On 2nd March 2026, MHSG held an evening devoted to the growing and worrying issue of eco-anxiety – particularly amongst children and young people, who are statistically the most impacted.

We were honoured to welcome to our panel psychotherapist, writer, University of Bath research fellow and leading psychosocial researcher in the field of Climate Anxiety, Caroline Hickman, whose international research across 10,000 children in 2021, revealed that 3/4 were “very frightened” by climate change and its effects. Caroline has kindly given us a treasure trove of related resources to share with you, all listed and linked below.

Speaking to and for the younger generation, we were also thrilled to host Amy Meek, co-founder, with her sister Amy, when just 10 and 12 years old, of Kids Against Plastic. It was their response to their own climate anxiety: focusing their worries on tangible action. Kids Against Plastic is now a global, award-winning charity and Amy has spoken to young people around the world, to three Parliaments, presented TEDx talks and been awarded by the PM and by Pride of Britain. An inspiring, extraordinary young woman.

In a similar vein, our third speaker, psychotherapist Sue Heap, spoke of her own leveraging of fears for her grandchildren’s generation, by ploughing her vast energies into climate activism. It was an illuminating, concerning evening unpicking the problem and offering expert advice on how to manage it and how to talk to our young people about it.

Further resources …

If you missed the talk, you can catch up on it through our YouTube channel, where you’ll also find a growing archive of talks by authors, professionals, community members, academics and installers on a diverse range of topics affected by and addressing climate change.

For our Climate Anxiety evening, Caroline Hickman produced a formidable list of recommended resources linked below, for you to read, watch and discover more on the subject through. We are very grateful to her for this valuable line-up, cherry-picked by a leading light in the field of eco-anxiety in the younger generation.

Website (links to articles & talks)

www.caroline-hickman.com

TEDx Talk on Climate Change and Emotional Responses

BBC Ideas Short Film

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-to-talk-with-children-about-climate-change/p0fgdjtz

Book (free download)

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/reader/download/91c64946-52d4-4dbc-9698-0522943ceee3/book/pdf?context=ubx

On Being a Therapist at a Time of Ecological Emergency. Routledge. (Co-edited book C.Hickman in Anderson, J et al 2024)

Four articles on climate psychology, children & young people published in The Conversation (2019).

• https://theconversation.com/im-up-late-at-night-worrying-about-global-warming-please-can-you-put-my-mind-at-rest-124940 
• https://theconversation.com/im-a-psychotherapist-heres-what-ive-learned-from-listening-to-children-talk-about-climate-change-123183 
• https://theconversation.com/what-psychotherapy-can-do-for-the-climate-and-biodiversity-crises-116977 
• https://theconversation.com/a-psychotherapist-explains-why-some-adults-are-reacting-badly-to-young-climate-strikers-125079 

Greenpeace UK guides, which aim to help teachers and parents/carers discuss the climate crisis with their pupils and children. 

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GPUK-Parents-Carers-Guide-Climate-Change.pdf

Climate Psychology Alliance, Resources for young people https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/index.php/component/content/article/useful-links?catid=13&Itemid=101

BACP resources page

https://www.bacp.co.uk/cpd-learning/cpd-hubplus/explore-content/climate-change

Ministry of Eco Education Resources

https://www.ministryofeco.org/curriculum

• https://youtu.be/egpwps_o1OU?si=_iGpgRe0waYvkt_G
• https://youtu.be/he3lw2VJPFM?si=XWPWaxTqcHNhz2DH

Podcasts (For the Climate Psychology Alliance)

www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/index.php/component/content/article/podcasts?catid=15&Itemid=101

Eco-anxiety, eco-despair & eco-empathy

https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/podcasts/402-podcast-eco-anxiety-eco-despair-eco-depression-eco-grief-or-maybe-eco-empathy

Climate Change Grief & Hope

https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/podcasts/358-caroline-and-verity-in-conversation

Media & Talks

The End of the World Has Already Happened (Timothy Morton Documentary BBC Radio 4) 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07rt61t (BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050qr (BBC Radio 4 Costing the Earth, Eco Anxiety, May 2019)

Iai news (27^th April 2020): Covid, climate and biodiversity anxiety in young people

https://iai.tv/articles/urgent-and-immediate-danger-covid-19-climate-crisis-auid-1484

Natural History Museum – Eco-anxiety into Eco-action

19^th April 2021

London Climate Action Week Climate Psychology Panel (Nov 2020)

Navigating the emotional overwhelm of the climate crisis – panel at LCAW

WHO panel Millenial SDG’s A generation worried sick about the climate crisis (Nov 2020)

https://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/events/events/2020/11/culture-and-health-webinar-series-2020-millennial-development-goals-a-generation-worried-sick-about-the-sdgs/watch-the-recording-of-the-webinar

Psychotherapy & eco-anxiety (April 2021)

https://earther.gizmodo.com/therapists-are-reckoning-with-eco-anxiety-1846686112

The Guardian (8^th October 2020) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/08/anxiety-climate-crisis-trauma-paralysing-effect-psychologists

Rolling Stone (27^th March 2020)

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/children-climate-crisis-eco-anxiety-968673

