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The gate fees charged for a wide range of waste and recycling treatment facilities have steadily risen from 2007 to 2010 despite the recession, according to WRAP's third annual Gate Fees Report.

Defra estimates that 7.6 million tonnes of food and drink is wasted in the UK every year with 5.1 million tonnes of this avoidable: slightly lower than the 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink previously estimated to be wasted in the UK by WRAP.

Slides from the webinar.  Access the recording here, and post any questions in the forum thread here.

A consultation document issued jointly by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Under the Directive, which must be transposed into UK law by December 12 2010, member states must set up separate collections of "at least" paper, plastic, glass and metal by 2015, as well as taking measures to ensure "high quality recycling".

This report sets out the views of Green Alliance's Designing Out Waste consortium, who argue that the coalition government can help all businesses to improve the environmental impact of the products they sell by providing incentives, in the form of both commercial and policy drivers, to reconfigure their products along greener lines.

The consortium believes that business can play an important and proactive role, but that the ability to play this role depends on strong leadership and direction from government to encourage cooperation and coordination across product supply and waste management chains to deliver a common approach and provide the right incentives.

Read Hannah Hislop's opinion piece here

Part 2 - Technical SolutionsProvides technical summary sheets on a range of design solutions for civil engineering projects.

Part 1 - Design GuideProvides the case for action, details the principles of Designing out Waste, and offers a structured approach to implementation in civil engineering projects.

Main Points

•  The roundtable discussion examined food waste ideas and issues on both micro andmacro scales

•  There are emotional issues associated with food waste issues, such as engagementand encouragement of employees to segregate food waste at the source. More clarity is required to ensure the business community engages with these schemes

•  It was concluded that local, stabilised and scalable networks are required to achieveeffective and efficient management of food waste. Local storage is of crucial importance

• The dominant process and technology will only be successful if it is financially viable