Be Eco Friendly

A design student at a Preston university has proved that fashion doesn’t always have to be expensive, by making a dress out of recycled items. Helen Draper from the University of Central Lancashire used items she found in her own cupboards to make the latest addition to her final year project.

The stylish dress, which is made up of doodles, train tickets, photographs and postcards, will go on display alongside a similar item made entirely of used teabags at her final end-of-year show. The 23-year-old, who is a self-confessed hoarder, told the Lancashire Evening Post said she wanted to make something that expressed the fact that she can never throw anything away.

As well as rummaging through her own collection, Miss Draper also took a trip to the local flea market in Preston to pick up some odds and ends that others had seen fit to throw away. There she acquired some old postcards, still adorned with old fashioned stamps and squiggly handwriting. The bodice of the dress is made entirely of these items.

A photo shoot for the recycled dress was held at Lytham train station last weekend, with former Cardinal Newman College student Rachel Morris acting as the model. Miss Draper said she chose the location as a lot of the dress is made up of old train tickets.

A new survey has revealed that some councils are making residents sort their rubbish into as many of nine different bins in a bid to boost recycling. The average number of bins and caddies across the country is however four, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance research.

The pressure group named and shamed Newcastle-under-Lyme as the council which insisted on the most bins. Householders in that part of the country are given a waste food caddie for the kitchen and another for kerbside collections, as well as separate containers for rubbish, cans, textiles, garden waste, glass, paper, cardboard and plastic.

Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2791000.html

Motorola, British Land and Mothercare have joined a group of hundreds of other companies which are making a pledge to cut CO2 emissions. The Carbon Trust announced today that the three firms have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for measuring, cutting and promising to further reduce their output of greenhouse gases.

According to the trust, the 500 members of the group have saved £165 million in fuel bills between them so far and represent 18 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from UK businesses. Harry Morrison, who is the manager of the programme, said Britain is now seeing a real momentum among its businesses to be more ecologically friendly.

Unlike the reductions imposed by the European Union Emissions Trading System on the country’s largest polluters, joining the Carbon Trust is voluntary. It is also separate from the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme which will see local authorities, retailers and universities paying for their emissions as of next year.

According to the Carbon Trust, both clothing shop Mothercare and property developer British Land have cut their greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent over the last three years. Illinois-based mobile phone producer Motorola also reduced its UK emissions by a massive 20 percent.

Source: http://www.recycle.co.uk

UK greenhouse gas emissions dropped significantly during 2009 at the peak of the economic recession.

Government statistics revealed that the GHG emissions fell at least 8.7 per cent from 2008 figures. Carbon dioxide, the most common GHG, went down 9.8 per cent.

UK GHG emissions, which fall under the Kyoto Protocol, were recorded at 566.3 million tonnes in 2009 compared to a total of 620.5 million tonnes during 2008. The figures, published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), indicate that UK emissions have dropped 26.5 per cent since the 1990s. In order to meet its first legally binding carbon reduction, the UK is required to decrease emissions by 23 per cent by 2012.

The numbers show that this commitment will be met and exceeded as GHG levels drop across all sectors. The largest declines, however, were seen in the business and industrial sectors, which recorded drops of 36.5 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively. Energy sector emissions fell 11 per cent.

Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2781000.html

Scandal has rocked the charity sector in the UK after it emerged that the UK leg of the Salvation Army had paid nearly £10million to a private textile trader to aid with its clothing recycling scheme.

Now the Salvation Army is facing widespread calls to explain how it permits a private businessman to establish a multi-million pound textile empire on its donation-based recycling scheme. A leading UK broadsheet has now launched an investigation into Nigel Hanger’s business, which partners with recycling banks like the Salvation Army in a move that has made him and his three partners nearly £10million.

The deal encompasses the charity’s 4,500 clothing recycling banks, but signs on the banks say that the profits are used to aid the Salvation Army’s efforts to help the needy.

Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2778000.html

A new study has discovered that Greenland’s icecap actually melts more slowly in hotter weather, suggesting it might be more resilient to global warming than previously thought. A team of researchers from the UK have studied satellite pictures of glaciers in Greenland over a five-year stretch and found they actually melt more in cooler summers than warmer ones.

While the scientists stop short of saying that the glaciers are safe from climate change, they do conclude that the acceleration of the melting could be less harmful than previously thought.

The group found that in all the years studied, the start of summer coincided with an increase in meltwater which ran between the bottom of the glacier and the rock it stood on. In hot years, however, this process seemed to stop earlier than in colder years, leading to 60 percent less melting overall.

Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2777000.html