UKCP New Psychotherapist (Autumn, 2019)

https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NEW-PSYCHOTHERAPIST_AUTUMN2019_lo.pdf

Time Magazine (21^st Nov 2019)

https://time.com/5735388/climate-change-eco-anxiety

New Scientist (12^th October 2019)

https://institutions-newscientist-com.ezproxy1.bath.ac.uk/article/mg24432512-900-if-we-label-eco-anxiety-as-an-illness-climate-denialists-have-won

New Scientist (21^st Oct 2019)

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220561-stressed-about-climate-change-eight-tips-for-managing-eco-anxiety

The Guardian (8^th Dec 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/08/a-z-of-climate-anxiety-how-to-avoid-meltdown

Anna Hughes, Flight Free UK

At Flight Free UK, we challenge people to take a year off flying to reduce emissions and try the alternatives. It’s a great way to break a habit if you’re accustomed to jumping on a flight whenever you fancy a trip abroad, and it’s fantastic for discovering other ways to travel.

For some people, going flight-free for a whole year might be easy. For others, it’s a lot harder. We have resources and tips to help you, with information on how to travel without flying, as well as inspiring stories of other people who are giving it a try. 

Taking a year off flying is one of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce your emissions. Even if you take other steps to keep your emissions down, such as reducing meat intake, or installing solar panels, or not driving, just one flight could wipe out all those carbon savings. A flight to New York emits as much carbon per passenger as driving a car for a year. Multiple flights in a year quickly add up, and could completely outweigh all the other things you do in life. 

But not flying doesn’t mean not travelling!

There are plenty of ways to still go on holiday, including by bus, train, bike or ferry. Taking the train across Europe can save over 90% on your emissions compared to flying, and coach or ferry have good emissions reductions too. 

For budget travel …

We recommend coach companies like Flixbus, which cover a large number of UK and Europe destinations. Rail and Sail is a good option if you’re looking to travel to and from Ireland or across to the Netherlands. For train travel, using an Interrail pass nearly always saves you money, keeping your holiday at around the £250-£350 mark (rather than paying upwards of £700 if you buy the tickets separately).

When you travel without flying, it’s not just the climate that benefits. It’s a much more enriching, relaxed way to travel, with time to read, work, sleep, or just look out of the window at those fabulous views. The journey is part of the holiday – it’s a cliché, but that’s because it’s true!

A lot needs to change in order for low-carbon travel to become the norm.

There’s no tax on airline fuel for a start, which keeps air fares artificially low. We need government and industry to stop supporting airlines, and bring in measures that will make low-carbon options accessible to everyone. One way we can show we want things to change is to stop taking flights. We have power with our consumer choices when we act together. So could you be part of the growing trend away from air travel, and go flight-free this year? 

Find out more about emissions savings, get ideas for your flight-free holiday, and sign up to the Flight Free Challenge at our website: www.flightfree.co.uk

A scathing critique of proposals to geoengineer our way out of climate disaster by the bestselling author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline …

Book review by Alan Morton

In 2026 what can we expect on climate change as world powers retreat from their commitments?

In Overshoot, Andreas Malm and Will Carton delve behind the rhetoric to uncover the underlying economic drivers of fossil fuel interests. Their message is that only effective opposition to fossil capital  will allow us to deal with climate change.

Around the time of the Paris COP, many oil majors acknowledged the risks of climate change and foresaw a reduction in the use of fossil fuels. They invested in renewables as a tentative step in diversifying away from fossil fuels (remember BP’s rebranding as ‘Beyond Petroleum’). They found that renewable energy was not for them. The returns were small, not what they got from oil.

Oil companies invest huge amounts just to keep production going. If they stop, production dramatically slows and their investments become worthless ‘stranded assets’. To justify investing in expensive assets that are only profitable if used for 30 years or more, the oil industry wants business as usual for as long as possible. Drill, Baby, Drill – unhindered by any real concern for the climate.

To head off accusations they are causing climate breakdown, oil companies have a new strategy, the authors call Overshoot Ideology. Now industry promotes technologies they claim will actually reduce carbon dioxide levels. CCS, carbon capture and storage, or direct air capture of carbon dioxide. But these technologies are experimental and very unlikely to be deployed at scale quickly.

But this subterfuge allows the oil companies to claim that carbon dioxide levels can go above any limits set through COP. After we “Overshoot” these limits, these magic technologies will claw back excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is wishful thinking – on a disastrous scale. But it allows the oil companies and their allies, the makers of petrol and diesel cars, airlines – and governments to continue with business as usual. Global fossil fuel production continues to grow.

The dead weight of their capital investments compels the oil companies to act as they do. The oil industry will not fade away in a diminishing cloud of carbon dioxide. The economic logic of their business will drive them to produce fossil fuels until the bitter end – either theirs or ours. We must bring them to a halt much sooner. That’s the big idea of the authors of “Overshoot”.

Alan Morton is one of the founder members of MHSG and en10ergy limited. His interest in energy and climate issues is long-standing from his upbringing in a coal-mining area in Fife, Scotland, to being Curator of Energy and Modern Physics at the Science Museum for many years. The PV panels in the background of his picture played a part in setting up MHSG.

