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Artwork for Circular Economy Podcast episode 153

153 Anette Timmer of DESSO: the beauty of circularity

We hear insights from Anette Timmer of DESSO by Tarkett, a leading carpet brand that was an early adopter of circular economy principles.
Anette Timmer began her journey with DESSO almost 18 years ago, and has played a central role in the business’ transition to a circular economy model.

Anette helps to bridge the gap between the vision and execution of circular transformation, using marketing and communications to educate audiences about circularity; develop stakeholder trust and transparency; inspire behaviour change among customers; and build advocacy and momentum across the wider industry.

Anette is a strong advocate for cross-industry collaboration, where businesses share experiences, and work together to create systems to circulate products and materials.

DESSO is now part of Tarkett, and has a long-held belief in designing with people and planet in mind, and over a decade ago, it made a bold commitment to place circularity at the core of its ambitions.

Moving towards a closed-loop system has involved a total change of mindset within the business. DESSO calls its commitment the Beauty of Circularity, and it drives the business to do more with less at every stage. –

Annette unpacks the three pillars of Desso’s beauty of circularity strategy: designing products to live multiple lives; developing innovative materials that are made to be remade; and building systems to return flooring at end of life to complete the circular journey. And sometimes, synchronicity steps in to lend a hand!

Artwork for Circular Economy Podcast episode 151

151 Clarissa Morawski of Reloop Platform: practical policies for circular packaging

Clarissa Morawski, CEO of Reloop Platform works with governments, industry stakeholders and NGOs to develop policies for a packaging circular economy. Clarissa brings nearly 30 years of technical, analytical and communications experience in waste reduction operations and policies. She started her own consulting business in 1998 and co-founded the Reloop Platform in 2015. As CEO, Clarissa works with stakeholders and partners to develop smart, practical and effective policy frameworks and operational recommendations, and combines her no-nonsense communication skills with science to make the case for ambitious policy.
Reloop Platform’s mission is to accelerate the global transition to a circular economy by working at the centre of policy-making with governments, industry stakeholders and NGOs. Reloop’s primary objective is to prevent waste, by reducing production and consumption, re-using packaging wherever possible and collecting materials properly for closed loop recycling.
We talk about a recent report, the Global Recycling League Table, that Reloop produced in partnership with Eunomia; and Clarissa highlights key elements of the recent EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations.
Clarissa shares some insights on how to make sure policies actually make a difference and don’t get sabotaged by various vested interests; we hear how mindsets are changing, and brands are starting to see litter as a real issue.
We discuss Deposit Return Schemes and which ones are seen as best-practice, and we cover some of the issues affecting the safety of virgin and recycled packaging materials.

141 Joel Tasche: scaleable solutions to plastic pollution

Joel Tasche founded CleanHub, a Berlin-based company that provides a scalable solution to plastic pollution. CleanHub connects coastal communities to proper waste collection in places where that doesn’t exist, at the same time creating safe and dignified jobs. Brands can support the mission by funding the collection of waste that otherwise wouldn’t be collected. CleanHub accepts ALL types of plastic – not just the stuff that’s easy to turn into value. CleanHub’s AI technology tracks the entire process from collection to disposal, ensuring transparency. It’s verified by TÜV SÜD according to ISO standards
Joel’s mission was sparked by a love of the ocean. As a traveler and surfer, he witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking reality of plastic pollution, everywhere he went. Whilst disheartened, Joel resolved to dedicate his working life to keeping plastic out of the sea. Many doubted he could make a difference. Fast forward to today, CleanHub has collected over 9 million kgs of plastic waste and partnered with more than 300 brands, helping them reduce plastic and collect more plastic than they use.
Whilst we see images of ocean plastics, beach plastics and landfills, we’re perhaps less familiar with the dreadful working conditions of those trying to earn a living by collecting and sorting the waste. Resolving this is at the heart of CleanHub’s mission, and we’ll more about how it does that.
Joel also talks about the complexities of plastic waste collection, how to scale new ventures, and how keeping ethics at the heart of your business really helps bring everyone along with you.

