We’ve been continuing our collaboration with artist and college lecturer Mia McGregor (responsible for the Waste Stories from NCLAN exhibitions in 2024), and as a consequence we have a new exhibition – Art with Purpose – on show in the St Andrews Building for the first half of May – see the events page for Read More…
Waste Stories Blog
2026 calendars and new year, new project
Although we’ve been quiet on this blog in the last few months, we’ve been busy in the background working with Dumfries and Galloway College and New College Lanarkshire, setting up a new project, wandering about and wondering about waste. More about the projects with the Colleges soon. We’ve also expanded our range of free merch Read More…
Something to celebrate
The world is having another go at agreeing on a plastics treaty. Negotiators from 180 countries have gathered in Geneva to try to decide what to do. Most of the news media use the language of crisis: France24 talks of a ‘global crisis’ of ‘life-threatening waste’, the BBC and ITV both use the word crisis Read More…
The Stràilleach Golamas
Has anyone here met the Stràilleach Golamas? He lives on the foreshore, in the space between where the water reaches when the tide comes in, and where the water reaches when the tide goes out. And how long do you think he’s lived there? For as long as the tide has come in and gone Read More…
Waste is a monster
Thanks to some additional funding from the University of Glasgow’s Knowledge Exchange Fund, George and I are currently working with the GRAB Trust on a project related to their Beaches and Marine Litter Project. The project uses the well-known “Arrochar litter sink” as a focus and impetus for trying to encourage novel thinking and action Read More…
Washed Up and Blue
The funding Waste Stories received from the Leverhulme Trust came to an end at the end of 2024. The Trust’s generous support has allowed us to create ideas, methods and partnerships that we will continue to develop into the future. 2025 started with a new venture in collaboration with our excellent colleagues at the Solway Read More…
Two new Waste Stories
We’re delighted to be able to make two new Waste Stories available to read and download. Arrochar and the Waste of the World is a true story about the Scottish village of Arrochar, located at the top of Loch Long. Arrochar suffers from constant deposition of litter/waste on the foreshore, washed up the loch from Read More…
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!
by George Robertson Data analysis by the BBC shows that burning plastics is not unlike burning fossil fuels. In response to concerns about gas emissions from landfill sites, there has been increasing use of energy-from-waste (EfW) plants (alternatively waste-to-energy, WtE). Incinerating domestic waste to produce electricity seemed like a good idea at the time, particularly Read More…
Waste Stories from New College Lanarkshire 2: loss and inheritance
This is the second of a series of posts featuring visual Waste Stories created by students from New College Lanarkshire. In this post, we focus on the related themes of loss and inheritance, which have a special poignancy for George and myself as well as for Mia McGregor, the amazing artist and teacher who made Read More…
Waste Stories from New College Lanarkshire 1 – Nicotine: the waste consequences of addictive consumption
It’s just over a week since our celebration event at the University of Glasgow’s School of Education, marking the exhibition of visual and sculptural Waste Stories produced by students at New College Lanarkshire. The artworks included in the exhibition explored waste from a variety of perspectives. This is the first post of a series of Read More…
