week, Stewart said the area of waste policy he has been most focused on since joining the Defra team following May's election was addressing "the craziness that we have over 300 different recycling systems in Britain". "Almost every council is running a different recycling system," he added. "We really need to find a way of co-ordinating better." Stewart admitted many local councils remain resistant to central government efforts to standardise local waste and recycling policies, which currently result in massive variations in how local authorities collect recycling and which materials they will process. "It i…

The London Heathrow Marriott has announced plans to start recycling discarded soap after teaming up with social enterprise Clean The World. The partnership, the first of its kind in Europe, will see soap discarded by the hotel's guests repurposed in hygiene kits that are distributed to impoverished communities around the world. FURTHER READING "Hundreds of people fly in and out of Heathrow Airport every day and as a result we see hundreds of leisure and business guests come through our doors," said Ron Vos, general manager at London Heathrow Marriott Hotel, in a statement. "If you think about the amount of soap that's discarded by each of these guests and then consider all the people in the world that may not have the luxury of hygiene products, it seems absurd to let it all go to waste." Shawn Seipler, Clean The World's founder and CEO, welcomed the new partnership and urged more European hotels to embrace the recycling model. "Since 2009, Clean The World has distribut…

London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday helped launch a campaign designed to encourage households to step up their recycling efforts. The Just One Thing campaign is being orchestrated by Recycle for London, the wider campaign run by Resource London, a partnership between the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) and WRAP. FURTHER READING The campaign is backed by a revamped website that allows Londoners to quickly search by postcode what materials can be recycled in their area and a wave of new communications materials to help local authorities and businesses promote recycling awareness. "This is a great way to boost the environment and save money, so let's not waste any time and get into the habit of recycling more of our everyday items," said Johnson. Councillor Clyde Loakes, chair of Resource London as well as North London Waste Authority and Deputy Leader of Waltham Forest, said the new initiative would help tackle some of the specific challenges London faces as it …

Good morning and thanks for joining us today. Working to improve resource use in the interests of future generations is core to Julie's values - as it is mine. FURTHER READING For me, these values are a direct result of my mother's influence. She's always been quick to consider the needs of others and pass something positive on to future generations. We both felt a need to bring these values directly to the work we do... me as a scientist, her as a teacher. We can all remember those teachers from our school days whose advice shaped us, and how we approach the world as adults today. Inspiring teachers and a good education are what we all want for our own young relatives. But what good is a flawless education in preparing today's children for their world of tomorrow, if tomorrow's world is flawed? A tomorrow that is full of uncertainties due to the certainties of today. Because today there are certainly more people on Earth than yesterday, And today more goods are consume…

The IT industry's biggest computer hardware and gadget manufacturers have been pretty quiet about their commitments to accounting for natural capital - aka the environmental costs related to their business activities. That's not to say they aren't experimenting with recovery and reuse initiatives. Dell and Hewlett-Packard have been particularly innovative about creating closed-loop processes for putting recycled plastics back in service. It's just that with the exception of Dell, no one company is really talking about these programs from a global perspective. At least not publicly. It actually turns out the computer and electronics industry as a whole does pretty well when it comes to limiting its impact on natural resources, such as water and precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum. The cost is an estimated $39m per every billion dollars in revenue, according to a recent analysis by Trucost on behalf of the Greener Electronics Council, the organisation behind the …

Unilever this week announced it has achieved its goal of sending zero waste to landfill across its European operations, taking it a major step closer to reaching its global target. The achievement means no Unilever owned or operated premises, logistics operations or distribution centre is sending waste to landfill. However, the goal has yet to be achieved in its supply chain.  FURTHER READING BusinessGreen spoke to Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever's chief supply chain officer, to find out more. BG: What are the environmental and economic benefits of achieving zero landfill? PLS: With climate change talks due to take place in Paris at the end of this year we need a step change in companies committing to environmental action. There are many reasons why achieving zero waste to landfill makes sense from an environmental and economic perspective. Every year an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected worldwide and this is expected to increase to 2.2 billion to…