In January 2009, household product maker Recycline will begin accepting used Brita pitcher filters. The company, founded in 1996, collects plastic marked number 5 (polypropylene plastic), recycling it into Preserve brand toothbrushes, cups, cutting boards, mixing bowls and other personal care and kitchen products.

Recycline's Gimme 5 program accepts any number 5 plastic through the mail, and beginning in January the company will have drop-off bins at select Whole Foods Markets, where customers will be able to leave any number 5 plastics, including Brita pitcher filters.

The plastic from the filter's casing will be used to make Preserve products, and the filter parts - activated carbon and ion-exchange resin - will be regenerated for alternative use or converted into energy.

Since January this year, the activist Take Back the Filter campaign has been pushing Brita to recycle used filters in North America. The campaign collected almost 550 filters, and plans to deliver them to Brita in January.

In North and South America, Brita is run by Clorox. In the rest of the world, Brita is a separate company headquartered in Germany, and has been recycling household filters in Europe since 1992. Consumers return filters to dealers or distributors, which send the filters to Brita. The company has its own recycling department, which grinds the plastic down into granulate and provides it to the plastic industry for reuse. The activated carbon is returned to its manufacturer, which reactivates it or reuses it for wastewater treatment. Brita keeps the ion-exchange resin, regenerating it to its full performance capacity and reusing it in filters.

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The report claims that while there remain a number of significant obstacles to widespread adoption of the technology, marine energy is the most reliable source of renewable energy and the UK is one of the best areas in the world for harnessing its power.

"The UK is a clear leader in the sector, both in terms of support to the sector and in terms of activity," the report says, adding that if wave and tidal systems continue to be developed at their current rates, approximately 3GW could be installed in Europe by 2020 - much of it by UK companies.

It also claims that up to half of Europe's wave power could be generated from UK waters where strong tides and long stretches of coast line help make deployments commercially viable.

However, Frost and Sullivan warn that a number of obstacles need to be overcome before widescale adoption can happen in the UK.

The report notes that any electricity generated from current projects is predicted to cost €0.1 (£0.08) per KWh, more than double the price for UK grid electricity. Consequently, it recommends that proposed feed-in tariffs are extended to cover marine energy projects to guarantee developers improved returns.

It also warns that high start up costs, difficulties in connecting offshore projects to the grid, and a skills shortage are all hampering expansion of the sector.

The report recommends that knowledge transfer schemes be set up with offshore wind firms as well as offshore oil drilling firms to help accelerate development of marine energy technologies.

"In a number of areas there is a direct transfer of technology possible (for example monopile foundations for offshore wind and marine current turbines); in others it is the expertise and experience that could be transferred," says the report.

The United Kingdom Energy Research Council (UKERC) has targets to install 2GW of marine energy by 2020, while The Carbon Trust believes that about 2.8GW of tidal projects can be installed in the UK. And although there are no government targets for marine energy as yet, a number of projects have received funding in the past year.

The report comes as the Crown Estate yesterday invited initial proposals for the first round of commercial marine power sites to be located in the Pentland Firth, to the north of Scotland and the surrounding waters.

The Round 1 leasing programme is aimed at delivering 700MW of new offshore wave and tidal power by 2020.

The initial devices are expected to be full size demonstration devices deployed in small arrays. Should they prove successful, full commercial scale turbines could be deployed - although experts warned such a move would require significant investment to enhance Northern Scotland's electricity grid.

Rob Hastings, The Crown Estate's director of the marine estate, said the UK must take its chance to be a world leader in marine technology.

"In this country, we are widely recognised as having both the technological lead and some of the best wave and tidal resources in the world," he said. "It is essential that this technology is given every opportunity to thrive here, in our waters, to the benefit of the environment, the energy industry, and the wider economy."

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Speaking at the release of a disappointing set of results for the six months to 28 September that saw profits decline 50 per cent, chief executive Bill Coley said it was vital that the company's plans to build new reactors were accelerated.

British Energy, which is awaiting shareholder approval for a £12.4bn takeover bid from French energy giant EDF, is planning to build four new reactors and hopes to have the first site online by 2017.

Coley said that talks with local communities about the potential sites for the new reactors were underway, but added that if the UK was serious about transitioning towards a low-carbon economy, it was essential that actual work at the sites commenced as soon as possible.

"I think it's really important that the country gets on with this," he said. "We have a very old generating fleet and the UK needs new capacity."

