Latest news with #KateJones
Business News Wales
a day ago
- Business
- Business News Wales
Creative Agency Opens Wales Office as Part of Major Expansion
A full-service creative and digital marketing agency is launching a Welsh office to support its national and international growth. Jim Carpenter, the former co-ceo of Orchard, and corporate comms specialist Kate Jones will drive Welsh expansion, opening offices on Cathedral Road in Cardiff. The duo will bring 50 years' combined experience to which has four existing offices and a 50-strong team of creatives, digital experts, strategists and video production. The vision for the Welsh operation is to contribute to the group's annual £50 million billings whilst building on a client portfolio that includes MG Motor Group, Geely and Visit Jersey. 'There is a massive opportunity for a firm – with a Welsh footprint and understanding firmly based in Wales – to bring 'big agency' experience and skills to companies and organisations across the country. Businesses don't need to go outside now for the 'wow' factor and the 'track-record',' explained Jim, co-founder of Wales. 'We will deliver new momentum, drive action and accelerate positive outcomes for clients when it comes to raising awareness, penetrating new markets and increasing return on investment. 'The plan is to take a pan-Wales approach, creating jobs and promoting growth and opportunities right across the Welsh creative and digital sector.' Formed in 2000, offers brand development, creative, digital marketing, media planning and web development services. It serves more than 100 clients from existing offices in Birmingham, London, Telford and Bristol and has set its sights on creating one of the largest independent networks of agencies that span key locations across the UK and beyond. The Cardiff office is the latest location in an ambitious six-month plan that will also see the opening of hubs in the North and its first international base. Co-founder Kate Jones said: 'Jim and I are both excited at the prospect of bringing our momentum, creative direction and focus to our clients through a truly local agency that has all the backing, experience and expertise that comes with a national full-service business.' CEO Nick Lovett said: 'Working with exciting businesses based in Wales has always been an ambition of ours and, like all areas, we respect the need to work on the inside to truly 'get' the unique local landscape. 'It is very rare to set-up a new agency with two of the region's most respected operators at the helm, so we're ready to really accelerate our expansion plans. 'In Jim and Kate, we have two experts that are passionate about the area they call home and have a significant bank of business and individual connections. We've invested in dedicated office space and are about to push the button on a recruitment drive, which will complement our existing 50-strong team of specialists who are eager to support the Welsh team in delivering the 'M3 difference'.' is awaiting its B Corp Certification, which verifies that a business is meeting high standards of performance, accountability and transparency on factors, including employee benefits, charitable actions and supply chain management.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
How to remove microplastics from your home, room by room
Look around most homes and you'll see plastic everywhere, on food packaging and cleaning products; even the mattress you sleep on and the sponge you scrub the dishes with are probably made from plastic. We know that our reliance on plastic is damaging the environment, but there is also growing concern for how it could be affecting our health. Plastic utensils, when in contact with heat, can leach chemicals into our cooking. Microplastics – plastic debris, sometimes containing toxins – can transfer from plastic chopping boards into our food. Studies have suggested links between microplastics and various health conditions. One way to address these concerns is to rethink our plastic use at home. For Kate Jones, author of a new book, My Plastic-Free Home, and owner of The Natural Living Shop, a refill shop in Lancashire, pregnancy was the start of a big reset and a plastic-reducing journey. She felt overwhelmed by the material things she was told she needed to buy for her baby and questioned the impact that plastic can have. 'It is such a new product in terms of how long we have been on the Earth, and we don't know the full consequences,' she explains. 'We know microplastics contain a number of harmful chemicals, and that the amount of microplastics in the world and our bodies is significantly on the rise.' Jones spent her maternity leave making changes, swapping plastic items for natural materials, and sharing her findings on her Instagram, @my_plastic_free_home. What started as 'an enjoyable obsession' evolved into an online community and is now a book, full of positive advice, tips, swaps and suggestions for living plastic-free. While Jones and her family have eradicated a huge amount of plastic from their home, she encourages other people to start slowly. 