By Johanna Bürkert @BuerkertJohanna     With the all too well-known virus and alongside side effects dominating the news, it is sometimes easy to forget that there is also other stuff going on in this world (like…that overflowing pile of laundry, anyone?). While I do not (in any way) want to downplay the importance of…

I’m running through a huge hallway. Some doors are closed, others open. People standing crammed in a little corner trying to hear and see what is going on inside. Which room was it again? I check my phone, an enormous schedule on a tiny, tiny screen. This should be it. Still breathing heavily, I’m contemplating…

By Johanna Bürkert @BuerkertJohanna     As the days get shorter and the leaves begin to fall, I can’t help but longingly think about the beach while staring into my morning cup of tea. Sometimes when I take my first sip, I close my eyes and think about the blue skies and the cries of…

A quick search through your garbage bin at home will likely tell you, unsurprisingly, that a lot of your waste consists of plastic. These pieces all have a different shape, a different size, a different sturdiness. This is what makes plastic such a valuable (while being cheap) material. Its manufacturing is extremely flexible, which allows…

Summer in the Netherlands. Sometimes it is extremely humid and cloudy, many times it rains, but there are these days that are just genuinely nice. On these days, regardless of any viruses, beaches are crowded. Ironically, the annual beach cleanup had been cancelled due to COVID-19. So instead, toolkits are handed out to encourage beachgoers…

On Tuesday the 28th of July, Erik van Sebille and Stefanie Ypma hosted a webinar to share the first results on the Galapagos Plastic Free project. Invited were all alumni that have donated to our project via the crowdfunding campaign of Utrecht University. You can watch the webinar below (only in Dutch): For more information…

Done my morning yoga, whistled at my parakeet, put on my slippers and took a cup of tea upstairs to my ‘office’. A very normal start of the day in these very abnormal times. I turn on the computer and work through my email. Almost every single reply is messaged to a person that I…