For decades, we were told the recycling system was working. Sort your plastics, leave them at the kerb, and trust that they will find a new life. In 2026, that story is falling apart. The UK's plastics recycling sector is in freefall. In 2022, the country had 1.1 million tonnes of plastic recycling capacity. Within just 18 months, an estimated 260,000 tonnes per year of that capacity had been lost due to site closures. In the last two years alone, 21 recycling operations across Britain have...

You have swapped your plastic bags and ditched the straws. But there is a source of pollution you cannot opt out of, and it’s happening on every road in Britain, every single day. Although we call them rubber, modern vehicle tyres are actually made from a complex blend of synthetic materials, chemicals and polymers. Every time a car pulls away from the lights, it leaves something behind; not just exhaust fumes, but thousands of microscopic plastic particles, shed from the tyres from friction....

Take a look around on a busy day. Parks, offices, cars, backpacks. You'll spot them everywhere: plastic water bottles. They're convenient, sure, but that convenience comes with a cost we don't always see. Reducing plastic bottle use and choosing tap water instead is one of the simplest and most powerful changes we can make for both the planet and our health. Let's start with the environmental side. "Around 117,000 plastic bottles will have been used by the time you finish reading this...