Eddy's Good News: The kindness of a stranger and chemically recycling man made fibres

Virgin Radio

10 Jul 2024, 16:11

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio Anthems, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 2pm and 6pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Wednesday 10th July 2024

We always love a kindness of strangers story here and perhaps this is the most heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

In the Italian region of Puglia, famous for fruity olive oil and big red wines, a tragedy befell 25 year old Ciela Ditano when the lift doors opened on her apartment building without the lift being there. She fell four stories to her death. 

The story made the news and was seen by Steven Paparnesi, a young man who had moved there from Milan. Steven was still going through the grief of losing his 19 year old sister four years previously. Ciela’s tragic death brought it all back and he was moved to get in touch with her family to offer his help. 

“Us young people spend an awful lot of money uselessly, but I can give a little to someone who has need of it now and it won’t change my life for the worse,”

Steven had never met Ciela or her family and he ended up bearing the lion’s share of her funeral costs €2500.

“I did that which my heart told me to do.” said Steven, who is clearly wise beyond his years.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

We are all aware now that fast fashion is one of the world’s biggest problems. Discarded clothes account for a staggering 10% of all landfill in the world and the stuff that’s made of things like nylon or polyester leeches plastic into the earth as it painfully slowly degrades.

It’s a worldwide nightmare that’s got to change, but people are not going to stop buying clothes so science is trying to find a way around the problem and some super clever people at University of Delaware have found a way to chemically recycle man made fibres, separating them from the cotton in mixed fabrics and making them fully recyclable. It’s an incredible step forward and points to a future where we can close the loop on plastics in clothing. Imagine all polyester able to be recycled, it’s a game changer, and it’s cheap too.

It uses microwaves and a solvent which melts it. Once they have the pure components they can return the stuff into yarn. Like any of these inventions it’s now about investment to bring this to market.

I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one wishing them good luck.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org