‘The Government has today (Monday 27 January) pledged to end the throwaway society and clean up Britain, as it implements legislation for the deposit return scheme for drinks containers in England and Northern Ireland.

Once the scheme launches in October 2027, consumers will have a financial incentive to return empty containers to a collection point, such as at their local supermarket, so that the bottle or can will be recycled.

Used in more than 50 countries worldwide as a common-sense means of encouraging people to recycle more single-use bottles and cans, a DRS sees people being paid back for returning the container.’

Find out more Gov.uk

The BBC reports that ‘a local activist is to represent Great Britain in an international plogging event, which involves picking up litter while jogging.

The environmental and fitness trend, which originated in Sweden in 2016, has since grown in popularity in other countries, including the UK.

“It’s a brilliant way of looking after your physical and mental health and keeping active; meeting like-minded individuals at the same time as having a positive impact on your local community and also the planet,”

‘Timothy Burcham, a licensed waste operator, dumped waste at a Paignton mobile home park in revenge for not being paid for a job there. He now has to pay a fine and costs totalling over £3,000.

When interviewed by the Environment Agency, Burcham admitted depositing waste on the site after his invoice was not paid and that it was not the waste he had originally removed. He said he had made a mistake on his invoices by setting out his right to redeposit waste if his fees were not paid.’

”Despite being a licensed waste operator, Mr Burcham behaved in an unprofessional and unacceptable manner depositing waste illegally.”

Read more on Gov.uk

‘New legislation to ban the sale of single-use vapes from 1 June 2025 has been laid in Parliament.

Last year, it was estimated that almost five million single-use vapes were either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the UK, almost four times as much as the previous year and the equivalent of eight being thrown away per second.

Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh said:

Single-use vapes are extremely wasteful and blight our towns and cities.

That is why we are banning single use vapes as we end this nation’s throwaway culture.’

Visit Gov.uk for more details.

‘The Great British Spring Clean is the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign.

The Great British Spring Clean and Great Big School Clean 2025 return from 21 March – 6 April 2025.

In 2024, our army of amazing #LitterHeroes pledged to pick more than 400,000 bags of litter.

Together, we cleaned up the places and spaces we love, as Keep Britain Tidy celebrated its landmark 70th year of protecting the environment.’

For more details visit Keep Britain Tidy