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BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Channel Islands facing demographic ticking time bomb, says report
The Channel Islands could raise a combined total of more than £150m each year in tax by improving workforce participation and addressing an ageing population, according to a new PwC report highlighted how boosting employment rates within the islands' existing population could help improve the economies by about £ warned of an escalating skills shortage emphasised by ageing populations and low birth rates if action was not Yildirim, chief strategy officer for PwC Channel Islands, said it was of "critical importance to focus on workforce participation if the islands are to avert a demographic ticking time bomb". The analysis compares the Channel Islands with New Zealand, which it said was a leader in workforce said achieving employment rates similar to New Zealand could increase the Channel Islands' workforce by an additional 7,500 had the potential to raise more in tax than Jersey as there were more people not in the workforce than could be. The report said employment rates reflected "high rates of early retirement and the extent to which women either delay returning or go back to work part-time after having children".To combat the issue, it was suggested governments could make childcare more affordable and enhance education added employers could make jobs more flexible and embrace an older workforce while islanders could adopt a mindset of lifelong learning.
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Could we recycle more rubbish in North West of England?
It is a warm afternoon and the sky above the Whinney Hill landfill site near Accrington is full of seagulls. Hundreds of them fly across the site, some landing to forage amongst the bags of rubbish. The air smells rancid. The site has been operating since the 1970s and takes household waste from across East Lancashire, but it has grown and it is now expanding towards residential areas."It's best described as being horrific," says local resident Gary Hough when I ask him what it is like to live near the site. "The mess that the gulls drop on your vehicles, on your home, onto your driveway, your garden furniture, your washing. "Depending on the wind direction, the smell can vary from mild to absolutely disgusting."Whinney Hill landfill site is run by Suez. It said the firm was regulated by the Environment Agency and also explained that Lancashire has one of the largest seagull colonies in Europe. After the coronavirus pandemic, the gulls came inland to find food. "As the birds are a protected species, we are able to take non-lethal preventative measures to ensure the seagulls do not feed from the site, such as the use of gas canons, blank firing pistols, pyrotechnics, lasers and birds of prey," a spokesman says. Suez also says it regularly meets the local community to discuss concerns and it manages the smell by covering the waste and has landfill gas controls. However, Mr Hough says residents want it closing down. "Why should we suffer in a residential community from 15 boroughs worth of household waste?"Dr Edward Randviir, senior lecturer in chemistry at Manchester Metropolitan University says: "There is a lot of environmental impacts of landfills."It creates biomethane which gets emitted to the atmosphere. "Sometimes this is captured by the companies. Some waste gets out and gets blown around. "Even though they are encased within these cells, you do get some pollution which leaches out, even though there are mechanisms to try and stop that from happening." Landfill is seen as the worst option for our black bin waste. We have been burying our rubbish for decades and despite attempts to reduce it, about 8% still goes to landfill. In the North West of England, we send 290 tonnes of household waste to landfill every year. There are 50 landfill sites in the region and 21 are already at capacity. In a bid to reduce how much we send to landfill, councils have been hit with higher charges. The main alternative is to burn it. We send about 43% of our region's waste to incinerators like the EFW Facility in Runcorn, which is run by Virador. It burns 3.5 million tonnes of rubbish every year, rubbish which can't be process creates electricity, but here too some residents are unhappy. The incinerator blocks Ralph Owen's view of the Mersey Estuary."The noise from the plant is incessant," he says."It's a dull, droning noise. I don't open my bedroom windows at night. "The noise is too disturbing…to have actually moved what is a dirty industry so close, beggars belief." He is also worried about the local air quality. Operators have an obligation to capture any toxic gases. Virador says its operation is preventing millions of tonnes of waste going to landfill and it takes its environmental responsibility seriously. It says it has "state-of-the-art processing and filtration systems that ensure emissions comply with environmental permits and wider regulation".The site here is set to expand to build a carbon capture plant. Mr Owen says that means more industry on his what about levels of recycling? And why aren't they more impressive?We recycle just 45% of household waste in the region. In Greater Manchester about a million tonnes of cans and plastic bottles a year end up at the combined authority's recycling centre in Sharston. Levels of recycling in the region are above the national average example, Stockport recycles about 60% of its household levels of recycling are stagnating. Alison Fare, from Recycling Greater Manchester, says: "I think we've hit a point nationally where most places are recycling as much as they can." She says once they have a new materials recovery facility, they will be able to recycle plastic bags, films and wrappings. But the levels are also affected by contaminated loads. 'Collective responsibility' Daniel Carolan, from Suez, which runs the centre, says: "It's a real shame if the teams have been out for two or three hours and the bin wagon is full. "They might have collected 400 or 500 bins that day, but if 10 of them have the wrong things inside, it affects the whole load."While he thinks people could recycle more he believes the answer is a much bigger issues."We can't recycle ourselves out of trouble," he says. "We need to re- educate ourselves, and ask does this need to be thrown away, or could it be reused or repaired?"And that solution is echoed by many. Dr Randviir says: "We have to have a collective responsibility for waste. "Not least because it is a wicked problem. "It is not just the collectors who have a responsibility, it is us as consumers, it is us as disposers of waste. "We all have a collective responsibility in my view." Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
'I lost who I was with postnatal depression,' Bristol woman says
A mother says the traumatic birth of her baby, followed by several miscarriages, left her feeling isolated, depressed and in a "very dark place".Rachelle, from Pill, near Bristol, was in and out of consciousness during the birth of her daughter Willow four years ago and went on to experience postnatal 37-year-old said: "The first couple of months were really, really hard for me. I went through a really dark place. I felt like I'd lost who I was."She is now speaking about her experience to encourage others to "feel liberated to talk about the challenges of motherhood rather than facing it alone". Growing up as part of a "big family" in the Philippines, Rachelle said she had always wanted to have "lots and lots of children".But following the birth of her 11lb (5kg) baby girl, she was left feeling lonely, depressed and "angry at everything and everyone"."All my habits, all my hobbies, all the things that I used to do, I lost because my entire life revolved around this tiny little being that depended on me," Rachelle said."We grin and bear it and say 'we're fine, we're fine, everything's fine', but really [it's], 'no, we're sleep deprived, no, it's getting to me'." What is postnatal depression? Postnatal depression is a common problem, affecting more than one in 10 women within a year of giving birth, according to the can include a persistent feeling of sadness, tiredness, a lack of energy, a lack of enjoyment, trouble sleeping or withdrawing from is important to get help as soon as possible if you think you might be the cause of postnatal depression is not completely clear, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and "having someone you can talk to and turn to for support" can help prevent it. When Willow was two, the couple decided to try for a second baby, but after two years of trying and several miscarriages they have stopped for the time being."There are days when I've had to drag myself out of bed, you experience so much grief but I kept it all to myself," she said."No one knew apart from my husband."Women don't talk about these things out loud, maybe because it's hard to talk about - guilt and shame plays a lot into it." Four years on, Rachelle said she was "still working" on getting back to feeling like herself again, but the baby and mum sessions she joined when Willow was a baby helped her find her "mum tribe" and meet some of her best friends."It was nice to find other people who related, who I could text at three in the morning going 'I'm having the worst night ever'," she has now set up her own children's activity franchise covering North Somerset and South West Bristol."Just as much as it is for babies to move their little bodies, it makes such a difference for women to make new friends and find that womanly support," she said.
