Due to the devastating flooding that has blighted Leeds and other parts of the country, Forge Waste & Recycling has placed a large skip on the corner of Kirkstall and Haddon Road – just outside Café Enzo.
Both businesses and residents are welcome to deposit destroyed items and debris within the skip, which shall be emptied and replaced throughout the coming week as and when needed. Continue reading Community skip placed on Kirkstall Road to help flood clear up
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… in fact, many of us now have our Christmas trees up in our homes and workplaces. Each year, 6-8 million of us in the UK purchase a ‘real’ Christmas tree, as opposed to an artificial one. So, what do we do with these trees that we have brought into our homes, once Christmas is over? I often see them abandoned in public in January – fly tipped due to a lack of knowledge, or perhaps just pure laziness and apathy. Yet there are so many options for what you can do.
Here are some ideas for what to do with your Christmas tree after the festive period:
Some people have started using festively pruned rosemary bushes instead of pine trees, as they are far more sustainable, and can be moved around in their pot without you having to chop them down like a traditional tree. But, if you still fancy a pine tree, read on for plenty of ideas… Continue reading How to Recycle your Christmas Tree
“We can hardly believe it ourselves, but it has been 5 years since we started collecting waste in Leeds”.
Forge Recycling was formed by brothers, Harvey & Fraser Mills. Harvey had a background of working in the waste industry, but was feeling quite uninspired by his employer’s national – rather than local – focus. Fraser had recently finished University and was looking for a new challenge.
The brothers decided to bring their knowledge and experience together, and so Forge was born. In the beginning they bought a second hand Iveco van and the two of them spent the summer clearing out student housing in Headingley.
One van quickly became three vans, plus a small team of employees. Then, with the help of Yorkshire Forward and European funding, the company purchased its first bin wagon. Continue reading Five Years of Forge Recycling
Research suggests that women are generally ‘greener’ than men. If we look at it at a base level, a French study shows that women emit 32.3 kilograms of carbon a day, compared to men emitting 39.3 kilograms. This difference is due to apparent gender variations in: green attitudes, purchase behaviour, susceptibility to green advertising, transport choices, food choices, and driving habits.
However, whilst women are ahead in many ways when it comes to being environmentally aware and friendly, the majority of people – women included – on our planet are not doing enough to stop, or even slow, the harm being done to the Earth.
This is a small guide for women on how to live in an environmentally friendly way, using ideas you might not have considered before. Most of these tips are relevant to men too, so why not have a read!
Cosmetics and make-up, alongside toiletries such as shower gel, are often packaged in plastic. Most of these are recyclable, but here are some points to think about if you wish to cut your impact on the environment:
It is no secret that women menstruate, and in doing so we get through a shocking amount of disposable sanitary towels and tampons during our time on Earth. These items are bad for our health; most aren’t made from cotton, and contain plastic chemicals, and those that are made from cotton have been bleached. Cotton crops are also often sprayed with a variety of chemicals, so even the cotton itself is not clean. Now think about where you wear these items! Tampons, too, carry a heightened risk of you developing TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome).
Not only are these sanitary items bad for your health, but they are bad for the environment too. The majority end up in landfill, and when you consider how many are used by every woman, that is a lot of waste to landfill. The average woman uses over 16,000 disposable sanitary items during her lifetime.
If you are needing some new clothes, it is so easy to buy clothes from shops which don’t consider the environment in their clothing production. This process involves energy consumption, the use of toxic chemicals, the use of land and natural resources, and the use of water.
Instead of buying new clothes from places that don’t consider the environment, you could:
Don’t forget to wash your clothes on as low a temperature as possible and hang your clothes up to dry rather than using a tumble dryer. Also consider which laundry detergent you use.
Featured image credit: Pixabay
