Claire O’Sullivan and Kitty Wilson Brown are two inspiring people who are passionate about the properties and potential of hemp, especially for textiles. Their journey together led them to found a UK business, Contemporary Hempery. Hemp has amazing potential, for a wide range of products, and it’s brilliant for regenerative farming practices – so why aren’t we doing more with it? It’s useful as a textile, in construction, in food and personal care products, and as an alternative to plastic....

People’s priorities are changing, as we realise more stuff doesn’t make us happier– so how can businesses thrive by doing better, with less? In this episode, Catherine Weetman suggests it’s time to bust one of the myths of the modern economy – people don’t want more and stuff! Priorities are changing, people are realising that more stuff doesn't make us happier. Instead, people are discovering that life is better when we care for, share and treasure our stuff, and what’s more, that’s better...

This is the 2nd part of Catherine's conversation with Ken Webster, one of the foremost thinkers in the circular economy field, where we explore concepts for a critical aspect that’s being ignored - the economy itself! In this episode, we go deeper into the possibilities offered by a universal basic dividend, especially as we move to a world where artificial intelligence might completely change the nature of work. Ken mentions his work with Earth4all, supporting the discourse and new...

This episode is different – Ken Webster is a leading thinker in the circular economy field - we explore concepts for a critical aspect that’s being ignored - the economy itself!Catherine says: Ken Webster is right up there as one of my CE heroes, and is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost thinkers in the field. From 2010 – 2018, Ken was Head of Innovation for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, shaping current concepts of a ‘circular economy’.. Ken also co-wrote the book that first opened...

It’s episode 118, and we’re going to talk about how we talk about the circular economy – the language we use, and whether it’s helping us, or getting in the way. Catherine Weetman talks to Ann Stevenson, the circular economy lead at Resource Futures, an employee-owned and non-profit distributing BCorp environmental consultancy in the UK.Ann has been working in the field of environmental consultancy for over 25 years, and one of her specialisms is understanding and managing risks in...

James Rigg is CEO of Trojan Electronics in Wales, and has a wealth of expertise in value-adding circular solutions for electrical and electronics manufacturers and retailers. James has built on his experience across retail and more recently, leading growth across the Buy It Direct Group, and is now focussed on expanding Trojan Electronics Circular Solutions to help retailers and manufacturers recover value and at the same time, reduce e-waste. Trojan provides services to high-profile brands,...

In episode 116, we hear from Chuck Fuerst, the Chief Marketing Officer for software provider ReverseLogix.ReverseLogix is the only end-to-end, centralized, and fully integrated returns management system built specifically for retail, eCommerce, manufacturing and 3PL organizations. The ReverseLogix platform facilitates, manages, and reports on the entire returns’ lifecycle.Catherine Weetman says, "When I first worked in logistics, back in the late 1980s, for most companies, most of the time,...

In today’s episode, Catherine Weetman is talking to Paddy Le Flufy about his book, Building Tomorrow: Averting Environmental Crisis With a New Economic System, which was published in March 2023. Paddy’s aim is to work out how we can improve our own society AND improve the lives of the billions of people currently affected by the dominant global systems. We explore the broader context of a future-fit economy... how do we create the conditions for circular solutions to gain traction? What’s...

Daniel Kietzer is Director of Ecosystem Growth at Rheaply, a digital sharing platform scaling reuse by making resources discoverable, easily transferable and more valuable. Rheaply was started in 2016, and has won lots of awards, including Most Innovative Reuse Company at the Reusies in 2021. It’s backed by a number of early-stage investors, including Microsoft and Salesforce. Daniel Kietzer provides strategic, organizational, and technical support to Rheaply clients and their partners....

Steven Bethell is a thought leader and pioneer in the post-consumer textile space for over 20 years, who’s creating innovative and relevant solutions to the crisis of stuff.Steven is co-founder of the Bank and Vogue family of companies, which includes a major remanufacturing plant where the circular economy for textiles is brought to life. Taking post-consumer waste and transforming it into relevant products, Steven works with big brands to help them bring their sustainability platforms to...

We meet Fiona Dear, a Co-Director at The Restart Project, which aims to keep our electronics in use for longer through repair and reuse. The Restart Project champions community repair, supporting regular Restart Parties where people teach each other how to repair their broken and slow devices. The Restart Project uses the data and stories they collect to help demand better, more sustainable electronics for all. Having recognised that there's only so much we can do to prevent waste...

How might we design and make ceramics in a circular economy? Ceramic products make our lives better in all kinds of ways. Some have been around for centuries (think bricks, tiles, pottery), and some are much more modern, in microchips and more. To help us learn about circular ceramics, we’re going to meet Sara Howard, a very impressive and award-winning ceramic designer and materials researcher, whose practice is focussed on reducing the environmental and societal impacts of ceramic...

