In Scotland grants of up to £1 million are being made available to businesses with ‘big ideas’ about how to cut food waste and help them bring concepts to market….
Source: waste-management-world.com
Take a stroll through USC Village, and myriad trends may stick out — a variety of reusable grocery totes, Hydroflasks, drinking utensils ranging from paper straws to Starbucks sippy cups to plastic straws sticking out from the sippy cups.
Welcome for Scottish Government plans which are a positive step towards addressing the problem of plastic pollution at its source.
Thriftify.ie, an Irish e-commerce website which sells items from 98% of Ireland’s charity shops, has secured funding through the government’s Circular Economy Innovation Grant Scheme.
The scheme supports innovation and the circular economy by boosting projects set up by social enterprises, in both the voluntary and community sectors.
Thriftify enables charities to sell donations easily and effectively via smart tech. Participating charity shops upload either a photo or barcode of an item and Thriftify will price it and sell it across several different online sales platforms such as eBay, Facebook, Instagram and its own website. This smart tech enables charity shops to easily sell preloved fashion items and books via Thriftify which will then post any sold items to the purchaser in a biodegradable bag, ensuring that the whole process is as eco-friendly and effective as possible.
Mandatory on-pack “eco-labelling”, featuring a new combined colour and number system, could provide a cost-effective solution to the challenge of simplifying recycling for consumers, without costing councils millions, according to SUEZ.
A rapidly-growing recycling business in Hull has partnered with Hiab, the heavy-load handling equipment experts, to help drive forward its ambitious expansion plans. S&J Synergy delivers a total waste management service for manufacturers in food, wood, glass and plastic before supplying recycled materials back to businesses to reduce landfill. After recently winning two new contracts, S&J Synergy has invested in a new MULTILIFT ULTIMA 24S to manage its increasing workload across the Yorkshire region, expanding its fleet vehicles to 15. The family-run business has eight vehicles installed with Hiab’s cranes and lifting systems, which are vital in helping more businesses be sustainable through recycling and reusing materials. Jill Gibson, managing director for S&J Synergy said: “At the core of our business we collect waste material and process it in our own material recycling facility so it can become a new product.
Researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) say they have demonstrated a technology that rapidly detects pollutants in water by measuring their impacts on swimming microorganisms. Their proof-of-concept, published in Scientific Reports, does not require any chemicals, reagents or laboratory equipment. Instead, it leverages the regular camera of a smartphone as well as microorganisms called Paramecia that are ubiquitous in water bodies–making it especially suitable for assessing water drinkability in underdeveloped regions.