Order How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown through All Good Bookshop

(£23.75 Hardback, £15 e-book)

‘But there have always been changes in global temperatures … surely global warming is just another natural fluctuation …?’

Dive into Alan’s fascinating and accessible explanation of the manmade causes of climate change, the science behind the effects and the urgency for international action …

Alan Morton is one of the founder members of MHSG and en10ergy limited. His interest in energy and climate issues is long-standing from his upbringing in a coal-mining area in Fife, Scotland, to being Curator of Energy and Modern Physics at the Science Museum for many years. The PV panels in the background of his picture played a part in setting up MHSG.

Over the millennia there have been long cycles of naturally occurring climate change, from cold to warm. The ice cores from Antarctica are evidence of that. However we are at a warm peak of a cycle and the world climate should be cooling, but it is not.

Why is that happening? The main reason is that carbon dioxide (CO₂) (and other Green House Gas) concentrations in the atmosphere are rising. CO₂ from 280 parts per million in pre-industrial times to over 420 ppm now. That is 0.04% of the gases in the atmosphere, a tiny amount, but of great significance. Because CO₂ traps heat, unlike the oxygen and nitrogen which make up the vast bulk of our atmosphere.

Incoming light from the Sun is absorbed by the land, sea, vegetation etc and heats up slightly. In turn all these radiate heat – infrared light – back out. Some of this goes to outer space but some is trapped by the CO₂ and the atmosphere heats up slightly and in turn the land and sea. 

Now the extra carbon dioxide we now see in the atmosphere comes from human activity – burning fossil fuels etc. We know this – the clue is in the name, fossil fuels. That is coal, oil, and gas buried long underground. One consequence is that one isotope of carbon-14 (C-14) is missing from fossil fuels. C-14 is a form of carbon created from nitrogen in the upper atmosphere by radiation from the Sun. So every living thing: us, plants, animals, microbes etc all absorb some C-14 from the air we breathe or the plants and animals we eat. But when we stop living, we don’t take in any more C-14 from the air, food etc. C-14 is radioactive and gradually decays. After about 5000 years only half the original C-14 is left (this is the basis of carbon-dating). So fossil fuels contain no C-14 because the animals, plants etc that decayed to make them have been dead for a very long time.

So when we burn fossil fuels, it produce CO₂ with no C-14. So this dilutes the concentration of C-14 in the CO₂ in the atmosphere. And this fingerprint has been found through measurements. And this change matches the consumption of oil, gas, and coal that have been traded and burned over the years. 

Human activity has resulted in the extra climate change we have seen. So we are affecting the climate of the world. And that shows little sign of slowing.

There are big costs of moving to a low-carbon world. But as the Stern report argued, doing nothing and then paying for the damage (eg Jamaica, Bangladesh etc) will be more expensive. We are also seeing that some of the technologies we can use eg Solar Panels are becoming much, much cheaper and are more economical than coal-fired power stations, for example.

Lastly, using less energy is an easy and very cheap adjustment – through more insulation, public transport etc.

The UK has 1% of world emissions – down from over 2%. So we have done well so far in reducing emissions. But there are a lot of other nations whose emissions are not reducing quickly. Perhaps we should try to show them how it can be done. After all, the UK is responsible for a lot of emissions historically. Surely we should try to make amends by showing what can be done.

MHSG was thrilled to welcome Bean Beanland (pictured above) – a founding member of the Heat Pump Federation – to one of our expert speaker meetings on renewable domestic energy, as part of our 2025 Green Open Homes season.

Bean has over 15-years’ experience, including eight years with an installation contractor, in energy and carbon mitigation strategy and in conceptual technology selection, procurement and the installation of mechanical services and renewable technologies.

No surprise then that it was a fantastically useful presentation, and he has kindly given us his slide deck, packed with information, stats, predictions and advice, to share with those of you considering making the energy transition in your homes, or simply curious. Our thanks to Bean!

Muswell_HPF_Presentation_November_2025_A

Welcome to our annual Green Open Homes season. A chance to tour local, energy efficient homes and …

Find out what’s involved …

What works and what it costs …

Get inspired, informed and encouraged …

Ask all those difficult questions from those who have done it …

See renewables in action and all the easy fixes along the way …

Pick up gold dust insights and recommendations …

Join us, and a line-up of top-notch industry experts, for three evenings of panel talks and Q&As …

And all free … book your GREEN OPEN HOMES tour and talk tickets here!

Now in its 13th year, our Green Open Homes season was one of the first and continues to encourage, inspire and inform our community to reduce domestic emissions (and bills) – a key contribution to Net Zero that we can all be making – and increase their comfort.

2025 is a big one …

We are particularly excited by this year’s offer, with a cross section of ten fantastic, future-proofed houses, four architect-led tours, two mid-construction builds, and a prestigious line up of eight expert talks, including Bean Beanland from the Heat Pump Federation (and formerly one half of The Happy Heat Pump podcast, with Evan Davies) and David Farmer from the University of Salford’s trailblazing Energy House Labs research facility.

THE TOURS …

Our Green Open Homes season fills three weeks in November with insider advice, expert speakers, experiential insights and guided tours of local homes that have improved or are improving their domestic energy efficiency; by both hosts and architects.

