These plans include source segregation and seperation, collection of key recyclable materials such as paper, card, glass, metals and plastic, and a ban on sending all biodegradable waste to landfill.

The Scottish government said it wanted to introduce these ‘radical plans’ to make Scotland one of the highest performing nations for recycling in Europe.

These measures are to be included in Scotland’s Zero Waste Regulations.

Could we ever see Ireland making these steps forward to drive towards zero waste?

Click here to find out more.

Happy Friday.

To meet Tesco’s ‘zero-carbon’ standards, the supermarket has been designed to first curb energy demand and then use onsite renewable energy technologies to ensure that over the course of a year it “transfers as much renewable energy to the National Grid as it uses”. For example, the store features a biomass-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) system to provide electricity, heating and cooling to the store, as well as advanced lighting controls that reduce lighting demand based on the level of sunlight. In addition, special roof lights allow more daylight to reach the shop floor, while efficient refrigeration units and LED lighting technologies have been installed. Bukky Bird, head of engineering and environment for property services at Tesco, said the store was the latest step in an on-going programme to reduce the environmental impact of the company’s stores. “Our zero-carbon stores are designed with both the customer and the environment in mind,” she said in a statement.

Tesco have a goal to building Zero Carbon stores to achieve their goal to becoming a zero-carbon business by 2050. Will they reach this goal by then?

Click here to find out more.

Win a Samsung Galaxy S Plus with Repak

We are so excited about the launch of our new Recyclemore Android app that we are giving away a Samsung Galaxy S Plus to one lucky winner, which has been designed to help you locate you’re nearest recycling facility, bring bank or recycling centre. In conjunction with the 34 Local Authorities we have geo coded 99% of the 2,000 recycling sites nationally. The app uses GPS locator on your iPhone to locate the nearest recycling facilities which can be filtered by material type, recycling facility type (i.e. bring bank or recycling centre), local authority area and location. Also if users don’t have GPS locator on their iPhone they can locate facilities by geographic area. This lists them by name, distance from you, and location. If a site is selected the app will show directions on Google maps to it. To be in with a chance to win visit our Facebook page. To enter just click here.

Happy Holidays from everyone at Repak.

The issue of packaging sustainably is moving forward, according to Europen managing director Julian Carroll.

Speaking at the Ardagh Group’s sustainable packaging event in Paris [19 October], Carroll said: “I think we have moved from the stage where there was a lot of greenwash and there was a lot of misunderstanding.”

He added: “I think at regulatory level and at EU level people are starting to get serious about it.”

He said that that people have not been necessarily pushed with laws but with “encouragement and with programmes”.

Carroll also said that organisations such as Wrap are “forcing people to think about things in a different way” and “in France we have the Grenelle [environment] laws”.

“All these things are forcing people to be more serious about it [sustainability],” he continued.  “So, we are being more serious and we are moving in the right direction.

Carroll also said that firms are cutting through the greenwash and “getting to the facts”.

He explained: “Everyone will always be looking for a good sales pitch and so on but people are looking more closely and the industry has to be accountable to the consumer.”

For more information visit www.packagingnews.co.uk.

Scotland has unveiled ‘radical’ plans to ban recyclables going to landfill to help its drive towards zero waste.

These plans include source segregation and seperate collection of key recyclable materials (paper and card, glass, metals and plastics) and a ban on sending all biodegradable waste to landfill.

Other key measures include:

- Restriction on the inputs to thermal treatment facilities.

- A ban on mixing separately collected recyclable materials.

The Scottish government said it wanted to introduce these ‘radical plans’ to make Scotland one of the highest performing nations for recycling in Europe.

Find out what these measures actually entail of by clicking here. Could we see Ireland adopting this approach in a few years? Let me know what you think.

However, only 32% of these people ever confronted a colleague over their poor recycling habits in the office. Most surprisingly only 33% of people claimed to regularly recycle office paper in the workplace.

A staggering 30% of office workers believe it is not their responsibility to recycle while 29% claim they don’t think about recycling. This is despite the fact that 80% claim to have access to some sort of recycling collection.

So lets get recycling, encourage your colleagues to also recycle and if you see someone not making the effort in work point it out to them. They will probably be more embarrassed than you will be.

In the competition, launched today by the Dutch beer brand, participants will submit their own designs to an online gallery on Heineken’s Facebook Page. They will then join their design with that of another participant to create what Heineken has dubbed a ‘virtual design duo’

The winning team will see their bottle go into production for a limited edition gift pack to celebrate the brands 140th anniversary in December 2012

More details are available on the competition here and looking forward to seeing the ideas that are submitted.

Proctor and Gamble (P&G) has set new environmental targets to reduce its packaging by 20% (per consumer use) by 2020 compared with 2010 levels.

The new target was set by the FMCG giant in its recently published 2011 sustainability report, called commitment to everyday life.

P and G chief executive Robert A McDonald said: ‘We’re confident that the P and G’s size and scale and with our capabilities and partnerships we can make the difference in the world to which we’re committed.”

P and G acknowledged that it would not ‘reach this vision overnight; in fact, it will take decades to achieve.

Great to see large organisations taking their CSR agenda seriously. Click here to find out more.