31 March 2021
This guide will walk you through five steps to help you embrace the circular economy in your business by enabling a circular business model.
Read more25 March 2021
Despite the challenges of 2020, the Community RePaint Network adapted to new ways of working in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and even welcomed four new schemes. Find out how schemes were able to continue operating and distributing reusable paint to their communities.
Read more23 March 2021
With fieldwork put on hold in 2020 due to the Covid-19 lockdown, our evidence team lead and appointed Health and Safety Advisor, Peter Wills, applied his skills and knowledge to help staff work safely from home and to get client projects safely up and running.
Read more12 March 2021
With the second DRS consultation imminent, our Principal Consultant Will French revisits the first round: how it was received by local authorities, key developments since then, and what we can expect next.
Read more4 March 2021
To celebrate B Corp Month, Resource Futures Consultant Katie Powell shares her experience of working for a business that prioritises people and planet.
Read more23 December 2020
In a challenging year for so many, the environment and sustainability may not be at the heart of our choices, but it is possible. Our Junior Consultant Olivia Sweeney shares her tips for a sustainable Christmas and a green New Year.
Read more2 December 2020
Listening to Kate Raworth use familiar language to explain the concept of Doughnut Economics, Resource Futures Senior Consultant, Kate Chambers realised the importance of words in opening the circular economy conversation to novices and experts alike.
Read more18 November 2020
The new ban on some single use items on 1 October 2020, following Scotland’s ban in 2019, signifies the growing commitment across the UK to address single use plastics. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, we are faced with a fresh onslaught of single use plastics being used to tackle the spread of the virus. Senior Consultant Hanna Plant looks at where that leaves reusables, and what the future may hold.
Read more13 November 2020
The most common thing I’m asked for when presenting is examples of successful circular economy models to help prove the business case. This request suggests people remain to be convinced. Similarly, its regularly suggested that circularity in business is a ‘leap of faith’ or ‘high risk’ and that consumer demand is not yet there to …
Continue reading “Circularity hidden in plain sight”
Read more2 October 2020
Pete Wills, Senior Consultant at Resource Futures, has been looking at the emerging opportunities made available by new technology to help identify post-production and post-consumer plastics in the field, and in particular plastic film. He considers the challenges for the waste sector and how this advanced technology will improve the identification of plastic types and thus aid their sorting, disposal and routes to recycling.
Read more30 September 2020
David Lerpiniere, Head of Global Resources and Waste Policy at Resource Futures, says we must redouble efforts to create a global circular economy, not only for the health of our global citizens, but of our planet and our future.
Read more24 August 2020
Consultant Katie Powell’s new found love of sewing during lockdown has taken her on a sustainability journey looking at how we can minimise the environmental impact of the clothes we buy.
Read more5 August 2020
Jenny Robinson, Senior Consultant at Resource Futures, has been talking to her many contacts within local authorities about how they have been responding to new ways of working in response to Covid-19 safety measures – both for their staff and the public – at HWRCs. What can local authorities learn from each other and which of these new ways of working will become the norm in future?
Read more22 June 2020
Fiona Jarvis considers how new patterns in food waste behaviour are beginning to emerge under lockdown, suggesting the way in which we value food has changed. Can the current Covid-19 crisis help to ignite a long-awaited food waste revolution?
Read more16 June 2020
Resource Futures produced two guides for Zero Waste Scotland and their Resource Efficient Scotland Programme. They were designed to improve waste prevention on construction projects in Scotland, focusing on maximising re-use and promoting best practice.
Read more10 June 2020
Consultant Abby Mason considers how the impact of Covid-19 could shape recycling in the UK and what it will mean for materials markets in the future.
Read more21 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.
Read more11 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.
Read more1 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.
Read more24 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.
Read more20 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.
Read more3 April 2020
Reflections on news way of working at Resource Futures under the UK coronavirus lockdown, increased connectivity and flattening the curve
Read more18 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”
Read more13 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.
Read more12 February 2020
Research on the plastic value chain in Scotland to better understand this landscape and the potential for intervention to address marine plastic pollution.
Read more28 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.
Read more24 January 2020
Using up to date composition data of mixed residual commercial and industrial waste in Wales to estimate the proportion of the residual waste produced in Wales which could be avoided through recycling or composting.
Read more23 January 2020
WRAP, on behalf of DEFRA, commissioned Resource Futures to conduct research into the composition of residual waste from two waste streams: non-household waste collected by local authorities and non-household waste collected by private companies.
Read more22 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”
Read more6 January 2020
The Recycling Quality Information Point (ReQIP) project brought together information from a wide range of reprocessors about their quality requirements for the recyclates they received, and highlighted what they classed as ‘prohibited materials’ which could affect the integrity of their raw material.
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