Reduce and reuse - have we come full cycle?

Volunteer and past trainee Richard Bastian is blogging for our clients Healthy Planet and has had a piece featured on the Independent website. 

Fifty years ago the British wartime ‘make do and mend’ attitude may not have leapt to mind when considering the environment, but in 2012 the principle of reuse is experiencing a revival.
London residents alone throw away 20 million tonnes of waste each year according to the London Community Resource Network, which estimates that recycling or reusing these resources could stop 150 million tonnes of annual carbon emissions.

Consumer companies are forever selling us new goods and the rise of cheap fashion in high street stores had reduced the incentive to mend old items. However, designers such as Wayne Hemingway, who has turned old cola bottles into umbrellas, and From Somewhere’s Orsola de Castro, who turned banned Speedo swimsuits into designer dresses, are making reuse more fashionable.

Read the full article on Independent blogs.