This report provides an independent, objective review of the contributing factors to the decreasing return rate of California’s beverage container program. California’s deposit return program is the largest in North America, and the second largest internationally. Well-designed programs currently achieve in excess of an 80% return rate for beverage containers: [...]

This report, commissioned by the Recycling Council of Alberta (RCA), examines the economic value Alberta’s recycling sector brings to the province. The research focuses specifically on job creation, through direct, indirect and induced jobs, as well as tax income, and overall Gross Value Added (GVA), which is the contribution made [...]

Published in September 2019, the seventh edition of the Recycling Carbon Index shows council recycling schemes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland saved CO2 emissions equivalent to over 715,000 return flights between London and Sydney in 2017/18. The annual index uses the most up-to-date waste data to calculate the quantity [...]

This guidance document accompanies a model, commissioned by the Greater London Authority (GLA), which compares London boroughs’ performance against greenhouse gas performance targets. The Ready Reckoner model is a greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator. The tool measures the performance of London boroughs’ against the Emissions Performance Standard (EPS) and carbon intensity [...]

This report for Common Seas uses Plastic Drawdown, a comprehensive tool to support governments in identifying the best policies to mitigate their country’s plastic pollution, to explore the impact of the Resources and Waste Strategy on reducing plastic pollution into UK rivers and seas. The research also compares the impact [...]

This report, commissioned by circular economy NGO Reloop, outlines how the introduction of a deposit return system (DRS) would increase recycling rates and reduce litter in Ontario, Canada. The research also identifies how harmonization with Ontario’s current Blue Box program and deposit return system on alcoholic beverages would provide benefits [...]

This report for the Norwegian Environment Agency maps 19 single-use plastics in Norway to understand the impacts of a move to alternative materials or reusable options with the aim of reducing littering. The research, which also included an analysis of the costs and environmental impacts of switching to alternative materials, [...]

This report for Surfers Against Sewage presents the results of analysis of data on branded items collected and reported by volunteers during the 2019 Big Spring Beach Clean. A total of 49,413 items were collected from UK beaches between the 6th and 14th of April 2019. 20,045 of these were [...]

This report for WRAP acts as a guide to setting up Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Waste and Recycling Drop-Off Centres for local authorities. C&I drop-off centres allow small and medium enterprises to recycle a range of materials that they may be unable to afford on a collection-only basis. This report [...]

This report for DG Environment examines the cost to EU Member States of the non-implementation of EU environmental law. The report, which was co-authored by our policy experts alongside consultancy COWI, estimates that the implementation gap between the level of implementation of environmental law in 2018 and current EU targets [...]