Circular Economy Podcast - artwork for episode 136 with Julia Brenner of Melta

136 Julia Brenner of Melta: creating value from food waste

There is a simple solution to conserve, and reuse, more of the nutrients from food waste.
In today’s episode, I’m talking to Julia Brenner, a soil scientist and co-founder of Melta, a company dedicated to transforming waste management and soil health. Julia and her business partner founded Melta in 2020, to solve two interconnected challenges faced by rural municipalities: the lack of accessible and cost-effective food waste solutions, and the difficulty of transporting organic fertilizers to remote areas.
This is a brilliant example of something that is needs little investment, saves money, time and space, and can be adopted easily, all around the world. It is easy to scale out, and a great example of a local, regenerative solution to the typical ineffective, expensive and resource-intensive solutions that we see in western society.
The Melta system uses the Bokashi process which is thought to originate from East Asia, centuries ago. The Bokashi process converts food waste and similar organic matter into a nutrient-rich soil additive which also improves soil texture.
Melta’s innovative system for organic waste collection, processing, and utilization can reduce municipal waste transport by 70%, and producing a nutrient-rich fertilizer that is cheaper and easier for farmers to access.
Julia studied soil restoration at the University of Iceland and then delved further into nutrient cycling and climate models at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She continues to engage in collaborative field experiments with the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland and Icelandic Agricultural University. Julia is passionate about making “sustainability” a realistic and attainable goal, and is committed to bridging the gap between practical waste management and soil health.
We discover why dealing with household food waste is such a big headache for rural municipalities; and how the bokashi process can easily become part of a system that’s better for households, farmers and the local council.
Julia explains how the Bokashi process works in practice, and why households prefer it over other methods like putting food waste in with other refuse, or have separate food waste collection bins. As we’ll hear, the results are amazing – and the system is very simple, so it could be easily used in rural areas around the world.

Circular Economy Podcast - 104 Richard Burnett – Diversity and packaging innovation

104 Richard Burnett – Diversity and packaging innovation

Innovation and diversification is key to the success of James Cropper, a 6th generation family business, based in the English Lake District. Richard Burnett is Head of Technology and Innovation at James Cropper, a prestige supplier of custom-made paper products to many of the world’s leading luxury brands, art galleries and designers.

Richard oversees the Technology & Innovation (T&I) function at James Cropper, with projects including the Colourform moulded packaging proposition and the acquisition of Technical Fibre Products Hydrogen, a world leader in green hydrogen technology.

Richard led the implementation of the CupCycling programme, introducing the world’s first upcycling process for take-away coffee cups.

They discuss the challenges facing the packaging industry, and how James Cropper is both innovating and diversifying, with innovations in speciality paper, bespoke luxury packaging, and advanced non woven and electrochemical materials. We hear about developments in materials, in packaging design, and in manufacturing technology.

Photo of chemicals in lab

A circular economy opens up opportunities for the chemicals sector

Catherine Weetman calls for systemic changes to create value instead of waste. Moving to a regenerative, circular economy is the key to a low-carbon economy and offers opportunities for the chemical industry to develop profitable products and services. Cefic (European Chemical Industry Council) is helping chemical producers and providers to get on board with the many opportunities of going circular, and Catherine was invited to share her thoughts on why circular is so important, and how chemical companies can help make circular solutions work better.

Circular Economy Podcast 97 Alice Mah - Unpicking plastic propaganda

97 Alice Mah – unpicking plastics propaganda

IT’S EPISODE 97, and today we’ll be talking about plastics, a familiar circular economy topic, from someone with a someone with a less familiar background… Alice Mah is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, in the UK, and she’ll help us unpick the propaganda about plastics and their role in a circular economy
I came across Alice’s work when IEMA’s Transform magazine interviewed her about her latest book, Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations are Fuelling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About It. I’m a member of IEMA, which is the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Alice unpacked some of the ways the plastics industry is trying to improve our perception of plastics, including how it tries to reframe the circular economy as a recycling issue. She highlighted other worrying aspects of how the petrochemicals industry is operating, and we’ll hear some of those.
Spookily, a few weeks later, on the same day I’d emailed Alice to invite her on, I was in the kitchen half-listening to BBC Radio 4’s sociology programme, Thinking Allowed, and up popped Alice, being interviewed about the ways the plastic industry uses its corporate power to influence our thinking around plastics.
Alice Mah holds a PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics and was Principal Investigator of the large-scale European Research Council project “Toxic Expertise: Environmental Justice and the Global Petrochemical Industry” from 2015-2020. Her research focuses on environmental justice, corporate power, and the politics of green industrial transformations. Her next book the is Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation.
In today’s conversation, I’ve asked Alice to help bust some myths around plastics and their potential role in a circular economy…
Myth #1 Plastics can support a Net Zero economy
Myth #2 Plastics are safe – in other words, it’s wrong to link plastics to health issues
Myth #3 Plastics are essential for our quality of life
Myth #4 Exporting plastic waste to low-income countries helps the country, and/or the local people, create value from that plastic
Myth #5 Plastic recycling can play an important role in the circular economy.

