Co. Offaly mushroom farmers whose 30-year-old business was devastated almost overnight in 2016, due to the UK’s decision to pursue Brexit, have found light at the end of a different kind of mushroom tunnel.

With political chaos brewing in Northern Ireland because of trade rules, a related threat means that post-Brexit UK market rules could stop Scotland setting higher environmental standards than other parts of the UK.

In the 1990s almost all rubbish in the UK went to landfill. Today nearly half of household waste is recycled, thanks to EU legislation.

As part of its continuous effort to transform Europe's economy into a more sustainable one and to implement the ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan, in January 2018 the European Commission adopted a new set of measures.