'Start with one thing that you'd like to change. When you're happy with that and it's become a habit, look for the next change. For a habit to stick and feel good, it shouldn't feel overwhelming.' Here are some easy swaps to start with. The kitchen The kitchen often harbours a lot of disposable plastic, which Jones says is top of the list when it comes to plastic she'd like to avoid. Food packaging is a key offender, so an easy swap is to use a greengrocer or a veg box delivery service where possible, instead of buying plastic-wrapped fruit and vegetables from a supermarket. Jones says that the sink is another great area to tackle. Use a glass bottle for washing-up liquid refills, or buy dish-soap bars. And opt for wooden dish brushes with tampico bristles that are strong and durable, over cheap plastic brushes. The wooden brush might change colour over time, explains Jones, 'and it is supposed to because it will eventually return to the earth and that is a good thing. We get it into our heads that we need everything to look fresh and new and we need to change that concept.' Jones avoids cheap sponges, which shed microplastics, and uses cellulose sponges made from wood pulp instead. These can go into the top rack of the dishwasher when they are dirty and eventually can be composted. She suggests using wood or glass chopping boards instead of plastic, swapping plastic food containers for glass ones with bamboo lids for the fridge, and using lightweight stainless-steel reusable containers when out and about. Try for plastic-free kitchen utensils and dish soap, and for food containers. Another top tip: Jones has a big basket of tea towels in her kitchen, which she uses for everything from wiping up spills to covering food. The laundry Before you even think about removing plastic from the laundry, you have to consider your clothes, explains Jones: 'If your clothes are polyester, they will shed microplastics every time you wash them. So a good thing to do is to look for natural fibres as much as possible.' Washing powders and tablets not only are packaged in disposable plastic, they also may contain silicones and parabens, which Jones says, 'aren't good for our waterways and are dangerous to aquatic life.' Although she is an advocate of making your own laundry products (you can find recipes in her book), there are also many eco-friendly laundry products on the market. Try laundry sheets, where the powder is embedded in the paper sheet (an ideal travelling solution and good for handwashing too; try and avoid laundry scent boosters which contain synthetic fragrances. Jones uses natural bleach, also known as percarbonate of soda, which brightens whites and colours. She recommends air drying (cheaper and better for your clothes, plus yet more microplastics are shed in the tumble dryer) and swapping plastic pegs for stainless steel or wooden ones (the plastic ones go brittle in the sun anyway). The bathroom 'The UK has an affinity for putting bleach down the toilet and it is so commonplace and something that I used to do, but it is so bad for the environment,' says Jones. A great alternative is citric acid, which is a disinfectant and eats away limescale. It is simple to use: 'Plunge the toilet so that the water level goes lower, then put a few scoops of citric acid in, leave it overnight, flush it in the morning and it takes away the limescale.' There is a concerning trend on TikTok for mixing bleach with other cleaning products, which creates toxic fumes. Instead, Jones makes her own multi-purpose cleaning scrub: a combination of liquid soap (the soap that you use for washing up) and bicarbonate of soda. 'It is mildly abrasive so it is great on soap scum or cleaning the glass on your shower. It is so effective and you can use it all over your house,' she says. She stores it in a glass jam jar and it has allowed her to dramatically reduce the amount of cleaning products under her sink. She also suggests replacing plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner with shampoo bars (she recommends Wild Ona and Eco Living) and buying toothpaste in aluminium tubes or glass jars (try or even in tablet form. The garden 'Starting from seed is my favourite tip, says Jones, 'as it avoids so much plastic. It's mindful and it helps you slow down.' Jones starts off her seedlings in little pots made from newspaper – all you need to do is roll the paper around a glass jar (you can use different sized jars according to the particular needs of the plants: longer, thinner ones for sweet peas, for example). Her children enjoy making the pots with her and the seedlings can be planted out into the ground inside their paper containers (seedlings in biodegradable cardboard containers that you can buy online can also be planted out in the same way). Instead of buying plant food, she suggests using nettles soaked in a bucket of water or using banana skins as a natural fertiliser – soak them in water first until they start to ferment (usually it takes a couple of days). Drain the liquid and use it to feed your roses or tomatoes. The bedroom The simplest swap in the bedroom is to switch to natural fibres when it comes to both your bedding and your mattress. Polyester sheets will shed microplastics, so cotton, linen or silk are the natural alternatives. Some of us probably haven't given a huge amount of thought to what our mattresses are made of but most contain foam made from plastic. Memory foam is made from polyurethane, a plastic derived from petroleum. Look instead for mattresses made from natural materials – for example, the British company Naturalmat makes mattresses from natural and biodegradable materials. A word of advice: Jones has not yet swapped her own mattresses for non-plastic ones because they don't yet need replacing and she knows that people rarely want second-hand mattresses. 'Sometimes you need to hang on to some of that plastic to avoid it just polluting the world,' she says, 'because there is no such thing as 'away'. If you put it in the bin, it is just going to go to landfill.'
