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Top 10 news stories of 2021

We look back at My Green Pod's most popular stories of the year
Katie Hill - Editor-in-Chief, My Green Pod
Top 10 news stories of 2021

2021 was a big year for the environment – from COP26 in Glasgow to the Environment Bill.

But these weren’t the articles that got most traction on My Green Pod: beyond those big headline-grabbing stories, other green pearls were bringing readers to My Green Pod.

Here are 2021’s 10 most popular sustainability news stories from our website.

1. Silicones in cosmetics

01/02/2019

This Q&A with NATRUE’s Dr Mark Smith reveals what you need to know about the silicones in personal care products. It encourages us to think about the ‘plastics’ – or manmade polymers – inside our products, as well as the single-use plastics in the packaging we buy.

Read more here

2. Biodegradable fishing nets

27/12/2019

Continuing the plastics theme, a project involving the universities of Portsmouth and Plymouth in the UK and the University of Brittany in France aims to develop a completely biodegradable fishing net with a controlled lifespan.

Read more here

3. The Voice of a River

22/04/21

This new short film, released for Earth Day 2021, tells the story of a man who risked his life to save a river he loved. In 1979, Mark Dubois chained himself to a rock behind New Melones Dam in the USA’s Stanislaus River Canyon and threw away the key.

Read more here

4. Plastic-free Easter eggs

06/02/2021

In February Co-op announced it would remove the plastic packaging from its Easter eggs. The retailer removed plastic from the inner packaging and windows for all five of its own-brand hollow Fairtrade Easter eggs, saving over 14 tonnes of unnecessary plastic.

Read more here

5. Call of the Wild

17/02/2021

WWF enlisted Sir David Attenborough as the first guest in this new podcast series, hosted by actor and broadcaster Cel Spellman. It looked at how, by stopping and reconnecting with nature, we can turn things round before we run out of time.

Read more here

6.Recycling rapid tests

02/05/2021

In May it was announced that, in a UK first, Covid-19 lateral flow tests could be recycled into children’s chairs, outdoor furniture and more. At the time, 384 million kits had been ordered by the UK government, all of which were going to landfill or being incinerated.

Read more here

7. Living with the Maasai

22/02/2019

We went on a family trip of a lifetime: living with the Maasai in Tanzania. We had the time of our lives and would encourage anyone who can to go out there for an experience that would be extremely difficult to beat.

Read more here

8. Ditching Ecover and Method

12/06/2018

A regular on our top 10 lists, this is the news story that just won’t go away. In 2018 ethical retailers are urged to stop stocking Ecover and Method because they had been bought out by SC Johnson, which openly tests on animals.

Read more here

9. Biophilia

20/11/2014

Our good friend and all-round sustainability champion Oliver Heath explains biophilia, a new approach to eco-design. As the UK’s leading expert in this field, Oliver champions a biophilic approach to promote health and wellbeing in homes and offices around the world.

Read more here

10. Time to ban disposable BBQs

28/04/2019

Wildfires raced through acres of British countryside in April 2019, devastating the beautiful Ilkley Moor. Calls were made to prevent further damage by banning disposable barbecues.

Read more here

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