Across the weekends of 8th & 9th and 15th & 16th November, at various times detailed on the WeGotTickets booking pages, and including homes at …

N6: Bisham Gardens
N8: Clovelly Rd, Glasslyn Rd
N10: Leaside Avenue, Grosvenor Rd, Pages Hill, Woodland Rise, Halliwick Rd, Coppetts Rd
(Full addresses of the tour homes are released with each booking confirmation)

45 tours of 10 trailblazing houses, across N6, N8 and N10, through two weekends (8th & 9th and 15th & 16th November), covering a wide range of homes, solutions and installations.

5 of them new to Green Open Homes, including period retro-fits, a garden flat and mid-construction builds, with the opportunity to see the bare bones of an energy efficient build.

Architect-led tours of four stunningly designed homes, offering rare insights into the practicalities, science and creativity behind an eco-build.

The moany bit …
Please only book if you know that you can attend, or give us as much notice as possible to release spare tickets to waiting lists. Our hosts are so magnanimous in opening their homes up for tours, each of which is oversubscribed, so no-shows mean that others miss out. Thank you!

The grateful bit …
And our enormous thanks to those hosts, the architects involved and our programme of brilliant speakers, all of whom are so generously giving us their time, expertise, knowledge, weekends and homes, to help others.

THE SPEAKER MEETINGS …

All are free and held at Muswell Hill Methodist Church, 28, Pages Lane N10 1PP, but also live-streamed and available to watch at the MHSG YouTube channel

Monday 3rd November, 7.30 – 9pm: 
Heat Pumps, Solar & Batteries | speakers: Bean Beanland – Heat Pump Federation | Stephanie Chan – renewables installer  | Jeremy Gibb – recent ASHP customer and GOH host

Monday 10th November, 7.30 – 9pm:
Sustainable Design: interiors, materials & architecture | speakers: Natalie Black – Enbee Design & Architecture | Nina Woodcroft – Nina + Co Design Studio | Joséphine Lecouflé-Vinet – JLV Design Ltd

Monday 17th November, 7.30 – 9pm: 
Green your Home: installations, insulations & affordable fixes | speakers: David Farmer – University of Salford Energy House Labs | Stewart McIlroy – Underfloor Insulation Company | Dermot Barnes – Environment & Sustainability professional

The average person uses 150 litres of water per day. Cumulatively, we use about 14 billion litres of water per day in the UK, and will need 4 billion more by 2050, while the resilience of London’s water supply diminishes.

Here are a few do-able tips for saving water, to help us all play a part (and some do-not-ables!) …

DO …

• Install a water meter … so you know!
• Shower (and keep to 4 minutes): swapping one weekly bath for a shower will save 4,000 litres of water annually and a shower can use between 6 and 45 litres per minute. Look into installing an eco shower head
• When it comes to upgrading kitchen appliances, choose water-efficient options. Check out Which? Magazine’s Eco Buy recommendations and Ethical Consumer magazine’s thoroughly researched eco-comparisons 
• Eat local and seasonal food and reduce your meat and dairy consumption, as meat generally has a higher water footprint than cereals and vegetables
• Get a water butt or two to collect rainwater from your drainpipes to water your garden with, and choose plants that are drought resistant
• Adhere to hosepipe bans and when not in place use a spray gun, which reduces water use by up to 50%. A hosepipe can use up to 1,000 litres of water an hour! Consider plant water saving gels too, water in the morning and evening, when evaporation is minimised and ideally use a watering can, which is more accurate for aiming water at the roots of plants rather than the leaves
• Only run full washing machine and dishwasher loads (this will also save you an average of £11 per year – every little helps)
• Wash up in a bowl, rather than the full sink, and reuse the water in the garden
• Maintain your appliances to improve efficiency and reduce water wastage: fix leaky taps, descale shower heads to maintain pressure. A leak of just one drip per second can amount to 15 litres of wasted water per day, and an increase of 6% on your annual water bill
• Don’t throw your veg or pasta water – use it for stock, cooled for your houseplants, or to boil further produce
• Only fill your kettle with the amount you need, saving water and energy
• Turn the tap off when brushing your teeth (up to 6 litres of water per minute saved) and collect the cold water for your plants, as you wait for hot water tap to heat up
• Install a tap aerator onto your existing taps, which reduces the amount of water coming out, without affecting the wash or rinse effect. They can also reduce splashing and could help you save up to 40 litres of water a day. And take a look at flow regulators for taps and showers
• Go for low-flush options for your toilet, or install a cistern displacement device, which reduces water being literally flushed down the toilet (the second highest use of water in the home after showering). Inflate, pop into your toilet cistern and save up to two litres every time you flush. Or make your own!
• Sign up for Waterwise’s 2025 Water Night in October: an evening of collective action for water conservation

DON’T …

• Don’t flush anything apart from loo paper down the toilet 
• Don’t put oil and fat down the sink, as this can cause blockages 
• Avoid using household cleaning products and other chemicals that are ‘hazardous to aquatic life’
• Don’t abrasively scrub away at non-stick pans – these can be significant sources of PFAS/PFCs
• Avoid covering your outdoor spaces with hard paving or artificial grass – even a small amount of grass or soil can help reduce the flow of run-off water to your local rivers and reduce pressure on drains during heavy rain 
• Avoid using chemical fertilisers and pesticides in your garden

With many thanks to Ecocounts, Eden Project and Energy Saving Trust for the information

Further reading:

Waterwise for information, projects, campaigns and water efficiency training courses

For a comprehensive, year-round, seasonal run-down of sustainability hacks and advice, check out the Dunelm* season-by-season guide, offering over 40 tips to help you live more sustainably.

