Insights

21 May 2020

With a plethora of guidance available to help local authorities re-open their Household Waste Recycling Centres, Senior Consultant Laura Snoulton identifies the key communications areas to help councils ensure a smooth transition when re-opening.

11 May 2020

These extraordinary times are giving us an opportunity to reflect on some important issues, and how we need to place our environment at the centre of building a better future together. Here, Senior Consultant, George Cole, looks at how ocean plastics will drive part of the change that is needed.

1 May 2020

Consultant Sally Scholefield considers how shortages of disposable nappies in the shops during the Covid-19 crisis have contributed to a surge in parents making the switch to reusables.

24 April 2020

Local authorities and their contractors have risen to the challenge of managing waste in these difficult times and are doing a great job of maintaining services.

20 April 2020

Matt Polaine, Principal Consultant in Circular Economy, says we must look past the excess of information competing for our individual and collective attention to visualise new ways of solving global problems – and take inspiration from visionaries of the past.

3 April 2020

Reflections on news way of working at Resource Futures under the UK coronavirus lockdown, increased connectivity and flattening the curve

18 February 2020

The climate emergency might be just the catalyst the waste industry needs says Will French, Principal Consultant at Resource Futures. It is time to embrace the drive for measuring the carbon footprint of waste and the advances that may bring. There is a new line cropping up in local authority waste collection and treatment optimisation models. …

Continue reading “Through the carbon lens”

13 February 2020

To date, there has been a focus on the consumer’s role and responsibility in relation to marine litter. But our research has found that this pollution stems from decisions made further up the supply chain, and that the private sector has great potential to help tackle this problem.

28 January 2020

Bethan Jones, Head of Behaviour Change at Resource Futures says there’s a “gaping hole” in the Resources and Waste Strategy debate. Particularly when it comes to deposit return schemes.

22 January 2020

While the climate emergency is omnipresent in day to day life, that ‘emergency’ does not seem to have incited the endlessly pragmatic, can-do people of the construction sector into action. The figures speak volumes. Construction and/or buildings account for a staggering: • 1/2 of all extracted materials • 1/2 of all energy consumption • 1/3 …

Continue reading “Counting carbon – tackling climate change in construction”

30 December 2019

“This is the fight of our lives” says Ovais Sarmand, Dep Exec Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. “Every single person needs to make this a priority in the way they operate in the world.” It’s clear that there are early signs that we are starting to wake up to the threat of climate …

Continue reading “Construction and the fight of our lives”

18 December 2019

Christmas is not known as the most sustainable of times, being more commonly associated with excess – in terms of food, waste and consumerism. So is a sustainable Christmas actually possible? We’ve been making small changes at home over the past few years and this year it definitely feels like there’s been a positive shift …

Continue reading “Is a sustainable Christmas possible?!”

17 December 2019

Our teams help local authorities and businesses across the UK to find out what items and materials they are disposing of. These representative waste composition analysis studies provide not just insight into the materials that make up our waste, but also insight into the average volume of waste per house or per premises, which sheds …

Continue reading “5 ways to extract value from your waste data”

4 December 2019

From plastic-free living to Greta Thunberg and growing your own veg, the team at Resource Futures have compiled their favourite books on all things eco this Christmas. Whether you have an aspiring business owner, an enthusiastic young dreamer or know someone who simply wants to do their bit, this Christmas book guide offers hints and …

Continue reading “25 books to gift the greenies in your life”

3 December 2019

This week, Resource Futures has handed over the care of the CAG Oxfordshire Project to the local project itself. We’ve been working with the team over the past two years to consult with the network and set up the project as a new entity, a Community Benefit Society, so that it can take forward the …

Continue reading “The power of community action at a local level”

5 November 2019

Archana Pisharody, Consultant at Resource Futures gives an update on what has been happening in the world of WEEE and what is on the horizon for 2020.

