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Australia's University of Southern Queensland researchers awardec a grant to recycle plastic mulch film. The Australian government has provided a $1.8 million grant to further the conversion of difficult-to-recycle plastic [...]

Increasingly stringent regulatory regimes, in conjunction with landfill development in environmentally sensitive locations and the large number of abandoned landfill sites, are significantly increasing the responsibilities of local authorities and environmental agencies. These responsibilities include the identification and/or monitoring of: locations of contaminated land; boundaries of waste sites; nature of the landfill content; location, extent, content and depth of closed landfill sites; leachate plumes escaping from both operational and closed sites and the performance of landfill liners. Probabilistic risk based modelling is a standard methodology for monitoring and managing the environmental impact of landfill sites. A critical problem in the implementation of probabilistic risk based modelling is the large uncertainty in the shallow geology, internal structure and leachate distribution of landfills caused by the severe lack of both surface and subsurface information from within and outside the landfill site. The utility of two non-invasive ground based geophysical monitoring techniques, ground penetrating radar and reflectance spectroscopy, as aids to characterising the three-dimensional structure and distribution of leachate within a landfill has been investigated. Strong correlations between red edge inflection position and chlorophyll and metal concentration have been demonstrated from grassland species affected by leachate contamination of the soil adjacent to the landfill study site. The results of this study have demonstrated how recent advances in equipment, techniques and software mean that field-based reflectance spectroscopy and Ground Penetrating Radar can now provide environmental scientists with cost-effective, rapid techniques to characterise landfill sites in three dimensions, aid landfill managers in positioning additional boreholes and field sampling surveys, and provide data as inputs to leachate migration modelling. KEY WORDS: England, landfill, leachate, ground-penetrating radar, reflectance, spectroscopy

Recent years have seen a rapid rise in the political saliency of the ever growing volumes of municipal waste produced in the UK. In this paper, we examine how one particular part of the municipal waste stream - biodegradable waste - has come under the policy spotlight. As targets to divert biodegradable waste from landfill under the Landfill Directive come into force, the need to focus explicitly on recovering value from biodegradable materials has risen up national and local policy agendas, not least with the introduction of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme. Accompanying this new rationality for managing waste has been a suite of different policy interventions. In this paper we examine the impact of the changing nature of municipal waste policy and the ways in which it has sought to rework the disposal and collection of biodegradable waste. We argue that the predominantly technical framing and instrumental rationality of these interventions does not sufficiently challenge entrenched understandings regarding the boundaries between public and private responsibility for waste, and thus short-circuits their capacity to engage with everyday community/individual waste practices. In conclusion, we suggest that, in order to move waste management towards sustainability, there is a need both to engage with the institutional and infrastructural dimensions of the systems of provision within which waste management occurs, and to take seriously the everyday contexts within which making waste is practiced. KEY WORDS: North-East England, waste management, biodegradable municipal waste, everyday practice, public participation, governance

The effectiveness of institutional arrangements and policies for governance has become a key question within the sustainability paradigm. The term Coastal Partnerships' describes a variety of arrangements in the UK that bring together interested stakeholders to coastal management (ICM). This paper considers the unique role, achievements and challenges facing local Coastal Partnerships in the UK. The paper examines empirical evidence of how Coastal Partnerships are contributing to sustainable coastal management. The first section considers their shortfalls, the second section their achievements, and the final section discusses their potential role in the context f the evolving policy framework. The policy drivers include European Directives, the reform of the Terrestrial Planning System, and proposals for Marine Spatial Planning through a UK Marine Bill. The authors present a blueprint for the future of Coastal Partnerships, based on this policy analysis. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate in geographical literature on how the scale and structure of governance can be best organised to deliver local sustainability. KEY WORDS: coastal partnerships, integrated coastal management (ICM), coastal and marine policy, governance, evaluation, UK

An in-depth analysis of the report, The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change by economist Nicholas Stern, is presented. The issue of whether the benefits of decisive actions to slow global warming far outweigh the cost of not acting is discussed.

The article examines the eStern Review on the Economics of Climate Change,E by Nicholas Stern. The questions on how much and how fast governments should react to global warming threats depends on the assumption of the near-zero time discount rate combined with utility function. Graphs on the optimal carbon tax in alternative runs and rate of return on capital in alternative runs are presented.