Coley added that without a new generation of reactors the UK would struggle to deliver deep cuts in carbon emissions. "We can't meet our climate change obligations without nuclear. It's just got to be done," he said.

Earlier this week, recently appointed energy minister Mike O'Brien reiterated the government's commitment to delivering a "renaissance" in nuclear power, arguing that it represented a " crucial part" of the country's climate change policy.

He added that the government now wanted other companies besides EDF and British Energy to come forward with proposals for new reactors. "We want to build a UK-based nuclear enterprise and capacity," he said. "The creation of the new Office of Nuclear Development and the Nuclear Development Forum shows our ambition to build the know-how and delivery in the UK."

However, his comments were overshadowed somewhat by reports earlier this week that the government has been warned that legal challenges to the planning approval process could lead to delays of "a year or more".

Meanwhile, EDF sought to downplay suggestions that the poor financial performance of British Energy - which was partly attributed to a large repair bill for its ageing reactors - meant its £12.4bn takeover bid overvalued the company.

The energy giant said the deal would give it a long-term presence in a UK nuclear sector that is likely to grow in importance over the coming decades.

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It's time for the government to take a new approach toward issues such as energy independence and broadband adoption, after recent years have shown that private efforts are not enough, said Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and CEO, said during a speech in Washington, D.C.

The economic bailout plans now being debated in the US Congress should focus on rewarding innovation and putting people to work by building broadband or energy-grid infrastructure, instead of propping up bad investments, said Schmidt, who has served as an economic adviser to US President-elect Barack Obama.

"To address our economic problems and create jobs, we need to put innovation first," Schmidt said. Out-of-work contractors could be put to work building a smart energy grid or broadband infrastructure, he added.

Schmidt decried US government policies of the last eight years, which in his eyes have relied on the private sector to fix many ills. It's time to look for new ways for government and private businesses to work with each other to address problems, he said.

His ideas, however, will likely face opposition from lawmakers concerned with federal deficits; at one point Schmidt talked about $10 billion just for tax incentives for alternative energy companies.

But the US is facing a major crisis in energy, with dwindling oil supplies and global warming that could cause significant problems "in our lifetime," said Schmidt, speaking at an event sponsored by the New America Foundation, a think tank focused on broadband, wireless and other issues. "We're at the point where we've got to get this right," he said.

Schmidt talked about Google's plan to wean the US off fossil fuels by 2030. He called on the US government to tie any bailouts of the US auto industry to fuel economy standards, and for more states to follow California's lead and create regulatory incentives for power companies to save energy.

If US automakers began to produce plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, customers could double their gas mileage, he said. Some research has shown that through hybrid power and lighter materials, vehicles could increase gas mileage by a factor of 30, Schmidt said. Those technologies need to be put into action to wean the US from its addiction to foreign oil, he said.

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London's Mayor has pledged to give £15,000 to a group planning to mount a legal challenge against a third runway at Heathrow.

Boris Johnson is contributing to the money being raised for possible court proceedings by the 2M Group - a coalition of more than 20 local authorities in Greater London and Berkshire.

The group says it is concerned about the impact that increased air and noise pollution from another runway will have on its four million residents.

Transport secretary Geoff Hoon is expected to approve BAA's plans for a third runway next month.

It is expected to be built by 2030, expanding the number of flights going through the airport from 480,000 to 700,000 a year.

A spokesperson for the Mayor told edie that Mr Johnson will support a legal challenge if it is shown that the proper decision making process has not been followed by Government.

She said: "The Mayor is anxious to ensure that the concerns of Londoners whose environment would be affected by a further expansion of Heathrow are fully addressed.

"He is also keen that a thorough examination of the long-delayed results of the Government's consultation and environmental tests takes place."

Mr Johnson has previously said he is opposed to the expansion of Heathrow because of the likely impact of noise and air pollution.

Members of the 2M Group took their arguments to Edinburgh on Tuesday, as the Scottish Parliament held an inquiry into the possibility of a new high speed rail network linking England and Scotland.

Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister, who was part of the delegation, said: "Any government faced with decisions on expanding airports in the South East should be making a comparison with the potential economic benefits to the rest of the UK from investment in high speed rail and the savings in carbon emissions.

"It's not just the extra aircraft noise that will be so damaging for people living under the Heathrow flight path, it's the added congestion on local roads and worsening air pollution."

