Isonomia

by Hattie Parke

On Saturday evenings I cycle to my local Sainsbury’s, trailer in tow, and collect a stack of ‘Taste the Difference’  loaves, bagels, croissants, pastries and other baked goods that happen not to have sold that day and would otherwise end up in bin bags and never be eaten. This stuff isn’t ‘off’ – it’s been baked fresh that morning, but anything that’s unsold by evening is removed to be replaced with fresh goods the next day.

Read more on Put your money where the mouths are…

by Dominic Hogg

I had a bit of a shock the other day. I saw an aluminium can in one of our residual waste bins. You might think I’m being a little melodramatic, but in my view, that type of behaviour is not acceptable in a company of which I am the Chairman. It triggered an e-mail to fellow staff at Eunomia to highlight the fact that I was expecting rather more of them than this.

Read more on “No can do” isn’t good enough…

by Peter Jones

Did you enjoy yourself this Christmas? I hope so – but isn’t it strange what enjoying ourselves means? For many of us, enjoying Christmas is all about consumption and excess. We buy and receive generous – even extravagant – gifts. We eat and drink far more than normal. We battle traffic, weather and hordes of other festive travellers, undertaking long journeys to see relations who we may not have visited for months. While we nurse our hangovers, overdrafts and carbon footprints, perhaps it is a good time to reflect on waste, excess and the possibility of doing something about it.

Read more on What kind of waster are you?…

by Carolyn Cross

As I meander through the veg aisles of my local supermarket, Matthew the British apple farmer beams down, Chairman Mau-style, from giant posters. He looks like a nice guy, and while the supermarket may be getting a lot of mileage out of him, it does mean fewer nasty air freight and truck miles. In turn that means fresher, healthier produce, reduced carbon emissions, and more of the economic benefits staying close to home; so buying Matthew’s apples is good for us, good for UK plc and no doubt good for Matthew too.

Read more on Is my grocer greener than my government?…

by Phillip Ward

It will no doubt take Owen Paterson a few days to uncover all the issues Caroline Spelman left in his in-tray.

One which has dipped under the radar is the promised revised guidance on applying the waste hierarchy.  Whilst it has been around for a long time, the hierarchy assumes greater significance now that the revised Waste Framework Directive gives its prioritisation of methods of waste treatment a statutory basis. Last year it was enshrined in England and Wales regulations that are now in force. Anyone creating or handling waste is already obliged to follow the hierarchy (Prevention, Preparing for Reuse, Recycling, Recovery or Disposal) and penalties can be imposed if they fail to do so. However, the guidance is a critical tool to enable the hierarchy to be applied in practice.

Read more on Reshuffling the waste hierarchy…