Today we’re catching up with Dr. Katie Beverley. Katie is a Senior Research Officer at PDR International Centre for Design and Research, at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She works with academic partners and the public and private sector, to embed ecodesign, circular economy and sustainable thinking into products and services. Back in Episode 5, Katie helped us understand more about ecodesign. She describes herself as a ‘critical friend’ of the circular economy, and that feels like a great...

Catherine Weetman talks to Janina Nieper, an Architect and Designer, working at Furnify, a design agency in the Netherlands. Janina Nieper is passionate about concepts that promote the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants, including using the Circular Economy to help us stay within planetary boundaries. At Furnify, a company dedicated to creating circular spaces, Janina is in charge of Business Development and Consulting, merging her expertise in spatial design and Circular Design....

In the 2nd part of the conversation with Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and PlasticFree.com, Sian tells Catherine Weetman why, instead of  seeing a miserable picture of the future, we can reinvent a better, brighter future. As Sian says, by "fixing the plastic crisis, we will fix so much else." A Plastic Planet is one of the most recognised and respected organisations tackling the plastic crisis and PlasticFree, the first materials and systems solutions platform, empowering...

Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, tells Catherine Weetman why there are compelling reasons to design plastic out of our lives, and how PlasticFree.com helps us do that... Plastic is embedded in pretty much every part of our lives. The plastics industry promotes it as the perfect material for thousands of products, being cheap, lightweight, clean, and convenient. But is that really true? And are there better ways to design products, packaging and systems to meet the needs of...

In episode 106, Catherine Weetman talks to Yael Shemer of Tulu.io. Tulu.io is another disruptive start up, helping people ‘get more, from less’ - shrinking the footprint of production and consumption by improving the utilization of under-used objects.In the last episode, Gene Homicki told us how MyTurn’s software platform helps brands, public sector organizations, and community groups to rent and lend all kinds of equipment, tools and toys.Today, we hear from Yael Shemer, an environmental...

We’re going to hear about some amazing software that helps with the 2nd of the 3 key circular strategies Catherine Weetman advises people to use… getting more, from less. Finding ways to get more use out of under-utilized objects can have big benefits, especially by reducing costs. When we think about it, there are probably lots of things – both tools and toys – that we don’t use all day, every day. Sometimes we only use these things once or twice a year! But often, we want to be sure we can...

Innovation and diversification is key to the success of James Cropper, a 6th generation family business, based in the English Lake DistrictRichard 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 function at James Cropper, with projects including the Colourform moulded packaging proposition and the...

Reusable packaging startup Algramo is going from strength to strength, and we hear from Brian Bauer and Chris Baker on why customers in Chile, the US and the UK are buying into this.Algramo’s founder, Jose Manuel Moller, came up with a brilliant idea for reusable packaging to help what he called the poverty tax, paid by people who shopped at convenience stores. Those small, local stores sell everyday groceries and household staples, but often in small format packages. That means people often...

Jo Spolton is the founder of Rumage, a brilliant online platform that makes it super-easy for people to find – and buy - exactly what they’re looking for across a wide range of secondhand marketplaces.Jo is a Fine Art graduate and was a professional racing sailor. Her adventures when sailing around the world opened a window, showing how badly global consumption is affecting our planet.On the Rumage website, under a heading that says “let's make secondhand first choice”, Jo explains why she’s...

Catherine Weetman says "episode 101 seems like a good time to update my ‘what is the circular economy’ summary from Episode 1, back in 2019.In that first episode, I outlined the 5 components in my CE Framework, one of the core themes in A CE Handbook. Those 5 components are product design, safe, sustainable materials, circular processes, recovery flows, and business models.  I see these as the intervention points in value chains, the places where you can start to develop circular solutions,...

Catherine Weetman shares a bit of her backstory, including why she ditched her corporate career to help businesses get clear on how going circular is better for people, planet AND profit:Today’s episode is a bit different – Peter Desmond, who has been a great mentor and supporter over the last five years, was encouraging me to tell people a bit more about me and how I came to do this – my ‘why’, if you like.I was feeling really uncomfortable talking about my story, and then fate stepped in to...

Ben Jeffreys, co-founder of ATEC, is a multi award-winning social entrepreneur making better things happen. Right now, he’s focused on decarbonising cooking , which is a leading cause of illness and death for women and children,The WHO says around a third of the global population cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fuelled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and coal. That generates harmful household air pollution , and inhaling those toxic fumes kills more people...

Catherine Weetman talks to Barry O’Kane about software, one of the key enablers for circular economy solutions. Barry O’Kane founded HappyPorch, a software engineering specialist and consultancy (and now a certified B Corp) in 2015. Catherine met Barry a few years ago when he asked her to help him find examples of software that was supporting circular economy strategies. Barry interviewed a few of those companies for Happy Porch Radio, and has featured many more software-related circular...