*Muswell Hill Sustainability Group is an independent organisation that does not endorse brands and businesses, but will pass on information felt to be useful to our community, and recommendations from our community based on personal experience.

Imagine a future where you can purchase clean electricity directly from a local supply company or cooperative, which runs wind turbines in a nearby field, or solar panels on the roofs of local public buildings. Imagine if every pound you spent powering your home supported local jobs, helped fund new facilities and services for your community, or contributed to further renewable energy infrastructure. 

With a community energy revolution, this could all become a reality. 

‘Community energy’ refers to small-scale renewable energy projects owned and run by local people. A great example is En10ergy, MHSG’s own community energy project, which has installed solar panels on the roofs of Marks and Spencer Muswell Hill, the Muswell Hill Methodist Church, and Woodside and Fortismere Schools. En10ergy promotes and invests in local renewable energy and facilitates emissions and waste reduction in the surrounding community.

There is huge potential for community energy projects to bring clean, cheap, secure energy to local homes and businesses, creating new jobs and keeping wealth within local areas. 

 picture credit: ‘Community Power in Waltham Forest’ event, image courtesy of James Perrin

The problem

However, the growth of community energy projects like En10ergy has been stalled by unfair regulations and disproportionate costs that have barely changed for 30 years.

The costs associated with becoming an energy supplier are huge, so projects are typically unable to sell the power they generate directly to local homes and businesses. Instead, community energy groups have to sell to big energy utilities for a fraction of the price that they could receive if they sold locally. This is preventing communities from accessing affordable, locally produced clean energy. Although the profits these projects can currently generate are fed back into the community – for example through energy efficiency support and fuel poverty relief – neither small-scale energy projects nor local communities are seeing the full benefits of local power generation.  

Such a harsh environment means there are very few community energy projects in the UK, with community energy making up just 0.5% of our overall energy generation. Studies have shown that, if the right enabling measures were implemented by the Government, this could grow twentyfold in the next ten years, powering 2.2 million homes, saving 2.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year [1], and creating 30,000 jobs [2]. 

picture credit: Banister House Solar, image courtesy of Repowering London

The solution 

At Power for People, we are campaigning for changes to law and policy that would unlock the remarkable potential for growth in community energy generation. 

We have built a grassroots coalition of tens of thousands of individuals, community groups, councils and local and national organisations, all of whom support this goal. We work by coordinating advocacy from this growing coalition, amplifying local voices so they have an impact on discussions and decisions in Parliament. 

This approach – asking our supporters to engage with their elected representatives in favour of measures to support community energy’s growth – has proved very successful. 

Together we have already secured over £24 million in Government community energy funding. This money is helping groups start and develop small-scale renewable projects. 

We also, in February 2025, persuaded the Government to change a key piece of energy legislation to include community energy. Because of our collective efforts, Labour’s flagship Great British Energy Company will be able to support community-led energy schemes alongside larger ones. 

The fight is not yet won. Our ultimate goal is regulatory reform of the energy system to allow community energy projects to sell their power directly to local homes and businesses. Establishing these ‘local supply rights’ would allow projects to stand on their own two feet in the market; it is the single biggest change we can make to support community energy’s growth, and unleash its benefits for people and the planet. 

Will you join our grassroots movement today? 

Please sign up to support the campaign for clean energy to benefit local communities: https://powerforpeople.org.uk/sign-up 

Find out more about us at powerforpeople.org.uk 

[1] Environmental Audit Committee; 2021 – https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/406/

[2] The Poverty and Environment Trust, ‘The Call for A Level Playing Field’; https://povertyandenvironmenttrust.org/current-projects 

Biffa’s Edmonton MRF is a ‘Super murf’. The second largest Material Recyling Facility in the UK, at 35,000 sq m.

It employs over 300 staff across four shifts and processes the contents of the recycling bins of 1.7 million people living in the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) area. And it runs 24/7, only closing for Christmas Day.

Which amounts to 295,000 tonnes per year, or 47 tonnes per hour, we were told by Craig Rattigan, Operations Manager, who took an MHSG tour around the facility in March, followed by a Q&A in their board room. “That’s the equivalent weight of 1,250 Northern Line trains per year”, he told us.

None of these incredible figures could have prepared us, however, for the sight of literal mountains of recycling, relentlessly unloaded onto the tip floor by non-stop dumpers, reduced to Tonka toy proportions, by comparison.

Baleful bales full …

It is a dusty, depressing, dystopian battlefield to waste. A churning, grinding overhead network of hoppers, conveyor belts, sorters and compacters, ferrying and sorting the piles, before spewing out huge bales of separated materials, to be sold on for recycling. Bales which are intermittently quality checked for contaminants, we were assured.

