| Recoup, the plastics recycling member based organisation, asked visitors and exhibitors and Plastics Recycling Expo (held last week in Telford), whether the UK should remain or brexit from the EU by recycling their empty plastic drink bottles through the voting bins.

| The government of Ireland is looking to set up a regulator for the domestic waste industry. This is being considered as one of the options to prevent increases in household collection charges.

| BIR staged another meeting of its Latin America Committee (LAC) at its recent World Recycling Convention in Berlin.

| A research by US-based environmental group Basel Action Network found that Hong Kong has become a dumping ground for US electronic waste. Hong Kong has replaced China to become ground zero for toxic electronic materials.

| There is no proper system of electronic waste management in India's Varanasi city. Officials of the Varanasi Municipal Corporation have said that electronic waste accounts for about 6% of the total solid wastes collected in the city each day. The officials said that about 527.34 metric tonnes of solid wastes is collected every day.

| Interest in the London Metal Exchange’s scrap and rebar futures is growing faster than expected, LME Business Development Manager Marko Kusigerski told a workshop at the recent BIR World Recycling Convention in Berlin.

| Based on its new Recycleready Technology, The Dow Chemical Company has rolled out a new stand-up pouch made with Retain polymer modifiers in order to meet consumer demand for recyclability. The new packaging product ensures recyclability of polyethylene-based barrier packaging as part of existing grocery store drop-off recycling programs.

| A waste-sorting and recycling pilot project in Vietnam's Hanoi city is no longer active since it started 10 years ago. The project on sorting domestic waste at source was funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

| Gover, who is currently Operations Director at WRAP, replaces Liz Goodwin, who is stepping down on 30 June after 9 years as CEO.

| Researchers are investigating a new material that could be used to trap certain gases such as Xenon and Krypton released during nuclear reprocessing. Conventional methods of removing these radioactive gasses operate at extremely low, high energy temperatures.

| Fead welcomes the draft report on the Waste Framework Directive (WFD), prepared by MEP Simona Bonafè, but still sees the need for some further improvement.

| The Oman Environmental Services Holding Company S.A.O.C (Be’ah) is undertaking an aggressive waste management plan in the country. Officials from Be'ah said that Oman's waste management investments could total about OMR 423.47 million.

| Germany-based European Bioplastics e.V., an association representing the bioplastics industry in Europe, has supported a new report by the European Parliament on revised waste legislation that has highlighted the role of bioplastics to help transition to a circular economy.

| European federations Euric and Fead are calling on the EU commission to focus more on the demand side in their circular economy package.

| Many European countries are realising the economic benefits of making more efficient use of material resources like metals, fossil fuels and minerals. But more action is needed to underpin this trend in resource efficiency with stronger policies on energy, material resources, waste management and on circular economy. These are the findings from a new European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment published today.