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The bill is now expected to receive its final vote this week and is on track to receive Royal Assent on 27 November, making the UK the first country to feature legally binding emission reduction targets on the statute book.

Green groups had expressed fears that the bill - which includes a recently upgraded target to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and incorporate aviation and shipping - would allow successive governments to meet the targets by buying large numbers of carbon offset credits from projects in the developing world, rather than focusing on action within the UK.

A number of peers, including Labour lords Whitty and Puttnam, and both opposition spokesmen on energy and climate change Lords Taylor of Holbeach and Lord Teverson, raised concerns about the role imported credits could play.

In a letter to a newspaper yesterday they warned: "Relying sufficiently on emission reductions which take place overseas could influence long-term investment decisions here in the UK, particularly in the power sector, locking the country into high-carbon economy for years to come, when the overwhelming need is to tackle climate change, develop clean technologies and benefit from the growth in green jobs."

However, in a surprise move the government last night acted to alleviate concerns over imported carbon credits, tabling an amendment that will allow the independent climate change committee to recommend a cap on the extent to which imported credits can count towards the target as part of their five-year carbon budgets.

"The bill makes it plain that we are committed to taking domestic action to cut emissions and the energy bill and the planning bill further underline that, " said a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change. "However, the government recognised there are concerns [about imported credits] and this amendment makes it clear that it is serious about tackling carbon emissions at home."

In another surprise move, the government also beefed up its plans for a feed-in tariff, increasing the size on installation that can sell energy to the grid at above-market prices from three to five megawatts.

The move was welcomed by Leonie Greene of the Renewable Energy Association, who said that it would make it easier for community-scale renewable energy projects to attract investment.

"Some community-scale projects found the administrative burden under the Renewables Obligation [funding scheme] pretty high, while they also found it difficult to get attractive power purchasing deals as they are so small compared to infrastructure projects," she explained. "Allowing these projects to access the feed-in tariff should make it easier for them to get good prices and that should help open them up to a wider range of investors who did not always understand the RO."

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Many of these initiatives don't require a lot of money or time.

Deciding where to begin, however, can be the hardest part. With so many ideas floating around, it can feel overwhelming to decide on the best place to start so we spoke to green business owners and consultants to get their favorite high-impact, low cost and easy-to-implement green initiatives.

Get a Baseline

"You can't reduce what you don't measure first," declares Allison Hannon, Midwestern regional manager for The Climate Group, a non-profit organisation that helps companies and governments address global warming issues.

Measuring your carbon footprint may sound too complex to tackle, but there are many easy free tools available that companies can use to get a quick measure of their carbon emissions, says Tommy Linstroth, director of sustainability for Melavar, a sustainable real estate development company based in Savannah, Ga.

He suggests going to Climate Leaders, an EPA program for climate change initiatives that offers greenhouse gas emission tracking tools along with guidance on how to set carbon reduction goals.

"You don't need a dedicated climatologist to do this," Linstroth says. "If you can use an Excel spreadsheet, you can use these tools. All you need is information on your gas, electricity and auto usage and it will convert the data for you."

Once you measure your carbon footprint, you can identify the areas with the greatest impact and biggest potential for change. Electricity use and employee commuting may represent the largest impacts and reduction opportunities in an office building, while landfill waste and freight can represent the best areas for a factory operation to address.

"Then you can look for the quick hits - those initiatives that take the shortest time and have a quick payback," Hannon says, "so people can see the results and get excited about what they are going to do next."

Dumpster Dive

"If you want people to think about the waste they produce every day, show it to them," advises Jim Hartzfeld, managing director for Interface Raise, the sustainable consulting unit of Interface, the Atlanta, Ga.-based floor covering manufacturer.

When Interface started talking about becoming a more environmentally friendly and sustainability-focused business back in the early '90s, Hartzfeld says everyone thought they were crazy. "But no one could argue with the idea of reducing waste," he says. "We just needed a way to make it visible."

So, Hartzfeld picked a day to pull all of the dumpsters into the parking lot and empty them out. He then had employees wade through the trash to see what they were throwing away and categorise it into piles. They found plastic containers, broken wooden pallets and dozens of other materials that had the potential for reuse.

"It got us talking about how we could keep these materials from becoming waste by using them in some productive way," he said.

Build a Garbage Web

Showcasing waste can be done just as easily inside an office, Hartzfeld says.