The article critically examines the WEEE Regulations in the UK in detail. The implications of the implementation of the WEEE Regulations for businesses, along with the complexities and practical problems are elaborated.

The usage of bio fuels in European transportation sector is discussed by focusing on Germany and the United Kingdom.

The regulatory components that affect city soundscapes in Europe and the UK are discussed. It is demonstrated that there are factors such as context, source, distance, temporariness and control over noise, which people take into account when deciding whether they want to see a particular sound eliminated from their soundscape.

A comparative analysis of the local climate change policy in Germany and the UK is presented. The European Union (EU) policies, financial crises and the political challenges of implementing climate change policies have changed the capacity for local intervention, with significant consequences for medium- and long-term goals for climate protection.

A critical analysis of the future impact of Environmental Liability Directive in the UK and the issues covering implementation of the Directive in the UK is presented. The new Environmental Liability Directive would significantly increase the environmental risks for UK companies operating throughout the European Union (EU) and if the UK decides to adopt more stringent measures than those contained in the Directive it would defeat the level playing field within the EU and might encourage some UK operators to move to other EU countries.

The economic and environmental implications of negotiated climate change agreements, which are aim at reducing pollution rate in climate in United Kingdom are presented.

The possibility of re-emergence of the UK eco-action is discussed by examining the theory that re-engagement with 'single issue' environmental protests is a likely direction for the UK direct action movement. There is an evidence of mobilization potential, which is inactive but susceptible, and campaigns that focus on eco-action in the UK.

Public reactions to environmental tax reforms in the United Kingdom and suggestions to improve the tax design are discussed.

In an increasingly dangerous and uncertain world, preparedness, at all levels, for a range of threats is a key aspect of effective emergency management and of public reassurance. Preparedness is [...]

A study examining the technical possibility of accomplishing the reductions of carbon dioxide emissions in excess of 60% in UK's housing stock by 2050 is presented.

The impact of environmental regulations on UK manufacturing industries, to control air pollution, is examined.

Abstract A recent Department of Health funded project investigating carbon monoxide (CO) levels in homes found one home with CO concentrations above World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline levels. The source [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2004.11.011 Byline: R. Woodard, M. Bench, M.K. Harder Abstract: Local authorities in the UK have been set challenging new targets for recycling household waste for 2003/4. This means many of them are urgently trying to determine which parameters in kerbside schemes are most important for increasing recycling rates. In this work information from previous kerbside schemes was used to plan significant improvements in an existing scheme in Horsham District, UK, and a trial was conducted using 1000 homes including a control group. It used fortnightly collection of residual waste with sets of recyclables collected on alternate weeks. The new scheme resulted in improvements of participation rates from 72 to 84%, and set-out rates from 45 to 59% (falling to 76 and 50% respectively, some months later). Details on participation and set-out for different groups of materials are given, as well as levels of excess waste and participation in the collection of garden waste. Author Affiliation: Waste and Energy Research Group (WERG), University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK Article History: Received 30 January 2004; Revised 5 November 2004; Accepted 9 November 2004

The study highlights alternative and renewable forms of energy sources like biofuels, solar energy, nuclear energy and others to minimize the carbon emissions in United Kingdom (UK) in order to achieve the target of 60% fall in carbon emission by the year 2050. The other factors that needs to be given importance in order to have low carbon emissions viz. judicious use of energy, decreased cost of low-carbon energy supplies to manufacturers, behavioral changes in people and others have been discussed

The U.K. government is making efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in industrialized countries. The 2003 Energy White Paper is a step towards developing a stronger energy economy. To efficiently meet its goals the government should implement energy policy that would reduce rate of consumption of fossil fuel and move towards using renewable energy resources.

The Sixth Environment Action Programme 2001-2010 by the Economic Union to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol is examined.

The UK will introduce in 2004 a system of tradable permits for the landfill of municipal waste, in response to an EU directive setting limits on such activity. Tradable permits are becoming an increasingly popular method of dealing with some environmental issues--for example, sulphur dioxide (S[O.sub.2]) emissions in the USA. This paper describes the background to the landfill proposals and provides an analysis of how the permit system might work. Estimates are made of the possible savings in compliance costs of a permit system compared with a conventional 'command-and-control' approach. These estimates are subject to a considerable degree of uncertainty, related to factors discussed in the paper. JEL classification: D00, H23, Q20.