Recyclable cups end up in landfill

Less than 1 per cent of disposable cups are recycled

By Irene Gomez

It is nine o’clock in the morning and there is a long queue in the coffee shop as people wait patiently for their takeaway dose of caffeine.

In the UK, 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away every year. Committee MP says that less than 1% of them are recycled, even if they are thrown in the recycling bins.

What makes difficult to recycle them is their composition, made of a mix of paper and plastic. Paper can be easily recycled, but it is plastic what makes the cup waterproof.

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Former banker helps LGBTI youth

By Veronika Galeva

Single Step, the first successful LGBTI foundation in a ‘communist hungover ‘country such as Bulgaria, founded by Ivan Dimov.

After living in the USA for 25 years, Ivan Dimov decides to return to his country on a vacation. On a night out he met a troubled teenage boy, who wanted to share his story. He told Ivan that he came out to his mother, expecting her to help him, but instead she took him to a psychiatrist who told him that she can cure his illness. The boy ran away from home and tried to commit suicide. ‘To say that his story stunned me would be an understatement. I wanted to know what kids like him do in situation like this’, Ivan shared. After the encounter he decided that it’s time for a change, so he returned back to Bulgaria, where he established Single Step. ‘In the USA charity is related to sports, so to start the foundation I ran 12 marathons, 42 km each, in 12 weeks in order to raise money. The next challenge was to complete 10 000 repetitions of pull ups, push-ups and squats, which took me 15 hours’.

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Students respond to lecturer strikes

By Rhiannon Bevan and HK Norman

University lecturers up and down the country are taking strike action today, in protest to University changes to the USS, University Superannuation Scheme, which affects the pensions of the lecturers.

Many lecturers would end up facing a cut to their pensions, hence why 80% of the members of the UCU voted to take strike action, which could last up to two weeks.

It is thought that around 1 million university students are going to be affected by the strikes. We had a word with two of them.

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University lecturers go on strike

By Jess Clayton-Berry

ANGRY Essex University Academics have taken to picketing outside the university entrances to fight for their pension rights.

The first day of a month-long pension strike by members of the University and College Union (UCU) began on the 22nd of February, which sees pickets placed outside university entrances, encouraging others to join in the protest.

The need to take such action has arisen after pension fund manager, Universities UK (UUK), proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) that the Union believes could leave lecturers having up to £10,000 a year taken off in their retirement pension.

According to the UCU, younger academics are due to be even worse off, potentially losing 53% of their pensions.

University of Essex lecturers have joined 61 other universities currently striking over the dispute in a bid to make university heads negotiate a better deal.

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MEP warns Anglian Water on pensions

Alex Meyer, MEP for East of England

By HK Norman

East of England MEP Alex Mayer is set to issue a warning to bosses at Anglian Water on Monday, criticising the planned closures to staff pension schemes.

The firm has announced the closure of their “Defined Benefits” pension scheme and further changes to their “Defined Contributions” scheme, which will affect 5,000 employees at Anglian Water.

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