News in Brief

Defra has issued a call for research proposals under its 15 million waste and resources research programme.

The programme aims to provide the government with a “sound evidence base” for policy development and implementation at a national and local level.

This first call for projects is calling for projects in eight themes, “sustainable resource consumption and management”, “systems for resource recovery”, “social dimension”, “environment and health”, “economics” and “decision tools”.

The deadline for expressions of interest is the 10th of January 2005. A selection panel will be appointed to shortlist expressions of interest and a number of applicants will be invited in February to progress to full proposals by the 21st of March. Contract negotiations should be complete by May 2005.

More information is available on the Defra website, including specific instructions on how to write and submit an expression of interest.

The London Assembly's environment committee has called on the Mayor to use his spatial planning powers to ensure London can cope with the hazardous waste it produces.

The call came in the committee's latest report, which warned of a potential hazardous waste crisis in the capital because of July's Landfill Directive ban on co-disposal.

London produces about 500,000 tonnes of hazardous waste each year, about 400,000 tonnes of which was landfilled in 2002. In July 2004, the Landfill Directive banned the landfilling of hazardous waste at sites that are not designated for hazardous waste-only. And, new legislation in July 2005 will see new regulations entering into force classifying more wastes as hazardous.

The cost of disposing of contaminated soil rose from 40 per cubic metre to 150 per cubic metre by September 2004, the Committee said, adding that such a rise in costs was an “incentive for illegal disposal”. A 75 million cut in the Environment Agency's budget would not help guard against illegal disposal operations, the report said.

Commenting on the report, committee chairman Darren Johnson said: “We have grave concerns about whether there is adequate capacity to dispose of waste following the new legislation.”

Environment minister Elliot Morley has planted the first of 35,000 trees resulting from the Alupro aluminium can and foil recycling campaign.

Alupro chief executive Paul Martin with Elliot Morley as the minister planted his oak tree

More than 300 local authorities took part in the “Get Recycling” campaign, which pledged a new native tree for every tonne of aluminium packaging collected for recycling in the year up to June 2004.

Alupro, the aluminium packaging recycling organisation, said reprocessing was up 6.5% on the same period last year to 34,938 tonnes. Alumium packaging waste must be collected and recycled to meet the UK's 2008 recycling target under the Packaging Directive. Almost all aluminium packaging comes from consumers.

Mr Morley planted the first of the “Get Recycling” trees in his Scunthorpe constituency on behalf of North Lincolnshire council. The minister said: “The growth of kerbside collection facilities is making recycling easier for more and more people across the country – we now need to persuade everyone to recycle as much as they can.

“I look forward to hearing how this imaginative and worthwhile scheme will be extended next year,” Mr Morley added.

Warwickshire county council has urged its residents to “shop smart” and avoid producing a pile of unnecessary waste this Christmas.

As part of its shop smart scheme the council has said that using a shopping list could help cut down the waste produced in the borough this Christmas. The shop smart scheme also championed the use of reusable carrier bags.

Councillor Ken Browne said: “Although it may sound old fashioned a shopping list can make the difference when shopping. You focus on finding the items on the list rather than being drawn in by the offers. If the item you want is on a special offer that's great, but if it isn't on your list you probably don't really need it.”

Research carried out by prudential reveals that the UK wastes 80.6 billion on unused goods and services every year. The research showed that up to 1 billion Christmas cards and 83km of wrapping paper could end up in UK rubbish bins this Christmas.