4 things you need to know about upcycling furniture

If you’ve recently been considering upcycling a piece of furniture, then this blog post will outline the reasons why you might want to, alongside four things you need to know before you get started.

Popular furniture pieces to upcycle are dining tables, chairs, cabinets, dressing tables, and footstools.

Upcycling furniture projects are a great idea for many reasons:

  • They’re beneficial for the environment because your upcycled piece of furniture replaces the need for a new piece to be manufactured.
  • They result in a bespoke, one-of-a-kind piece of furniture that nobody else owns.
  • They save you money.
  • You learn new skills in the process.
  • They’re easier than you might expect.
  • They’re fun!

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How to reuse and recycle board games

You may have been cleaning recently and realised how many board games you have.

Often, board games are passed down through generations, and you can end up with piles of games that are either unused or overplayed!

When you stumble across a board game or two that you want to get rid of, you don’t have to just throw them in the bin.

There are a surprising number of options for unwanted board games — we’ll go through some of the best options below.

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How to plan a sustainable Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and with it comes all manner of traditions — from fancy dress parties to trick or treating, and everything in-between.

Unfortunately, these traditions are often fairly wasteful — however, it’s surprisingly simple to make them less so.

Below, we take a look at how you can make your Halloween celebrations more sustainable this year, and for future years too.

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Where to refill your water bottle for free in Leeds

An ambitious new plan has been unveiled in a bid to cut the UK’s plastic waste, which will see a network of free water refill points come into play across the country. These refill points will be in shops, cafes, local businesses, museums, council buildings, and more, and we will also see the restoration and installation of public water fountains.

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How to upcycle car tyres

Due to its resilient nature, rubber is the perfect material for upcycling projects, and vehicle tyres can therefore be easily reused once they have become unroadworthy. Repurposing vehicle tyres is a nice alternative to sending them to landfill – an unfortunate ending for many tyres worldwide. When tyres are recycled, they are often shredded and used for producing playground surfaces, road embankments and synthetic turf. Why not reuse them before that stage and lengthen their life even more? Give some of these upcycling ideas a go.

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Wardrobe recycling tips: clothes, bedding & accessories

Many wardrobes are fit to burst, and some of us put off having a sort-out as we’re not quite sure what to do with each item we’d like to get rid of. Instead of putting it off any longer, or resorting to chucking it all in the household bin, take a look at our wardrobe recycling guide below and do the best you can by your old clothes and accessories.

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Four in five Scots would welcome a second-hand Christmas gift

A survey backed by Zero Waste Scotland has found that four-fifths of Scots would welcome a pre-loved gift for Christmas, but 65 per cent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t consider buying a second-hand gift for a loved one. Only one quarter of Scots have ever gifted someone a second-hand item.

Iain Gulland, Chief Executive with Zero Waste Scotland, said:

“People may worry that friends and family won’t be happy with a second-hand gift, but these new figures show the majority of people would actually welcome a pre-loved gift. Now that there are over 80 Revolve certified shops across the country, including high street branches of Sense Scotland and Capability Scotland, it has never been easier to find a place to shop second-hand with confidence.”

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Bradford: Healing wounds with recycled eggshells

Researchers based at Bradford Royal Infirmary are currently developing a wound dressing which utilises the thin, fibrous membrane found inside hen’s eggshells.

The researchers are from NIHR WoundTec HTC at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and are working in unison with a Norwegian company, Biovotecat, at the BRI site.

What are the benefits?

This groundbreaking research could be set to save the NHS millions of pounds, as wound management currently costs the NHS an eye-watering £5 billion per year. With 2.2 million wounds to tend per year, it is clear to see that the current cost of wound management is high. So, the eggshells cost less to buy than traditional wound dressings, but also the healing and anti-inflammatory properties of the eggshell membranes mean that wounds will heal faster and so treatment time will be significantly shorter too.

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