After Interface employees left work one night, his team dumped all office trashcans into the reception area. They strung all recyclable materials from the ceiling with fishing line and paper clips, creating a three dimensional web of trash that employees had to walk through to get to their desks.

"It was a way to make their waste visible and cause people to recoil," he says, noting that the company followed this activity up with education about recycling and its impact on the amount of waste sent to landfills.

"It had a powerful impact," he says.

Slow Your Flow

We've all heard about - and hopefully implemented - high efficiency light bulbs in our offices. This is the first, and arguably easiest, green decision a company can make. It's easy to do, it has a direct impact on energy savings and the return on investment (ROI) is seen in a matter of months.

But did you know you can make the same kind of change to your bathroom faucets and you'll see an even shorter ROI?

"The flow rate on most bathroom faucets is 2.2 gallons per minute," Linstroth says. "That's the same amount of water you use to take a shower. It's a ridiculous and unnecessary overuse."

Melavar replaced all of its bathroom faucet aerators - which control water flow - with 0.5 gallon per minute versions, although Linstroth notes that aerators come in a range of flow rates. Aerators cost $2 to $3 and are screwed right on to the faucet, making them as easy to change as a light bulb.

"For $3 per faucet, we curtailed our water use by 50 to 75 per cent," says Linstroth. "If every employee washes their hands three times a day, that's a substantial amount of water savings over a year - this is a no-brainer."

Drive Change

When it conducted an audit of its greenhouse gas emissions, Melavar discovered that one of its biggest culprits was gasoline use for its employees to get to and from work. To combat its impact, Linstroth's group launched a series of incentives around commuting.

To encourage car-pooling, the company partnered with Atlanta's Clean Air Campaign, which enters car-poolers into monthly drawings for gift cards. It also designated preferential parking closest to the building for car-pool and hybrid vehicles. Neither of these programs cost anything to implement.

The company, however, does offer an incentive program of up to $4,000 to help employees purchase hybrid vehicles.

"There's no direct payback for this program but it demonstrates our commitment to the employees and the environment," Linstroth says. "It's our way of rewarding people for changing their commuting behavior."

Turn Waste into Profit

When you think about the waste your company produces, look beyond conventional recycling as a means to an end, suggests Bill Hoffman, of the Waste to Profit Network. Waste to Profit is a Chicago-based waste synergy network that matches companies that have or need raw materials to share that which would otherwise be thrown away.

"We bring people together from different industries who wouldn't normally talk to each other and we get them talking about how they can work together," he says.

Through community meetings and a network database, companies develop partnerships to share and repurpose their waste. For example, a snowplow manufacturer uses old rubber tires to make parts for its snowplow blades. There's also a countertop manufacturer who uses difficult-to-recycle waste from a specialty coated glass manufacturer for a custom line of countertops.

Shawn Kingzette, a certified arborist at Care for Trees in Chicago, made a similar connection after seeing his customers' reactions after cutting down their trees because of disease or storm damage.

"Trees are important to people and they are often sad to lose them," he says. Instead of tossing the dead trees into a chipper, he sends them to a local miller who either uses them to make furniture, or cuts and returns the wood to the original owner, for a price, so they can hang on to the memories - and the carbon - that are locked into the wood.

"The broader lesson in this is to analyse your waste and determine if there is a better use for it," Kingzette says.

When he cuts down trees that don't have sentimental value, he converts them to wood chips that he can sell for landscaping, which retains the carbon in the material for several more years.

"It makes good business sense for me, and as long as the material stays in wood form, that carbon is trapped," he says.

Get Everyone Involved

All the experts agree that employee involvement is critical to making any long-term green initiative a success. The best way to do that is to make it fun, says Christina Page, director of climate and energy at Yahoo.

The company began trying to make green initiatives fun on Earth Day in 2007, when Yahoo challenged employees to reduce their energy consumption 20 per cent within a week.

The incentive? "If they achieved that goal, the co-founders promised to sumo wrestle on the front lawn," Page says.

Yahoo's newly formed green team banded together to offer information and education leading up to the event, and reminded people throughout the week to carpool, turn off lights and shut down computers at the end of the day.

"It was an easy, fun, creative way for people to get involved," says Page, who was hired on Earth Day 2007 and watched the founders in full sumo suits wrestle on the campus lawn. "That made a lasting impression on me," she adds.