The most valuable are aluminium – the easiest and cleanest material to recycle infinitely, fetching £1,100 per tonne – and glass, which will achieve £35 – £40 per tonne.

Interestingly, while most of the materials remain in the UK – Rattigan was quick to point out – coloured glass, typical of the wine industry, is sent back to Northern Europe for wine bottle reincarnation, for which there is limited demand here at the moment.

All glass is received by “off-takers” (commodities markets) and ‘desharpened’ before reanimation, which can also be as sand to counter beach erosion, or for use in road aggregates.

Meanwhile, Biffa’s plastics bales all remain in the UK for recycling, paper is shipped to Europe and cardboard goes “deep sea” – a somewhat sanitised euphemism for crossing oceans and continents. While the thorny issue of flexible plastics remains just that.

As Rattigan explained, it would cost them £125 per tonne to process. Nevertheless, Haringey Council has announced plans to introduce roadside collection of soft plastics.

It is a sad fact that virgin plastic remains a cheaper option than recycled and, despite evidently unfit-for-purpose legislation requiring manufacturers to include a minimum of 30% recycled plastic in their packaging, some manufacturers are willing to take the financial hit of government fines for using virgin plastic.

Notably Pepsi.

“A sticker on packaging that reads 30% recycled plastic should read”, Rattigan told us “‘we’ve done as little as we could!’”

Divide and conquer …

Edmonton MRF processes paper, card, aluminium, ferrous metals, PET (water bottles), PP (margarine and yoghurt cartons) and HTPE (milk and chemicals bottles) plastic. Each are sorted, sifted and redirected into single material streams by, variously, air ducts (separating lighter materials), vibrations (glass), water (paper), electromagnetic drums (ferrous metals), QR code identification (PET bottles), optical sorters (which identify different densities of plastic via infra-red technology), different sized apertures (card and paper) and …

… and by hand!

This was the next great shocker.

Lines of gloved, masked workers, picking over an unceasing river of waste, pulling out non-recyclates. These include textiles, wet wipes, composites (blister packs, for example, which are not financially viable to separate), electrical wires (which are recycled separately), garden waste and waste contaminated by food, grease … or worse!

A dirty nappy was fished out as we watched, that would have contaminated an entire bale, redirecting 1,500 tonnes of paper to incineration.

This ‘wish-cycling’ retrieval amounts to 22% of Edmonton MRF’s recycling intake ending up being incinerated.

Some MRFs are introducing AI to take on this job, we were told, but not only would it cost between £130-140m to rebuild such an adapted Edmonton facility, but robots cannot spot hidden materials, nor the nuances of different materials. And so, in eight-hour shifts, people pick through an inexorable flow of rubbish, with incredible speed. An unceasing task that Rattigan actually admitted made him feel “sea-sick” when he has joined them.

It is the sobering scene behind your recycling bin fairies …

Asked what his prime policy change would be at a governmental level, Rattigan quickly answered “consistency”. With so many councils operating with different guidelines, collection models and materials accepted, uniformity in our recycling process would vastly improve on efficiency.

In a stunning example of why disunity doesn’t work, in fact, the success of DRS (deposit return schemes) for single use drinks containers in Europe was discussed amongst the group. Rattigan explained that Biffa had spent £14m on winning the Scottish DRS scheme, but it was cancelled by the government because Scotland wanted to include glass returns too.

He is understandably quick to flag up the MRFs wins – the work they have done with the likes of Greggs and Ribena to help them make their packaging more recyclable, for example, and their prioritising of recycling over incineration (you’d hope). But less so on the carbon emissions created by the plant. These were figures that Rattigan couldn’t bring to mind, but assured us that they were published annually. Some deep googling here has so far unearthed none.

But he offered a grain of hope in reporting noticeable reductions in the volume of recycling received by Edmonton MRF, which he puts down to changing consumer behaviours and reductions in packaging.

Which is where our domestic separation efforts come into play.

How can we help …?

Back in the clean calm of the boardroom, divested of our Easyjet-orange safety gear, Rattigan further fielded our concerns about the workforce, defiantly claiming that 50% have been with them for 5 years and over. And offered some less obvious tips for reducing the need for such picking by sorting more knowledgeably and vigilantly at home …

The holy trinity: CLEAN. DRY. SEPARATE …

• Any food debris or grease marks larger than a 50p piece on items put in your recycling will constitute a contaminant and end up being incinerated
• Rinse the worst of food debris and dry containers
• Don’t conceal different materials – a jar inside a box, for example – keep everything separate, so that it is spotted by machinery, technology and manual sorters
• Look for the recycling sign with a number in the middle to identify a recyclant
• Remove the lids from large jars

Non-recyclates that should not go in your recycling bin …

• Textiles (including wet wipes) – charity donation or upcycling is still the best option here. Biffa, in fact, buy in unsellable donations to tear into rags for cleaning their machinery
• Shredded paper, which is too small to be recycled
• Polystyrene (which includes plant pots and CD covers, surprisingly)
• Composite packaging, involving multiple layered materials (such as blister packs) – look to Terracycle for more specialist recycling
• Flexible plastics, including “crinkly” packaging that “bounces back” – all of which should currently be taken to larger supermarket collection points
• Coat hangers