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
‘My husband went surfing and had to take three days off work' - Over half of Brits scared to become unwell from UK waters
Less than one in five adults believe they will be able to swim safely in UK waters by 2030 without risking their health, as over half of Britons worry that sewage pollution will lead to illness. A recent poll of 2,000 people conducted by Surfers Against Sewage revealed that only 21 per cent trusted the government to ensure water suppliers reduce sewage spills, with over half a million discharges into our seas, lakes and rivers in 2024. An avid swimmer, Kate Jones has become unwell on several occasions after swimming off the coast of Pembrokeshire, with her husband recently sick after a morning surf shortly after sewage had been dumped. 'I've been caught a couple of times and am incredibly passionate about this issue. Sometimes on my day off I meet people for a swim and there's been several occasions where there has been brown scum along the shoreline, pretty much every time it rains. 'I've had it twice where I've become unwell after swallowing a gobful of water. My husband went out surfing last week when there was a sewage overflow at the local school, and he ended up off work for three days. I was also sick last week with my daughter.' In Wales, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water was responsible for 118,276 sewage discharges, an average of more than one sewage spill every five minutes. As a result, she and a group of other volunteers are participating in SAS annual Paddle Out on Saturday 17 May at Broad Haven Beach, which sees thousands of people take to the UK's beaches to protest against the ongoing sewage crisis. It's held at the beginning of the UK's official bathing season which runs until September, and encourages people to make use of designated protected blue spaces. However, during this period in 2024, there were 8,704 sewage discharges in England during the bathing season, an average of more than 60 a day. Stuart Davies, an organiser of the Brighton Pier Paddle-Out Protest said: 'We are paddling out because we seem to be in the same place each year. We see record levels of sewage pollution in our blue spaces, especially here on the south coast. 'Many a time, I have been personally affected. I can't go sea swimming. I can't go surfing. I also volunteer for the Wave Project which provides surf therapy for young people. That's been cancelled a few times, and we couldn't go in the water. It makes me extremely angry. We are paddling out in protest of the scandal and to call for total reform of the water industry.' It was revealed last month that sewage was discharged over half a million times into UK waters in 2024, for around 4.7 million hours. Instead of achieving a 40 per cent reduction, English water companies failed on their Environment Agency targets to reduce sewage pollution incidents, which increased by 30 per cent. SAS received 1,853 sickness reports through its service app in 2024, with 331 people having to see a doctor and 79 per cent reporting that medical professionals had attributed their illness to sewage pollution. Hundreds were diagnosed with gastroenteritis, chest infections and serious bacterial infections, with some having to be hospitalised. Giles Bristow, CEO at Surfers Against Sewage said: 'Another year, another summer of swimming and surfing in sewage while our shameless water companies laugh all the way to the bank. The public has simply had enough and will be paddling out in their thousands to send a clear message to government and the polluters: end this sewage scandal now! 'Our failing water industry has been trumpeting billions in investment to clean up their act, but we know that these fat cat bosses can't be trusted to keep their promises. 'The proof is in the missed targets, shocking statistics and devastating stories of sickness we continue to see year after year. We've had enough of their lies, greed and incompetence and know that this nightmare will not end until the whole water system is radically reformed. 'The thousands paddling out across the UK are letting the water companies, government and Independent Water Commission know, loud and clear, that we will not accept another year of risking our health to swim in the sea. 'People should be free to use the water without fear of getting sick, and that's why we developed the Safer Seas & Rivers Service, a free app that provides real-time pollution alerts, giving peace of mind for those worried about sewage pollution.' To join a Paddle Out protest, the largest events are taking place in Brighton, Bournemouth, Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth, as well as Broad Haven Beach in Wales, Dunbar in Scotland and Portrush in Northern Ireland.