Circular Economy Podcast - 96 Nick Oettinger - Keeping mattresses in circulation

96 Nick Oettinger – keeping mattresses in circulation

Nick Oettinger is Founder and CEO of The Furniture Recycling Group (TFR Group) in the UK. Nick has 12 years’ experience in recycling and waste management. He was previously Managing Director of a specialist construction company before moving into the waste and recycling sector, where he spent five years as an improvement consultant and nine years in product recycling.
The Furniture Recycling Group (TFR Group) provides mattress recycling, rejuvenation and collection, working in the UK with bed retailers, local authorities, home delivery companies and waste management sites to keep mattresses and their materials in circulation. They rejuvenate and recycle over 10,000 mattresses each week, and are responsible for diverting nearly 9% of all UK mattresses away from landfill.
We’ll hear how online retailing has transformed the market for mattresses, and led to increased levels of returns. Nick explains the complexity of mattress designs, and how TFR Group is going beyond recycling to help its customers recover more value from unwanted mattresses.
Nick describes the broader circular services and advice offered to The Furniture Recyclng Group’s clients, and what makes mattresses such a challenging product to reuse or remake, including barriers created by our sub-conscious perceptions.

Circular Economy Podcast 95 - Simone Andersson - social value from circular e-waste solutions

95 Simone Andersson – social value from circular e-waste solutions

Simone Andersson is Chief Commercial Officer at WEEE Centre, a Kenyan social enterprise that’s been expanding safe e-waste management and circular solutions across East Africa, since 2012. Simone’s background is in communication and sustainability action around waste and water management, and before joining the WEEE Centre she was at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), where she led innovative developmental projects on resource efficiency, circular economy systems, traceability, precious materials and various solid and liquid wastes.
Her mission is to create awareness about the possibilities and prosperity of Green Business and Clean Tech.
The WEEE Centre focuses on people, planet and prosperity, in particular by helping young people improve their social and economic circumstances. It’s aiming to expand the collection infrastructure to cover all Kenyan Counties and to increase local recycling by bringing more advanced technologies. It also wants to reach other African countries, starting with neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.
By 2019, the WEEE Centre had recycled more than 10,000ntons of e-waste, serving over 8,000 clients across Africa, and creating hundreds of jobs. It became the first and only e-waste management organization to be ISO certified with multiple awards. WEEE Centre has the capacity to recycle all types of e-waste, and has trained many other African countries on safe e-waste recycling.
We’ll hear about the operational complexities, some of the collaborations and partnerships they’ve fostered to overcome the challenges of being a relatively small enterprise, and how they’re trying to make sure they create value-adding circular flows, rather than focusing on recycling.

Circular Economy Podcast - Ep93 Guglielmo Mazza ReFuse Eco

93 Guglielmo Mazza – helping communities refuse packaging waste

Guglielmo Mazzà is an environmental engineer and social entrepreneur, and the co-founder and CEO of ReFuse, a social enterprise based in Beirut [Lebanon] that offers community-based solid waste management services. Guglielmo worked in development initiatives and humanitarian response in the field of water, sanitation, hygiene and financial inclusion, across Europe and Africa. His passion is combining equitable access to resources with ecosystem justice and restoration.
ReFuse has a mission to work with underserved communities, enabling them to sort recyclables and get rewarded for it. ReFuse says: “Where most people see a pile of waste, we see opportunities to improve the lives of vulnerable people. Secondary raw-materials have an unexploited value.”
Guglielmo explains some of the issues faced by many people living in Beirut, where approximately one-third of the population are migrants, with many living in temporary tented communities. Poverty, inequality and lack of government funds are big issues, and there is a lack of basic infrastructure, including a reliable electricity supply.
We hear how the ReFuse operation works, how they’ve expanded the range of materials they can recycle, and what they do with it all. We find out what motivates people to bring their recyclables along to the ReFuse stations – surprisingly, for many people, it’s not about the cash.