In England, the government has announced plans to ban single-use plastic dinnerware, including closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam trays (commonly referred to as the brand name Styrofoam), plastic utensils and plastic plates. The announcement follows similar bans in Scotland and Wales. Scotland’s ban on single-use plastics took effect in August 2022, and Wales recently passed a […]
The UK government will fund the planting of more than 130,000 trees in English towns and cities in the next two years as part of its efforts to fight climate change, The Guardian reported Sunday. The plan, announced Sunday, will allow individuals, local governments, non-governmental organizations and charities to apply for grants from the Urban […]
By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten A towering elm tree stands 30 meters (approximately 98 feet) tall, somewhere near the border between England and Scotland, defying the fate that so many of its cousins met when Dutch elm disease ravaged the species in the 1970s. One of relatively few elm trees left, it is a haven […]
An anti-fracking campaigner has lost a last-ditch legal effort to stop the first fracking in the UK in seven years, The Guardian reported Friday. Lancashire resident Robert Dennett had won a temporary injunction last week to stop shale natural gas company Cuadrilla from fracking in a well near Blackpool in northwest England. At a hearing […]
Environmental activists were sentenced to prison Wednesday for their anti-fracking demonstrations in northwest England. Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were given 16 months in prison. Richard Loizou, 31, was given 15 months. The three were found guilty of public nuisance offense by a jury in August, The Guardian reported. A fourth protester, Julian […]
Since 2015, all large stores in England have been required by law to charge five pence for single-use plastic bags in an attempt to reduce plastic pollution. Now, major UK supermarket chain the Co-op is taking that one step further by phasing out plastic bags entirely and replacing them with compostable alternatives, becoming the first […]
Storm Ali, the first named storm of the UK storm season, killed two and sent several to the hospital as winds of more than 100 miles per hour walloped Ireland, Scotland and Northern England Wednesday, The Guardian reported. More than 250,000 homes and businesses in Ireland lost power and 30,000 lost power in southwest Scotland. […]
The world’s largest offshore wind farm opened in the Irish Sea on Thursday, covering an area of 145 square kilometers (55 square miles). The 659-megawatt Walney Extension, located approximately 19 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Cumbria, England, consists of 87 turbines and is capable of generating enough renewable energy to power almost 600,000 […]
Local governments in England and Wales have said that only about a third of the plastic food containers recycled by their constituents are actually able to be processed in recycling facilities, BBC News reported Saturday. The Local Government Association (LGA) found that 525,000 metric tons (approximately 578,713 U.S. tons) of plastic pots, trays and tubs […]