Cancer Research promotes sustainable clothes at Brighton Fashion Week

Love Your Clothes and Cancer Research UK collaborated during Brighton Fashion Week (15-17 October) to encourage the public to upcycle and reuse their old clothes.

Attendees of the event were invited to rummage through a tonne of donated clothing and challenged to turn an unwanted item into a fashionable outfit. To help them, workshops and demonstrations of sewing and how to upcycle second-hand clothing were put on.

According to Love Your Clothes, UK consumers buy around one million tonnes of clothing every year and dispose of roughly the same amount: 50 per cent of these clothes are reused but around 350,000 tonnes of clothing go to landfill, despite being suitable for recycling.

Head of Products and Services at WRAP, Sarah Clayton, said: “We were delighted to see so many people getting stuck in to our tonne of clothes, learning how to give their own clothes a new lease of life and the value of choosing to buy pre-owned clothes.”

Elaine Hutchins, Cancer Research UK Areas Manager for South East, added: “Love Your Clothes was a fascinating and inspiring event to be involved with. We are able to sell most of the clothes our supporters generously donate to us. But for those that aren’t quite good quality enough for us to sell, this was a perfect outlet – upcycled into something new, wearable and, in some cases, adorable.

“Every bag of clothes donated to us is worth up to £30, and will help us beat cancer sooner.”

Find out more about Love Your Clothes and Cancer Research UK.

Government promotes car club schemes

A new government tendering framework agreement means that local authorities (LAs) and other public-sector organisations can now contract directly with selected car club providers. The new agreement hopes to minimise the tendering process and encourage a larger scale uptake of car club membership in the UK.

One of the car clubs to be added to a preferred supplier list by the government is Co-wheels, which works with 16 LAs across the UK, including Aberdeen, Derby and Glasgow.

According to Co-wheels, over 1,100 people in Aberdeen alone use the scheme, with over 500 Aberdeen Council staff holding membership. The fleet in the city consists of 38 cars, of which 16 are electric. The company says that just under a third of car club members would have bought a private car if they had not joined a car club, representing a deferred purchase of roughly 6,360 cars.

Commenting on the new framework, Pierre Fox, Commercial Director at Co-wheels, said: “The quicker and more direct tendering mechanism will really help the growth of car club schemes across the UK, making it easier and quicker for public-sector organisations to contract directly with us.

“More and more people are seeing car sharing as a convenient and low-cost alternative to car ownership. When people sign up to a car club, they benefit from the flexibility of being able to book a car on a ‘pay as you drive’ basis with none of the hassle of car ownership, parking or having to pick up keys from a hire company’s offices. People experience all of the benefits with none of the hassle of owning a car.”

Find out more about Co-wheels.

Novelis announces Interim Chief Financial Officer

Aluminium producer Novelis has this week named Steve Pohl as Interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective immediately. Pohl assumes the CFO duties from Steve Fisher who was promoted to Chief Executive Officer in August.

In this role, Pohl will lead the financial activities for Novelis, until a permanent Chief Financial Officer is appointed and will continue to be based in the company’s world headquarters in Atlanta.

Pohl joined Novelis in 2009 as Vice President of Finance for North America. From 2011 to 2012, he served as Vice President, Global Business Services and was then named Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis, in July 2012.

Before joining Novelis, Pohl spent 28 years with PPG Industries where he held various finance and operational positions in PPG’s glass and coatings businesses as well as running the company’s automotive coating business in Latin America.

Read more about Novelis.

Ford mimics gecko to increase recycling of auto parts

Ford Motor Company is collaborating with The Biomimicry Institute and Procter & Gamble (P&G) in an attempt to increase the recyclability of its auto parts.

The automotive manufacturer is aiming to use nature and biology to find solutions to issues of sustainability, including reducing the amount of glue used in its vehicles.

The glue is used in the manufacturing process to adhere foams to plastics and metals, which makes them hard to disassemble, hindering the recovery of parts for recycling.

Through its research, Ford hopes to mimic the gecko’s sticky toe pads to increase the amount of parts it currently recycles. The lizard’s toe pads allow it to stick to surfaces without liquids or surface tension, and it is able to release itself, leaving no residue.

Ford Senior Technical Leader for Plastics and Sustainability Research, Debbie Mielewski, commented on the new idea: “Solving this problem could provide cost savings and certainly environmental savings. It means we could increase the recycling of more foam and plastics, and further reduce our environmental footprint.”

Carol Kordich, Global Sustainable Fabric Strategies and Development for Ford, said: “As we look to further our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint, taking a holistic, biomimetic approach makes sense because nature has efficiencies in design and uses minimal resources. Nature is the ultimate guide.”

Learn more about The Biomimicry Institute.

Ealing Council recycling rates increase following incentive scheme introduction

Ealing Council has announced that recycling rates in the borough have risen by 4.2 per cent in the year since it began collaborating with environmental rewards scheme Greenredeem to offer incentivised recycling.

The increase comes after a gradual decline in Ealing’s recycling rates, decreasing from 40.8 per cent in 2011/12 to 40.2 per cent in 2013/14.

According to Greenredeem, which offers residents points that can be used for discounts or donated to charity in exchange for green actions such as recycling or reusing waste, local members have donated nearly 2.2 million points to community projects, which equates to over £10,000 in grants.

The vast majority of points, 25 million, have been awarded to residents to spend in local businesses, such as cafes and leisure centres.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz said: “I am delighted that we have been rewarding residents who recycle in Ealing. With more than 23,500 subscribers, the scheme has helped us continue to increase our recycling rates whilst also supporting some fantastic local community groups. I’d encourage others to sign up and get your neighbours to do so too. You can receive personal discounts, support good work in the community and do the right thing for the environment.”

Find out more about Greenredeem.