Saffron Walden families can now drop off waste baby food pouches and snack packets locally for recycling for the first time. They can be taken to the public access collection box at the Tesco store in Radwinter Road thanks to a new nationwide scheme.

If you're the proud owner of a coffee machine that uses individually sealed coffee pods to brew a luxury cuppa, listen up! Once you've settled down to enjoy the aroma of your fresh coffee, please give a thought to the disposal of the pods. At Willen Hospice, we have teamed up with George, an eco-champion (aka eco-warrior) from Charity Recycling MK who helps us to collect and recycle used coffee, milk, hot chocolate and tea pods. Together we are raising money for our charity and helping to prevent a small mountain of 'coffee waste' forming at the local tip.

Last night around 500 executives from across the green economy gathered at The Brewery in central London for the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards. It was the most competitive year yet with all the finalists securing praise from the judges. But the winners and highly commended entries were:

With one of the driest Julys on record we have seen a problem in the town exposed to its full extent. Cigarette butts are everywhere. Clearly when it rains they normally get washed through the gutters, down the drains, and straight into the sea, but now they are just lying around waiting. I have been busy with my chalk (but have been asked not to do it any more during the summer months as it looks ‘unsightly’. I might be pedantic and say no more unsightly than the problem I’m highlighting, but if it’s got people talking then maybe I’ve done my job for now…

Here at Locavore we want everything we do to have as little impact on the environment as possible. We aim to think and act in a circular way. This means working strategically across the organisation to ensure the flow of materials is connected – that things are used and reused, that produce from the farm is connected to the cafe via the shop floor, and that we have a strict purchasing ethos which ensures quality, local and ethical items and produce are bought.

Plastic is a versatile material which covers a multitude of products – sometimes quite literally - from plastic bottles to pots and polythene packaging, it can be difficult to know what can be recycled, and where.