• Worries over IPPC rigour

  Consultants and inspectors are concerned that the drive to speed up IPPC permitting is undermining transparency and rigour

• £450m bill for diffuse pollution

  Water companies will spend up to £450 million to remove nitrate and pesticide pollution from drinking water between 2005 and 2010

Waste management

• Wrexham waste clean-up

  Thousands of abandoned drums of chemical waste have finally been cleared from a Wrexham recycling site thanks to the persistence of a neighbouring small business

• Irish cattle waste heads to UK

  The Irish government has arranged for nearly 100,000 tonnes of stockpiled meat and bone meal to be incinerated in England

• Blow on combustion plant

  The European Commission has challenged the UK's interpretation of the large combustion plants Directive - restricting the scope for coal-fired stations to "opt-out" of acid gas controls

UK policy

• Scotland first on hazwaste

  Scotland has become the first part of the UK to apply the expanded EU hazardous waste list - albeit 30 months behind the EU deadline

• REACH consultation

  The Government has issued a consultation on the controversial REACH regime for chemicals - and has reached some surprising conclusions on the costs and benefits of the scheme

EU policy

• Agreement on Kyoto credits

  The EU's institutions have reached a deal that throws open the door to the use of imported credits in the EU emissions trading scheme

• Landfill Directive hits regeneration scheme
• Land remediation biased towards landfill
• Hard times for pollution control suppliers
• Call for independent N Ireland regulator
• Sellafield discharge saga draws to a close
• Climate challenge for sewer design
• Slow progress on car fuel efficiency
• Bad news on UK's CO₂ disposal
• DTI backs off on oil-well CO₂ disposal
• Chemicals testing behind schedule
• Debate over plan for REACH consortia
• Chemical testing behind schedule
• BT trials rooftop wind power
• Blow for coal mine methane industry

Waste management

• Government moots waste planning rethink
• Hazwaste sites failing HSE standards
• Questions over glass packaging recovery

• MoD objections add to uncertainties over offshore wind
• Advisers' warning on NO₂ pollution
• Total makes progress on pollution prevention
• UKAEA speeds up decommissioning
• First verifiers approved for CDM projects
• Falling dioxin levels in infant food
• Survey of metals in national diet
• UKELA backs action on environmental justice
• NRPB urges adoption of guidelines on EMFs
• Greenergy to build £10m biodiesel plant
• Kent incinerator moves ahead - but Aberdeen is refused

Waste management

• Viridor buys Thames Waste
• Barnet makes recycling compulsory
• Newsprint recycled content rises
• Surfers back sludge to land
• WRAP awards £1million to plastic bottle recycling plant

• Printer cartridge recycling 'threatens reuse'
• Councils fail to buy recycled products
• WRAP on asphalt recycling
• Chinese firms unaware of eco-design rules
• HFCs cling on in fridge market

Parliament

• Air traffic emissions reduction Bill
• Wrangle over WEEE and printer cartridges
• Scottish backlash threatens wind farms
• Goodbye RWMAC, hello CoRWM
• End of year target to ratify HNS Convention
• "Significant" CO₂ penalty from imported biomass
• Emissions allocation plan soaks up resources
• UK bottom of battery collection league
• Blair ducks on environmental reporting

UK policy

• Northern Ireland leads on nitrate
• Bust-up over water abstraction charges
• Agency backs waste burning in cement kilns
• Health Protection Agency and IPPC
• Agency classifies non-compliance
• Scotland leaps ahead on water law
• HSE shifts focus of COMAH reports
• Tough controls on rendering odour

EU policy

• Agreement on air quality Directive
• Chemical sector seeks REACH pilot trial
• MEPs reinstate ban on NiCd batteries
• Commission U-turn on deca-BDE
• Compromise reached on methyl bromide

UK policy

• Commencement of Water Act begins
• Move to halve bathing water sites in Scotland
• Noise and fly-tipping laws in force
• Beefed up role for EMSs under LAPC
• Consultation on LAPC guidance
• Anaerobic digestion to count as composting
• DEFRA spells out PPC definition of 'food'
• Amendment to Scottish PPC regulations
• Updated version of IPPC practical guide
• Increase in fees for local authority regulation

EU policy

• Parliament overhauls mining wastes proposal
• MEPs beef up energy-using products Directive
• Detergents Regulation adopted

• A very British waste problem

• BASF's corporate eco-label

  The world's biggest chemical manufacturer has launched the first corporate labelling scheme for "eco-efficient" products

• Verdict on emissions trading

  The National Audit Office has praised the UK's pioneering emissions trading scheme - but pulls its punches on several of the scheme's serious flaws

• Hazwaste crisis looms

  At the eleventh hour, DEFRA has announced its plans for the 16 July co-disposal deadline - but waste industry executives have grown angry over Whitehall procrastination

• Eco-efficiency analysis and green marketing
• DEFRA's decisions on the waste acceptance criteria

• Southern's sewage penalty

  Southern Water has been ordered to pay penalties of more than £28,000 after being prosecuted twice over sewage pollution

• Habitat protection and planning
• Choosing the 'correct' waste offence
• NHS pays £90,000 for lost caesium
• Anglian fined for water 'like creosote'
• South West Water's consent breaches
• Nature conservation and human rights
• Property firm fined £10,500 for allowing waste dumping
• Concrete pollution costs Daniel Contractors £4,500
• Packaging offences cost meat packer £4,000
• Further fine for tyre dumper
• Dorset brewer fined £12,000 for consent breach
• Fly-tipper fined £15,000
• Landfill offence costs Sita almost £20,000
• "Administrative failure" leads to £3,750 fine
• Yorkshire Water fined £2,400 for sewage overflow