Day: January 16, 2018

    A British supermarket believes it will be the first retailer in the world to make its own-brand products plastic free within five years. Iceland, the frozen food specialist, says it has worked with environmental charities and experts to develop paper and pulp alternatives that are fully recyclable, affecting more than 1,000 lines. We've created a monster, managing director Richard Walker told Sky News. Plastic does not degrade, it lasts for half a millennium. Every minute there's a truckload of plastic waste entering the ocean. It's ubiquitous, it's in everything, it's in up to 50% of what the average supermarket sells. The time to act is now. Take our ready meals. They are in a board carton sleeve which is good, made of paper, but the problem is the black plasti...

    When the Road Traffic Act 1988 was drawn up, the idea of smartphones and sat nav being commonplace in everyone’s car was still the stuff of science-fiction films. By 2003, things had already changed significantly, requiring an amendment to the Act stating: No person shall drive a motor vehicle on the road if he is using a hand-held mobile telephone to address the growing issue. The changes also made it an offence to send text messages, pictures or use the internet while driving, but using a phone as a sat nav wasn’t specifically outlawed, leaving a legal grey area. Motorists concerned with their use of a smartphone sat-nav app in the car and where best to position a phone or portable sat-nav device while driving need to do even more investigating and may find mixed...

    Drivers in West Yorkshire received the highest number of speeding tickets in Britain during 2017, according to the latest official data. Leasing company UK Carline submitted freedom of information requests to the UK’s police forces and the results revealed which areas have the most instances of speeding, as well as the top speeds people were caught travelling at. West Yorkshire police issued the most speeding tickets during 2017, racking up more than 142,000 offences, just under 80,000 more than Surrey which registered the second highest number of offences, at 62,623. Top 10 police forces issuing speeding tickets in 2017 10) Dorset – 45,344 9) Norfolk – 49,730 8) Humberside – 49,982 7) Lancashire – 51,455 6) Kent – 53,590 5) North Wales – 57,224 4) Dundee – ...

    Although the UK would still be the biggest loser from crashing out of the EU single market and customs union without a new trade deal with a cost to the economy of £125bn by 2020 the EU would also suffer a bigger economic hit than previously thought by the end of the decade, according to the consultancy Oxford Economics. The analysis spells out the negative implications of Brexit for the largest European economies, as ministers prepare for complex negotiations with Brussels over the UK’s future trading relationship with the single market bloc. Although the focus has so far been on the impact for the UK, the report shows the risks for both parties in the event Britain falls back to trading on World Trade Organisation rules, which would lead to greater costs from tra...