April 2020 – The Waste Management & Recycling Blog

Increase in domestic waste leads to councils burning recycling

With the majority of the UK at home for the foreseeable future — whether working from home, temporarily unemployed, or self-isolating — the amount of domestic waste being produced by households across the country has increased dramatically.

Usually, waste would be spread between household waste, public waste, and commercial waste. However, at the moment, with many workplaces, public bins and recycling centres closed, our domestic bins are filling up quicker than ever before.

In fact, local authorities have been reporting an increase of between 20 and 50 per cent on usual domestic waste volumes across the UK.

On top of this, councils are experiencing far higher staff absence levels than usual due to the self-isolation recommendations set by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, what impact has all of this had on the nation’s household waste collection services?

Controversy surrounds a Rotherham landfill site

An old Rotherham landfill site has been given permission to reopen and many locals are unhappy about the decision.

Coronavirus: What happens to medical waste?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the world, some of you may be wondering what happens to single-use medical equipment once it’s been used.

This article explores the topic of medical waste in the UK, outlines the various types, and explains what happens to each at the end of its lifetime.

In particular, with regards to the coronavirus outbreak, there is currently a lot of discussion around PPE, which stands for Personal Protective Equipment. This will be covered below.

Medical waste must be dealt with separately from general waste. This is to avoid the spread of infection and to prevent the general public and the environment from coming to any harm as a result of the waste.