Every year, around 12,000 kilometres of textile materials are dyed. It requires huge amounts of fresh water, which, after use, is full of colourants, chemicals and salts. With support from the EU, a factory in Belgium found a way to remove more than 90% of those pollutants so that the same water can be fully re-used in the whole dyeing process.

Amy Baxter, UK winner of the Juvenes Translatores competition at the awards ceremony yesterday (6 April) in Brussels