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The supermarket giant has recently announced a new food redistribution programme across all of their stores in England, Scotland and Wales.

It’s estimated that the new food surplus initiative could provide the equivalent of 2 million meals for those that really need it the most.

Despite only being the 8th biggest supermarket chain in the UK, this move raises the bar for how the nation’s supermarkets deal with unsold food. Unlike France, there is no legal requirement for British supermarkets to donate waste food to charity, although a growing number of politicians are calling for the UK to adopt a similar law.

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The good news is that Britain has been crowned the top of a particular league.

The bad news is… the league is for the amount of food wasted by countries in Europe.

According to a new international food ranking system we throw away around 130kg of food each year per person, slightly less than twice the weight of the average British adult (which is approx. 76kg according to 2010 stats).

Some slightly better news is that we don’t fare quite as bad (although still badly) when the statistics are applied globally. Out of a total of 25 countries, we were the 6th worst offender.

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Although Sweden is often known for its quirky IKEA furniture, a lesser known fact concerns a rather odd problem the country has faced recently – It’s run out of trash.

The woefully high levels of waste we in the UK send to landfill puts us to shame compared to the Swedes; only 1% of their waste is sent to landfill whereas in the UK, the figure is somewhere in the region of 45%.

We can’t be entirely certain of the exact figure as, unlike Sweden, the UK doesn’t have a coherent nationwide policy when it comes to recycling.

Each local authority is left to their own devices as to what their recycling policy is.

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Every spring, the Reykjavik Design Festival in Iceland is awash with catchy new designs and ideas.

The festival presents ideas and innovations from a broad range of industries including architecture, food design, fashion and furniture.

Project are submitted by both local designers and globally known international designers alike.

A local student submitted one particular project this year that could sow the seeds for future developments in plastic water bottle production techniques.

Ari Jonsson, a student at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, says he read about the huge amounts of disposable plastic being thrown away each day, and felt compelled to try and develop a replacement that was far more environmentally sound.

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A Dutch company is at the cutting edge of a project that could see roads of the future made entirely from plastic.

The idea of using plastic in the construction of roads isn’t new. Earlier this year, we wrote about how India had adopted the idea of mixing recycled plastic with traditional road building materials to make more durable highways, whilst dramatically cutting down on the amount of plastic sent to landfill at the same time.

KWS, the Netherlands based company behind the concept, claims that there are several key advantages to using plastic instead of tarmac for the roads of our future.

Key Benefits

1. One of the more obvious benefits from a recycling point of view is that the roads could in theory be made entirely from recycled plastic. Considering the amount of plastic bottles and containers thrown away each day around the world, that’s a real biggy as far as benefits go!

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A controversial call by Friends of the Earth in Brighton and Hove to switch from weekly to fortnightly waste refuse collections has been made recently.

The local authority has dismissed the proposal, saying they are in the process of exploring alternative solutions such as communal bins, wheelie bins and organic waste disposal ideas in order to boost recycling rates.

Around 42% of the councils in Sussex already have fortnightly collections compared to around 75% of the entire country.

Horsham District Council are already gearing up to go fortnightly in a bid to save around £1 million a year. The council already has a relatively impressive recycling rate of 45% and it’s hoped the switch will push this figure even higher.

Adur and Worthing councils, along with Eastbourne claim they have no plans to alter the current arrangement of weekly collections.

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If you live in or around the Eastbourne area and are looking for some fun and entertaining things to do this Christmas, here are 5 to whet your appetite:

1. Bauble Bonanaza – Pop into the Eastbourne Tourist Information Centre in Cornfield Road BN21 4QA anytime from now until Christmas Eve and grab the chance to take part for free in the spectacular Bauble Bonanza.

The ceiling will be covered in a dazzling array of decorations including a mind blowing number of dangling baubles.

Your task is to try and guess the total number of baubles hanging from the ceiling in order to enter this free competition. Staff will be on hand to take your details and the person who gets it right (or gets closest) will be announced on Christmas Eve.

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In case you’re wondering about the headline of this article…No, we’re not having a go about the Christmas tree that’s situated outside Crawley Library.

This Christmas tree really is rubbish! It’s made from around 600 plastic bottles that have been reused in order to raise recycling awareness in the town.

It will be on display throughout December and is situated in Southgate Avenue if you want to pop down to see it.

The tree’s lights will be switched on today (Thursday 1st December 2016) at 4.30pm by West Sussex Council’s cabinet member for residents’ services, Councillor David Barling.

If you’re feeling a bit peckish and want to get into the festive spirit, then free mince pies will also be on offer along with some helpful advice from the West Sussex Waste Prevention Team, who can give you some handy tips on recycling.

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It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that the last couple of mornings have been a tad frosty!

It wasn’t that long ago that we were writing about Sussex heatwaves warnings, but now the tide has most definitely turned.

Well, we won’t be posting any more pictures of people basking on Brighton beach in deck chairs for a while as temperatures in Sussex have plumetted to a bone chilling -5C.

It should warm up slightly in the coming few days and the crisp weather is set to stay dry in Sussex for the rest of the week; temperatures are set to peak at 6C with lows of -3C.

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At Skip Hire Info, we’ve written a few posts about the problem that plastics are causing in the ocean. Back in September, we published an article about the increasing issues with plastic microbeads finding their way into the world’s oceans. 

This post is slightly different in that it highlights one tiny way that this ingenious little hermit crab has actually made use of a piece of discarded plastic.

About Hermit Crabs

The hermit crab is a crustacean and there are more than 1,000 different species of them around the globe. Whilst they’re called a crab, they’re actually more closely related to lobsters.

Although they can also be found in deeper waters, you can often spot one if you take a closer look in rockpools along the coastline. Their hallmark feature is that whilst they live in a shell, it’s not one they make themselves.

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