Since then, Yahoo's green team, with now more than 300 volunteer members, has launched dozens of creative green initiatives, including a "chuck the cup" program where volunteers handed out mugs to employees to reduce disposable cup use. "On a typical day at the Yahoo campus people threw away 4,000 cups a day," Page notes.

To illustrate this, one Yahoo employee built a series of sculptures that were each made out of 124 discarded cups she'd retrieved from garbage cans and glued together. The resulting exhibit was displayed in front of the main building like a series of giant space mushrooms.

"Each dome represents how many cups are thrown away every 15 minutes on the Yahoo campus," Page says, noting that the statues garnered such a positive response that the green team has reused them several times at locations around the campus. "It's like a guerilla art installment that lets people visualise their waste," she says.

Don't Forget Your Customers

Encouraging and rewarding customers for participating in environmental programs, such as paperless billing or using cloth bags over plastic, can help companies reduce their environmental impacts and foster loyalty among environmentally savvy consumers.

An innovative example of this strategy was recently implemented by London-based retailer Marks & Spencer, which launched a partnership last month with Scottish and Southern Energy. Called M&S Energy to encourage customers to reduce their energy usage, the program rewards customers who sign up to receive advice on ways to reduce energy use. Those who reduce their annual energy usage by 10 per cent in the first year will receive a £15 M&S voucher. Customers also receive vouchers for both signing up and opting for paperless billing.

"The energy sector can be quite complex and we want to make it simpler for our customers," says Carl Leaver, director of international, home and M&S Direct. "We also understand that the cost of living has risen for many customers and we hope to encourage them to save money by reducing their energy usage, as well as giving M&S store vouchers as rewards for doing so."

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The talks were ahead of the December 1st deadline when each company will have to show their prices are fair and that they are not over-charging pre-pay meter users.

Representatives from British Gas, E.On, EDF, Npower, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy all met with the politician.

Speaking about the meeting a Department for Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: "The government and the industry agreed on the need to bring down retail gas and electricity prices.

They added: "The meeting also recognised the significant investment needs of the industry and the extreme volatility we have seen in energy prices in the last 12 months."

Figures from the Alliance Trust suggest gas prices have increased by more than 50 per cent over the last year and electricity bills have risen by more than 30 per cent.

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Ninety-six per cent of bathing waters met the minimum European standards this year, according to tests carried out by the Environment Agency.

A total of 272 of England's 414 designated bathing waters, or 65.7%, met the UK's even stricter standards.

But the picture is less rosy in the south west. Of the 16 areas that failed to meet the minimum standards, 10 were in the south west.

Experts are blaming the heavy rainfall that hit the region this summer for washing agricultural and urban pollution into bathing waters.

In a statement, Defra said: "Defra is working with farmers to reduce water pollution from agricultural sources, through the Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative and the Nitrate Action Programme.

"Dealing with diffuse water pollution is a difficult job, as it has a huge variety of sources and Defra is looking at a number of ways of tackling the problem."

But the Environment Agency called on farmers, local authorities and the water industry to do more to prevent pollution.

Paul Leinster, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said: "Changing weather conditions are presenting new challenges and we will continue to work closely with the farming community, local authorities and the water industry to tackle the sources of water pollution."

Water UK, which represents the UK water industry, said: "The water industry is committed to continuing maintenance of its assets so that they can continue to contribute to the high quality of bathing water quality society has come to expect.

"However the major improvement needed in future should focus on diffuse pollution by other sectors, particularly with the increasing threat of climate change."

Bathing water quality has been steadily improving over the past decade. In 1998, only 89.9% of England's bathing waters met EU standards. This rose to a record 99.5% in 2006.

More information on bathing water quality can be found here.

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The Local Government Association (LGA) has asked the government to allow mounting collections of recyclable materials from scrap cars to plastic bottles to be stored on Ministry of Defence sites.

Councils and municipal sorting facilities are facing difficulty selling recyclable products on to reprocessors as a result of the financial downturn and the LGA wants to use MoD sites to store it until the market recovers.

Existing depots are full and unless space can be filled to store the material, recycling collection could grind to a halt.

Paul Bettison, chairman of the LGA environment board said: "In the past, the Ministry of Defence has stored mail during postal strikes. If we can start building a mountain of scrap iron, then we can sell it when the recyclable market returns, but we need somewhere to stockpile material."

The called followed news earlier this month that recycling and composting in the UK had risen to 34.5 per cent in 2007/08 from 30.9 in 2006/07.

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