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There has been a lot of expectation that the Government’s long-awaited Resources and Waste Strategy would provide the right mix of cohesive policy and fiscal drivers to rejuvenate the resources sector and support the wider economy in England. 

This month, I had the pleasure of attending a conference to hear first-hand from those far-sighted businesses who have signed up to the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan. Those who helped kick everything off in 2012 deserve real credit for being the early adopters to a holistic approach which addresses the entire life-cycle of textiles and clothing. They signed up for real change and there’s been good progress so far. But the conference was far from a back-slapping exercise and there was universal acceptance there’s still much to do.

'It's the economy, stupid' was coined by Bill Clinton's election strategist, James Carville, in 1992 to emphasise the single most important issue to voters. The mantra became established thinking; the economy was thought to trump all other areas of policy. However, is that still the case? Do we care about money above everything else?

I was inspired and excited to see so much content, commitment and collaboration at the Summit we held to mark the first six months of The UK Plastics Pact on October 11th.

We heard about the fantastic progress towards meeting the ambitious Pact  targets which has been already made members and supporters in just six short months. Progress which demonstrates a real commitment to act, and to act in a joined-up, cohesive way.

There was strong recognition that individual initiatives should not be piecemeal, but aligned as part of a collective plan for change right across the system. One which transforms the plastics system in the UK and keeps it in the economy and out of the environment.

It’s bin day. But there are no kerbside recycling collections today – or on any other day. And not just in our street or town. Across the country, there are no blue, green or brown bins. In the home or on-the go. Recycling, it seems, is dead.

In the quest to improve recycling and beat the UK’s current plateau WRAP’s Recycle Now campaign team has explored new approaches and ideas for recycling communications. What we found has implications for how recycling should be communicated all over the UK.

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Gove, recently invited WRAP, along with INCPEN (Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment) and Defra’s Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) to facilitate a series of cross-sector discussions to inform how the UK could respond to and reduce the environmental impact of the way we use and dispose of plastic.

For the last two months, we have been engaged in a comprehensive programme of discussions with stakeholders from across the UK packaging supply chain, culminating in a summit on April 16 2018 to share the findings and agree on a set of recommendations for packaging regulatory reform to be sent to the Secretary of State.

Below you will find a copy of those recommendations, along with the Secretary of State’s response in the related links.