And you don’t have to …

• Remove plastic films from food trays
• Remove lids from smaller jars or bottles (magnets will do this job)
• Remove plastic caps from bottles (infra-red will sense and sort through the higher density of coloured plastic)
• Remove tape from cardboard boxes, nor labels from paper

And finally … the TetraPak conundrum …

The recycling of Tetrapaks – which are fibre composites of paper, plastic and aluminium layers – can be theoretically recycled, and are accepted in kerbside recycling bins by many councils (Haringey included), but the honest response from Craig Rattigan at Biffa is less clear cut …

“Tetrapak and other fibre-composite products are a little confusing … while they are deemed suitable for recycling with us, as we can separate them, due to processing we cannot guarantee the whole product is recycled. This is because our off-takers who recycle our mixed fibre product into paper may not have the ability to separate and recover the plastic and aluminium aspects of the products, so these could end up going to waste.”

He advises that we clean TetraPaks out thoroughly “for the best chance of recovery,” but that we ideally drop them at larger supermarket’s TetraPak-specific collection points, where available.

“Overall, we can accept them, ” Rattigan summarises, “but to guarantee that the whole product is recycled and recovered into new products it would be best to separate them for specialist collection. However, I do understand this is not always feasible with space constraints.” 

Our sincere thanks to Craig Rattigan and the Biffa team for giving us their time and a fascinating tour

Further resources …

London Recycles – for in depth recycling advice and services information

Haringey – for council services and guidelines

Terracycle – for specialist recycling

Biffa – for information on Edmonton MRF

Despite being a rainy February weeknight, it was great to see so many people turning out and tuning in to the livestream, to hear three fashion industry experts unpick the problem of fast fashion.

And to see such a range of ages present too. Because it is an issue that touches us all. Clothes and textiles are everywhere. So much so that, in an evening packed with stark statistics, we learned that there are now enough clothes on the planet to dress the next six generations.

The audience had gathered to listen to Ali McAleavy, founder of sustainable kids’ shoe brand ZIG+STAR, Jose Baladron from second-hand retailer and charity Traid and denim consultant, Tim Browne from Ministry of Denim.

Each brought a different perspective to the problem, across the key sustainability touchpoints of consumer behaviour, sustainable design, end of life considerations and reuse; whilst examining the environmental, ethical and social impacts that lie behind an industry that has the fourth largest environmental impact after transport, housing and food.

The fashion industry emits 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases annually …

That’s more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. It employs 70-75 million people – a number that has tripled in two decades – and produced 170 billion items of clothing in 2023 – a number that has doubled in just one decade.

And the UK is the top consumer in Europe, buying approximately 3,640 billion items of clothing annually, accounting for 5% of our annual spend, on average. Of which – in London – 26% are unworn, shamefully! But of which Traid have put 228m garments back into use, brilliantly!

These clothes, approximately, are worn just seven times in the UK before being thrown away. But, as we know, there is no ‘away’.

So, 300,000 tonnes of clothes are sent to landfill here, every year. Or are shipped to the Global South (up to 80% of charity shop donations are unsellable and exported), with Kenya alone receiving over 220,000 tonnes per year.

And buying recycled clothing (which notably constitute a very small percentage of discarded clothing) is not the solution either. Manmade fibres can only be recycled once and will then suffer the same fate: “The worst thing you can do by making something out of a plastic bottle is stop it being a plastic bottle,” Tim pointed out.

We did promise you stark statistics!

This rocketing trajectory is both consumer and retailer led, and over a shockingly short time …

Speaker Ali McAleavy worked in fashion for over 25 years, latterly as the Head Buyer at Top Shop, before starting ZIG+STAR in 2021. Her departure from fast fashion was prompted by a growing disillusionment with the direction that the industry was heading.

“It was a very creative industry to be part of,” she recounted. “It was all about creating beautiful items of product and democratising fashion. Over the years it completely changed and was all about price, margin and the amount of units you could push through the stores, and less and less about quality.”

“We were being pushed to make decisions,” she continued “that 1) weren’t right for the product and 2) weren’t right for the consumer”. This cynical strategy had rapidly become one of actively promoting over consumption and over production, such that her original average of 1,000 unit orders leapt, towards the end of her career at Top Shop, to 50,000 units, “which was completely unrealistic and unethical.”

The very human price for this ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’ model is paid by the workers …

With that, Jose Baladron showed us shocking slides of the Rana Plaza factory collapse that claimed 1,100 lives in Bangladesh, and the Tazreen Fashion fire in Dhakra, killing 110 workers. The policy of locking in workers during their shift – not even allowing toilet breaks – meant that they were unable to escape.

And the recompense for working so dangerously? Just £6.50 per day for a skilled operator in the Bangladeshi denim industry. 50% less than the unions asked for.

On such low wages, their children also suffer. A birth certificate in Bangladesh costs £45 and is a requisite for a child to go to school, or even to a doctor. Within their phenomenal international support agenda, however, Traid is providing childcare centres for textile workers there, with access to education, meals, healthcare and to that crucial birth certificate.

