contributed by George Robertson Anna has previously posted a story telling of our early encounters with disposable vapes. One fine day, walking along a very rural road in Dumfries and Galloway, we found a partly squashed mettle tube with some wires hanging out of the end, and the remains of some kind of wadding. What Read More…
Category: litter
Small hands, close to the ground
The story below reflects the way in which two projects I’m currently working on – Waste Stories and a project called Water and Fire – have begun to combine in my mind. Water and Fire is a collaboration between the Universities of Stirling and Glasgow in the UK with the Universities of Cape Town and Read More…
“Vorsprung durch Technik”
I found the detonator at the side of the road to Sandhead, on the Rhinns of Galloway. It had been run over, possibly by one of the big, heavy trucks transporting grass to the farms for silage, but its wires were still attached and some of the inner wadding material was poking out of one Read More…
Sic transit gloria
I know I will get accused of being a spoilsport, but: can we please ban foiletti – and their cousins, metallic party balloons? Governments in the UK have recently moved to ban “single use” plastics. The Scottish Government has positionined itself as leading the way in this respect. As part of the fanfare surrounding Read More…
The Patient Bride
Waste Stories was recently approached by Bruno Noriega, a fourth-year Film and Media student at the University of Stirling and friend of Phoebe and Marvin. He wanted to know a bit more about the project and to use it as a focus for a photojournalism assignment. Last Saturday, George and I went for a walk Read More…
Flower food
This morning (2nd December 2021), Waste Reduction (aka Stirling Community Food) had flowers. Pink lilies, the flowers just beginning to open to reveal dark-speckled, suggestive interiors. Huge sprays of Calla lilies, ready to fill a church or a village hall: wedding or funeral, they wouldn’t care. And dozens and dozens of white roses. Later, we Read More…
It’s not even December and they’re decorating the trees
I know it’s an annual trope, but Christmas (and Christmas waste) really did seem to start earlier this year. The shops switched to their Christmas ranges and started piping shmaltzy Christmas music, even before the lights were switched on. Amid concerns about continued supply chain “issues,” we are urged to stock up early: to Read More…
Heroes, villains and tidy litter
Throughout the last 15 months, there have been regular reports of widespread, and sometimes mass, littering. In the summer and autumn of 2020, and then again in the spring and early summer of 2021, many media outlets featured stories about waste left on the UK’s beaches and in our wilder or more rural areas. Legal Read More…
The Litter Lout’s Choice Awards – results now out!
We’re proud to announce the first results of the inaugural Litter Lout’s Choice Awards (Central Scotland, Stirling City Region – Beverages category). In the Beverages category, we saw strong competition from a wide range of entrants representing recyclabe packaging including tetrapacks, plastic bottles, cans and glass. High-performing entrants included bottled water, flavoured milk, irn Read More…
Edinburgh: a tale of two cities
Hannah and I have spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of months (since the formal start of the project in May) looking at waste (and where it ends up) round about Stirling. We’ll be adding blog posts about some of this soon, but I thought I’d start us off with an Read More…
