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This study investigated the legal performance of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with producer responsibility legislation. The research incorporated legislation controlling packaging and packaging waste, waste electrical and electronic equipment and the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Compliance audits and interviews were conducted with SMEs, regulators, government officials and SME support organisations. A total of 44 SMEs from the north-west of England were audited between April and September 2008. The study's findings suggest: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Geographic proximity is said to be a key characteristic of the resource reuse and recycling practice known as industrial symbiosis. To date, however, proximity of symbiont companies has remained an abstract characteristic. By conducting a statistical analysis of synergies facilitated by the United Kingdom''s National Industrial Symbiosis Programme during their first five years of operation, this article attempts to quantify geographic proximity and in the process provide practitioners with an insight into the movement trends of different waste streams. Among other it was found that the median distance materials travelled within a symbiotic relationship is 20.4 miles. It is argued that quantitative information of this form is of practical value for the effective deployment of industrial symbiosis practitioners and wider resource efficiency planning. The results and discussion presented within this article are specific to industrial symbiosis opportunities facilitated within the United Kingdom; the methodology and assessment of resource movement influences are, however, expected to be relevant to all countries in which industrial activity is similarly mature and diversified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The steel industry has undergone profound changes of late with high profile takeovers (Tata-Corus and Mittal-Arcelor) that are part of a shift of the industry from the global North to the global South. Steel is probably the material of the globalised world with its icons and power horses (the aeroplane, the cargo ship, the automobile), it is extremely flexible in its applications, and fits into the current discourse on 'sustainability' because it is 'recyclable'. Indeed, the industry is keen to stress its 'green' credentials and efficient management of material flows in a context of rising costs, particularly of raw materials. Paradoxically, steel tends to be seen, not least by the social sciences, as an 'old-fashioned' and 'dirty' industry. This paper explores this apparent paradox through the issue of 'waste' management in the industry because it allows an analysis of the multi-dimensional relationships between materials, technologies and practices. Drawing on the resources of social as well as material sciences, the paper analyses to what extent 'waste' management is an issue of objective material properties, in contrast to social and organisational perceptions and practices around materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]