At the heart of the recycling philosophy is that consumers should buy less. Some companies are working towards that end

High street retail used to be easy. The idea was to get punters through the door, sell them as much stuff as possible and then persuade them back for more. That basic model still stands. But now there's a subtle difference. When shoppers do come back, retailers are happy for them to bring their old purchases with them.

Take Puma. Pop into any of its sports' apparel outlets in Germany and you'll find big, red recycling boxes on prominent display. So consumers suffer no confusion, the boxes are imprinted with catchy thought bubbles. "Break me down, Baby," suggests a black trainer. "Give me a good send off," exhorts a baseball cap.

Japanese car manufacturer, Honda Motor Co. (NYSE:HMC) and the Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., are to extract rare earth metals from various used parts in Honda products, in a mass-production process at a recycling plant.   According to Honda the facility will be the first of its kind in the world to extract rare earth metals as part of a mass-production process at a recycling plant, and will utilise a newly established process for the recycling of rare earth metals.   The company said that working with Japan Metals & Chemicals, by the end of this month it will begin extracting rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected by Honda dealers both inside and outside of Japan from the company's hybrid vehicle batteries.

Honda said that it had been applying a heat treatment to used nickel-metal hydride batteries and recycling nickel-containing scrap as a raw material of stainless steel.

However, the company added that the successful stabilisation of the extraction process at Japan Metals & Chemicals plant has made e the extraction of rare earth metals in a mass-production process possible, while maintaining purity as high as that of newly mined and refined metals.   The new process is said to enable the extraction of as much as above 80%

The Environmental Services Association (ESA), the voice of the UK's waste management industry, has responded to Defra’s ‘Progress with delivery of commitments from the Government’s Review of Waste Policy in England (2011)’ which was released today.

ESA’s Director of Policy, Matthew Farrow, said:“ESA welcomes the publication outlining the progress made since the launch of the Action Plan, which is a reminder both of the range of initiatives required to deliver a more resource efficient society and of the fact that many of the actions are being taken forward by stakeholders rather than Government alone.

The Environmental Services Association (ESA), the voice of the UK's waste management industry, has welcomed the Department for Communities and Local Government’s ‘National Planning Policy Framework’ which was released today. ESA’s Planning Advisor, Stephen Freeland, said:

“ESA welcomes publication of the Government’s overarching planning policy – the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – which rightly places sustainable development at the heart of the planning system.

Chelsea Technologies Group is addressing the challenges of effective monitoring of rivers, estuaries and coastal regions against outflow events from waste water treatment works and farm slurry. These challenges have been driven by the EU Bathing Waters Directive, which will introduce new tighter regulation in 2015. In addition, these new in-situ sensors have direct applications within waste water treatment works, which can benefit from improved efficiencies in direct effluent monitoring.

The CTG UviLux Effluent fluorimeter enables in-situ real-time reporting of levels of sewage and BOD within both natural water systems and water processing plants. By use of UV fluorescence, the UviLux Sewage Monitor detects protein which is inherent within sewage and slurry and provides a means of assessing concentrations of sewage and slurry in solution with unparalleled accuracy and resolution. The principle behind the measurement is based on fluorescence excitation of Tryptophan-like fluorescence, within the UV wavelength band. Use of such fluorescence provides signal detection far superior to absorption methods currently in use. Studies have shown that use of such fluorescence provides robust and repeatable measurements of sewage and slurry solutions, and correlates with both BOD and bacterial contamination.

Battery producers have narrowly missed their interim target to collect 18% of waste portable batteries for recycling in 2011, according to Environment Agency data.  And, despite significant progress being made in recent years, producer compliance schemes arranging collections for the batteries sector have warned that collection rates could ‘level out’ unless further investment is made.

The 2011 target is not legally-binding but a 25% target for 2012 is mandatory.

The data, released on the Environment Agency’s National Packaging Waste Database, shows that 39,609 tonnes of portable batteries were placed on the market in 2011 by the large producers who are obligated under the Batteries Regulations to fund the collection, treatment and recycling of waste portable batteries.

A STATE-OF-THE-ART recycling centre has reopened in East Grinstead.

Imberhorne Lane Household Waste and Recycling Site was closed in March 2011 for a major refurbishment.

The £1.6million project was due to open last autumn, but a series of unexpected obstacles caused lengthy delays.

These were caused by the discovery of underground structures – foundations and drains – and soil contamination.

The NHS needs to save £20bn, so making ends meet is going to be tricky and big changes will be needed.

Dr David Pencheon, director of the national NHS Sustainable Development Unit, says recycling medicine could be part of the answer.

The cuts facing the NHS are like you or I losing around 20% of our salary over the next three years - while trying to lead the same sort of lifestyle.

We'd have to make some big changes. And that's exactly what the NHS will have to do, particularly if it wants to keep improving the quality of patient care.