Isonomia

by Peter Jones

The Budget last week offered little to excite the environmentally minded, as George Osborne produced no new green measures from his battered red box. One of the main talking points in the waste sector has been the absence of any clarification of what will happen to landfill tax after it reaches £80 in 2014/15. The Green Alliance advocates further increases, but the Environmental Services Association and various local authority representatives are looking for the escalator to stop. At the same time, the planned fuel escalator increase for September 2013 was cancelled.

Read more on A tale of two escalators…

by Mike Brown

Sometimes it takes a really clear expression of the fundamentals of a point of view to help you see what’s wrong with it. A couple of weekends ago, BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions came to the Gloucester Guildhall. One of the hot local topics is the county council’s incinerator plan, and a number of its opponents were in the audience, and a question was raised about whether it was “a blot on the landscape or a necessary step to securing an ecologically sustainable environment”.

Read more on Incinerators in the dragons’ den…

by Clare Pitts-Tucker

What happens to your unwanted clothes when you get rid of them? The question is particularly pressing at Christmas, when our powerful gift giving customs may leave us with unwearable, unreturnable, unwanted clothing: a hideous Christmas jumper, perhaps, destined to be worn only once; or some thick woollen socks (very much like marmite, you either love them or you hate them); or perhaps your new gloves will prompt you to get rid of that old pair with a hole in. At this time of year, clothing of all degrees of quality is destined for the bin.

Read more on A jumper’s journey…

by Phillip Ward

Local authority recycling figures for England for the year 2011/12 have just come out from Defra. The good news is that for the first time more material is being recycled or composted than is sent to landfill. The bad news is the confirmation of what we have suspected for a while; the rate of growth in recycling is stalling.

Read more on Curious numbers…

By Ben Wilde

Climate change seems to have disappeared from the spotlight. Politicians and the media both are giving the issue far less focus, at a time when the continued public reinforcement of its importance seems crucial.

Read more on Is the climate changing in the local press?…