14 October 2019

As Environmenstrual Week kicks off for 2019, Kate Chambers explores the issues around #plasticfreeperiods from consumer choice to flushing behaviours, marine litter and the rise of reusables.

9 October 2019

The arrival of the artificial grass pitch was a major leap forward for sports enthusiasts active in colder, wetter climes, used to scrabbling around on muddy pitches. Fast forward forty or so years and we now have third generation artificial turf pitches that have overcome the ‘performance problems’ associated with early solutions. But at what cost?

26 September 2019

Pressure is mounting for organisations to announce how they will respond to the ‘plastics’ issue. Many of our clients are looking to reduce their plastics consumption and find new solutions that benefit the environment. But where should they start? Senior Consultant, George Cole, explores the materiality assessment as a potential approach.

23 September 2019

The negative impact of fast fashion is an issue that is close to my heart. I worry about it a lot… In fact, I even wrote a poem about it! We have a warped relationship with textiles. In the UK, we consume more new clothing than any other European country, send 11 million garments to landfill every week and many of us feel embarrassed to be seen in the same outfit multiple times!

17 September 2019

David Lerpiniere, Head of Waste, Resources and Development at Resource Futures, says it’s no surprise there are growing numbers of sufferers from “environmental despair”. He says it’s time we look beyond UK shores. The Amazon is burning. Our rivers are polluted. The oceans littered with our plastics. It’s no surprise that there are growing numbers …

Continue reading “It’s time to think global”

4 September 2019

As a specialist consultant in resources and waste, we are called upon to help with everything from minimising construction waste to reducing plastic packaging footprints. We’re also a committed team (some may say geeks!) who take waste pretty seriously and do our utmost to #reduce #reuse #recycle wherever we can. Here are a few ideas and resources to help you on your way this #ZeroWasteWeek.

18 June 2019

As the dust settles on the Government’s announcement to ban plastic drinking straws, cotton buds and drink stirrers and moves on to consider further market restrictions for plastic plates, cutlery and polystyrene containers, Principal Consultant, Bernie Thomas considers the journey that has led us here.

5 June 2019

As I emerged from my taxi into the bustling city of Hyderabad, I felt an immediate assault to the senses… As time progressed, I was forced to reflect on how the UK ‘does waste’ compared to India. While we obsess with technical solutions (waste to energy, recycling innovation), India excels at a behavioural and cultural level.

16 May 2019

At a time when non-biodegradable waste such as plastic is making headlines on a daily basis, the immense volume of food waste is often overlooked. In Bristol we’re active at a local level, chairing the Bristol Food Waste Action Group as part of the city’s bid to increase its accreditation as a Sustainable Food City.

9 May 2019

Emma Burlow, Head of Circular Economy at Resource Futures, accepts that there is (or was) a default consumer position towards convenience, but if you ask today’s consumer what they want, they appear to be saying, at great volume, “less plastic” and are challenging retailers more than ever on over-packaging.

20 March 2019

Bernie Thomas, principal consultant at Resource Futures, says “solutions aren’t perfect” when it comes to packaging recycling. He says in a knee-jerk quest to solve one problem, we risk developing practices which themselves have unintended consequences…

5 March 2019

Kate Chambers, Consultant at Resource Futures, shares her thoughts on why she feels proud of Scotland, and why the country is uniquely placed to challenge the issues of marine litter and climate change. Last week, attending Marine Scotland’s first International Marine Conference in Glasgow, there was a lot to feel proud of.

18 January 2019

Archana Pisharody, Consultant at Resource Futures shares her thoughts on a recent business breakfast in Bristol hosted by the Future Economy Network, where presentations provided a positive outlook on the way forward to many of the unresolved challenges in the waste industry.

16 January 2019

Phillip Ward considers how a circular economy needs goods which are designed to last longer and are capable of being fixed – and probably upgraded – when they go wrong or improvements become available. But as with recycling, it’s not enough to wish for the outcome without addressing the systems needed to make it achievable in practice – and those systems need to address the whole repair environment, including its economics, if they are going to work.