DEFRA wants bin fines to become civil sanctions

The government is planning to reform council household waste penalties and introduce civil sanctions

Skip hire boss fined for lacking permit

Magistrates have fined an illegal waste operator based in Northamptonshire £10,000

Northern Ireland bag tax to start at 5p

There will be a charge for single-use plastic carrier bags in Northern Ireland from April 2013

Man sentenced for waste tyre offences

For illegally storing and exporting tyres the Chesterfield man was given a suspended prison sentence and 200 hours of unpaid work

Retailer waste fines slashed on appeal

Fines for dumping waste against West Country firm Trago Mills have been reduced by two thirds

Permit breaches cost waste firm £22k

An illegal scrapyard above an aquifer in Pembrokeshire risked contaminating water supplies

Permit breaches cost aggregates firm £46k

Hastings magistrates have fined a Kent company for multiple landfill permit breaches

Skip firm fined for waste offences

Breaches of waste regulations and the Environmental Protection Act have cost a company over £24,000

Man fined for running illegal waste yard

Waste offences have cost an illegal West Midlands operator more than £12,000 in fines and costs

Investigation into incinerator effects on infant health

HPA researchers will examine whether municipal waste incinerators are linked to still birth and low birth weight

DCLG consults on passing EU fines to local councils

The government has set out its intended process for handing on potential EU fines to councils and other public authorities

Recast WEEE directive sets high collection targets

More waste electrical goods will have to be collected and recycled under changes agreed by the EU

Court judgment on solar cuts threatens feed-in tariff regime

The High Court has ruled that plans to cut subsidies for solar photovoltaic projects are illegal. The government is appealing the decision and it now has a Plan B

Agency secures first pollution civil sanction

The Environment Agency has accepted 27 enforcement undertakings, netting more than £250,000 from companies in donations to green causes

Cuts to Renewables Obligation need rethinking, say trade bodies

Wind, biomass and energy-from-waste projects will be endangered by plans to revise renewables subsidies, trade bodies have warned the government.

Quick links to key documents and reports

• 2 February 2012

  DEFRA provisional quarterly statistics on waste collected by local authorities in England

• 31 January 2012

  Cefas report: Dredged material disposal site monitoring around the coast of England - results of sampling (2010)

• 31 January 2012

  European Commission report: Evolution of (bio-) waste generation and prevention, and (bio-) waste prevention indicators

• 30 January 2012

  WRAP plastic bottle kerbside collection guide