Recycling doesn’t work, according to Boris Johnson. Well, at least not the recycling of plastic. And to be honest, with every day that passes, I understand our Prime Minister less and less. Johnson has called recycling a “red herring”, claiming that it does nothing as you can only recycle plastic twice. At least part of […]
Phones are great fun until you live near the Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex and its smouldering lake of “toxic sludge”. Rare-earth metals are the key ingredient in all the devices which connect us, but they come at a cost. Extraction and refinement processes often require a fantastic amount of energy and vast vats […]
Even the most dedicated eco-warriors sometimes find it tough to inspire planet-friendly behaviour change in others. Sarah Ford-Hutchinson, from the University’s Department for Social Responsibility, gives us her top tips for encouraging your friends and family to live more sustainably. 1. Understand yourself. First things first, start with you. Make a list of the sustainable behaviours […]
At Lifestyle, we are starting a series exploring the issue of sustainability and how small changes can result in us leading more sustainable lives. Each article will cover a different area of everyday life and what changes can be made to limit your individual impact on the environment. We aim to make these changes as […]
Throughout campus in both university owned and Edinburgh University Students’ Association cafés, a new shift in policy has been adopted; switching from rewarding those who bring a re-usable cup, to penalising those who choose disposable. Customers will now pay an additional 25p to purchase a disposable cup instead of reducing the value of drinks served […]
Sweden has recently made headlines with bold statements along the lines of “the country has run out of rubbish” – so should we be following their lead? Sweden’s recycling is apparently so effective that for the past six years, the country has had to import rubbish from overseas in order to keep its recycling plants […]
According to the UN, around one third of all food produced for human consumption each year ends up being thrown away – which is about 1.3 billion tons of food. If that’s hard to visualise, imagine 210 million killer whales. If that feels crushing, it’s because it is. Food waste is becoming a major problem, […]