Waste

How to make Halloween less terrifying for the planet

A pair of Jack O'lanterns with candles inside

Synthetic costumes. Plastic decorations. Candy wrappers. Methane-emitting jack-o-lanterns. Like all holidays driven by consumerism, Halloween is a sustainability nightmare.  While the environmental impacts of Halloween are not widely researched, some estimates indicate that up to 83% of Halloween costumes from big-box stores are made from synthetic, oil-based fabrics that are nearly impossible to recycle and wind up in landfills. In the U.S.…

Vaping vs. Smoking vs. Planet: Should we ban all nicotine use?

Silver vape lying discarded on the floor of a forest

Disposable vapes look set to be banned in the UK, due to concerns backed by the Local Government Association about teenage addiction, fire risk, and plastic pollution. Whilst factors such as the health risks and addictiveness of vaping are bad enough, the environmental impacts must also be considered. The scale of the waste they produce is staggering, with eight disposable vapes being…

Festivals of the future – can they ever be sustainable? Top tips for eco-friendly festival-goers!

Booming season Festival, Vietnam. Photo by Tony Pham on Unsplash

Festival season is in full swing in the UK and Europe, with over one million people attending live music events in London alone, in the first week of July. Glastonbury festival in Somerset, UK attracted a crowd of around 210,000 people. Tomorrowland, Belgium is set to double even that total in a few days time.

There are many ways of reducing your environmental footprint when attending these events, and you still get to still dance to great music in a big field with a drink in your hand. Here are our top four “do’s and don’ts” for more sustainable festival-ing.

Making the Energy Transition Cleaner: Critical Minerals and Circularity Challenges

We live in an age of mass consumption, fuelled by increasing production. We now have an ever-growing ‘anthroposphere’ – a term that encompasses everything that humans have created from raw materials, and how they subsequently interact with the planet.  Such demand obviously puts significant strain on natural resources, but nowhere is this issue more profound than with the critical minerals which underpin…

Wishcycling: when rubbish ends up at the recycling centre

What’s going on here?  If only all our waste problems were solved by dropping things in the recycling bin and saying, “that’ll do” and then walking away thinking we’ve done something good today. This (very) common behaviour is known as wishcycling. It refers to the act of putting incorrect items into the recycling waste stream in the hope that they will end…

Hidden animal products – from Fashion to Fuel

Go Vegan graffiti on a wall covered with stickers

We all know a plant-based diet is good for the planet – in fact it’s one of the most impactful actions you can take as an individual (alongside greening your finances, and cutting out flying). BUT true veganism is more than just a diet. 

For some areas of our lives this is easy – maybe you even already buy vegan cleaning products, and cruelty-free cosmetics. However, did you know you might be using animal products without even knowing about it? Read on to find out more…

It turns out, animal products are used in everything from Aviation to Zinfandel! (Yep, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but that glass of wine you’re drinking probably isn’t vegan…)

Can we really afford cheap clothing?

a photo of a garment factory

Many of us know that fast fashion is harming the planet – we have previously written about the environmental impact of clothing manufacturing and the amount of plastics in clothing. But fast fashion also has a huge social cost, impacting the garment workers who manufacture our clothing and the communities that get left to clean up our discarded items. However, dealing with…