The next big shocker was the amount of water consumed by the industry…

79 billion m3 every year, specifically, which is set to rise by 50% by 2030, Jose told us. And this is all potable water, more appallingly. The production of just one cotton t-shirt uses around 2,500 litres of water, which would take around 6 years for one person to drink! How many t-shirts do you have in your wardrobe?!

No surprise that we then saw images of shrinking water bodies and a cracked mud flat that was once the thriving Aral Sea in Uzbhekistan, now dessicated, with 80% of its water consumed by the textile industry. In total, Tim related, the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global water waste.

And denim is the thirstiest culprit …

A single pair of jeans consumes 3,781 litres of water through its life – 2,600 of which is in cotton cultivation. This is all the more frightening when you consider that over 50% of the world is wearing jeans at any given time. For such a universal, egalitarian and timeless item of clothing, it is all the more senseless that the mass market is focusing on a speedy turnover of trends at the lowest price and poorest quality, resulting in 35,000 tonnes purely of jeans heading for landfill in the UK annually.

More sobering still, the average price of jeans was £20 in 1985, we learned, equating to £80 today. The true cost of a sustainably produced jean now should be a minimum of £70, yet the average price is £30; and Primark are currently selling lines at between £14-£22. As a result, Tim urged us to make jeans buying a considered purchase and to ask “Why?”

Both consumers, in their choices, and designers also need to consider the end of life of an item …

Ali’s designs have longevity built into them, from their innovative ‘Good To Grow’ designs, with a removable midsole allowing for up to 9 months extra wear as little feet grow, to building as much adjustability and durability into a shoe and creating gender neutral designs, maximising the hand-down potential.

She also uses sustainable and ethical materials – natural rubber soles and gold standard leather, approved on its animal welfare, processing and chemical usage in production. Which means that at the end of their life they are better for the biodegradable properties and easier to take apart.

But the responsibility doesn’t end at the design.

Circularity continues in a trade-in policy at ZIG+STAR, an international donation route through Sals Shoes, occasionally to schools where children would not be able to attend without shoes. She also works with commercial recyclers to repurpose the rubber in playground surfaces, for example, and is continuing her mission “to give growing feet a smaller footprint” with an upcoming preloved collection and by continuing to work with universities to find a way to reuse her materials and fully close the loop.

Jose equally explained that Traid donates unsellable textiles to universities to experiment new recycling techniques with, so technology is working to catch up on the problem. But that’s not us off the hook. Far from it.

So, what can we do …?

Reduce, reuse …

Donate your clothes to charity shops – Traid have 700 roadside banks and 12 shops around London, to drop clothes off at, or you can book their delivery van through the Traid or Haringey websites for collection. And buy less new, more second hand.

Reduce water and energy consumption and microplastic leaching by not washing your clothes as regularly. Jeans, in particular, should be worn 10 times between washes and aired between wears.

Take a break. Like our audience, make the pledge to take a month (or more) break from buying new clothes and read more about the No Buy movement here.

Mend and upcycle your existing clothes.

Style up classic, timeless items like jeans.

Set up clothes swapping groups.

Ask questions  …

Is the retail price fair? How can it be made at that price?

Research the brand and retailer to check if they are on the ‘naughty list’, some of which are pictured here.

Be alert to vague terminology, green imagery and a lack of transparency in the entire supply and production chain. Seek out some of these organisations for information.

Beware the greenwash – notably those pushing one environmental win whilst ignoring their damaging practices. As Tim pointed out, H&M are particularly poor at skewing their sustainability figures by pulling in those of more responsible sub brands COS and Arket.

Look out for …

Is it organic cotton (which uses less water)? Has the organic cotton been fibre traced? Does it have a Fibretrace / GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification?

Is it Fairtrade certified? SAC and BCI certificated (cotton certifications)? Is it Cradle to CradleⓇ certified? Look out for some of the rubber-stamping logos pictured here.

Also look out for recycled cotton content (PIW or PCW) and embrace less thirsty cotton alternatives like linen, hemp, Tencel, jute and bamboo.

Avoid any petro-chemical fibre content, including lycra, elastane and polyester.

Check for COREVAⓇ or ROICAⓇ v550 fibre content, if buying stretch fabrics, which have a natural rubber base.

And finally …

“Buy Less. Choose Well. Make it Last”

Vivienne Westwood

Suggested reading …

A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion: Basics Fashion Design by Alison Gwilt, Bloomsbury

Sustainable Wardrobe: Practical advice and projects for eco-friendly fashion by Sophie Benson, White Lion Publishing 2023

Mending Life: A Handbook for repairing Clothes and Hearts by Nina and Sonja Montenegro, Blue Star Press 1923

Sustainable Fashion for Dummies by Paula N Mugabi, For Dummies 2023

Check out Good On You for 18 Must-Read and Sustainable and Ethical Fashion Books

Huge thanks from all at MHSG to Ali McAleavy, Tim Browne and Jose Baladron for three fascinating, illuminating and brilliant talks.

If you missed the evening, you can catch up at our YouTube channel.