Libby Peake: Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We are the charity and think tank dedicated to achieving ambitious leadership for the environment. I’m Libby Peake, Senior Fellow and Head of Resource Policy here at Green Alliance. And I’m sad to say that resource policy is one area where ambitious leadership has sadly been lacking over the many years I’ve been working on the topic. But all is not lost, and there’s hope in that the government should be publishing the first ever circular economy growth plan for England soon, which has to be a positive move.

This episode is a bit different to what we usually do. Instead of the next half hour involving me talking about the circular economy, we wanted to let you hear it for yourselves, through the voices of the people actually making it happen. You’re going to hear from people working on the ground, repairing, refurbishing, reusing and renting, who don’t just understand the circular economy in theory, but live it every day. Their stories are a powerful reminder that the circular economy isn’t some distant policy idea. It’s already here. It’s already working. And perhaps most importantly, it’s something people really care about and want to see more of.

Before we dive in, it’s worth saying a bit about how we came to meet them, because these conversations didn’t come out of nowhere. The circular economy, one that moves away from the take-make-waste model that costs people and planets so dearly, is something that Green Alliance has been working on for a long time. We launched our circular economy task force back in 2012, and we have, in recent publications, focused in both on the startups and the large companies who are already driving better use of resources, to the benefit of their bottom lines as well as their customers, not to mention the environment. Given this government’s overarching interest in growth, we’ve also done some deep dives into wider economic impacts, and this year worked with Strategy &, part of the PwC group, on their analysis of the potential for GDP growth in the UK from a circular transition. That research found that if the UK matches comparator countries in just four sectors, construction, textiles, packaging and electronics, GDP could grow by 1% by 2035.

I think that all of the evidence we’ve built up over recent decades and honed in on in recent years is incredibly compelling. And if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s all there on our website and in our past podcasts. But I’ll admit it’s pretty wonky and academic and removed from the average person’s everyday life. The circular economy is something that the general public, from every political stripe and socioeconomic category, really supports on a theoretical level, even if they wouldn’t call it the circular economy. 83% of those who we surveyed last year thought that throwaway society is a big problem in the UK, and there is strong support for ambitious measures to tackle that, including 74% of the public supporting a long-term target to bring resource use into line with what the planet can provide.

So, for our final big project ahead of the launch of the government’s growth plan, my colleagues Emily and Alice travelled to locations around the UK that included Europe’s largest circular fashion business in Glasgow, the UK’s biggest reuse hub in Manchester, a facility in Stafford that repairs and refurbishes products for Screwfix and B&Q, and a community repair cafe and a library of things in London. In the interviews, five clear themes stood out to us. The first, which will be music to the government’s ears, is that people really see that there are real opportunities for growth, in line with what our evidence has been saying for years. Here’s what Callum, product return specialist at B&Q, had to say.

Callum: The demand’s been really, really, really positive and it’s a lot more than what we anticipated it to be. We only had a small range of products to start with, but we had a lot of stock and the demand for it outstripped the supply. In terms of the future, we think this is something that’s only going to keep increasing and we’re going to keep adding to the ranges because it’s clearly what the customer wants. And we expect that other people will pick it up as well. And we’re going to see a lot more refurb and repair coming.

Libby: We also spoke to Kola, an engineer at iForce at the same facility who retrained as an engineer after COVID made his career as a chef untenable. He gave us a really compelling account of how this growth can translate into opportunities for people to have rewarding careers.

Kola: This is a great place to work and I truly believe in what we do here. When I started here four years ago, there was only a team of six technicians. Now we’ve got over 40 guys working with us. It’s definitely a future in what we do here. The company is expanding. The range of product that we’re processing is getting bigger. We’re also looking into repair processes. So there’s definitely future in the company, future for me in here. And I’m looking forward to be working here.

Libby: Up in Glasgow, Michael, who works for circular textiles company ACS, describes how his experience there has seen him develop new skills with a clear path to gaining more.

Michael: I was looking for jobs after job after job, been to [inaudible] too. And I wasn’t fit for the job because I have a disability and all that. And I applied for the job centre, and the job centre sent me here. I did a disability course and now I work here full time and I’ve got my thought lift licence at the same time. I basically take stuff out the trucks, unload the trucks, put stuff on the trucks, lift stuff in the pallets to go to rackings and drop them off. My job, what I think is, it feels amazing that we are doing something from the community and recycling stuff and rent stuff back out. Before I used to buy clothes, not basically rent clothes out like that, because I thought it would be stains on it or it would smell different, but now I would actually rent clothes out any shops or any places or buy rentals. I think my future will be much better now than before. I want to be more than a worker. I want to be like a team leader. And I want to be higher, like be a boss. And I can commit to the company more big and bigger.

Libby: Those three stories really brought the evidence to life for me, and they add a human depth to the case for the circular economy that you just don’t get from research alone. Sticking to the financial side of things for a minute, we also heard that it’s not just businesses and workers that can benefit, but also the public, including through quality reused products that cost less than new, through rental services that give them access to tools for a fraction of the cost of buying new, and through community repair initiatives that can help them fix their products for free. At East London Waste Authority’s Repair Cafe in East Ham, one of the many such community repair spaces that are thriving throughout the country, we spoke to volunteer Kemi, who explained…

Kemi: The great thing about the repair cafes is it helps people save a lot of money, especially now in this day and age with the cost of living. People find it really hard going to get their garments repaired at the dry cleaners. And they always do mention that every time they come, they go, look, this has really saved us a lot of money. Because if you think about it, you repair a zip for £25 and you’re getting it done for free. So that really has put that garment that would have been out of use back into use. So it’s just a great way of helping people make savings.

Libby: And then there were stories like the one told by Kyra, a marketer for a nearby library of things. It was a heart-warming story about how renting household tools allowed one single mum to not only save on money but also to feel empowered.

Kyra: We had a story come in recently from a single mum who had saved up all these jobs essentially around the house and couldn’t afford to pay a tradesman to come in and help. And Library of Things opened in her area and she ended up coming in, borrowing a drill and some other items and using our online guides and essentially managed to get all those tasks done herself. She wrote to us and she said, I never would have thought that I could do these things, I could gain so much confidence. It’s a really lovely story of how having this shared community resource can really empower people.

Libby: And that sense of empowerment came up again and again in different ways. For some people, it wasn’t just about saving money, but about being able to access high quality things they simply wouldn’t have considered or been able to afford if buying new was the only option. As someone who really loves hunting on Vinted and in charity shops and dress agencies for cut price designer dresses, it’s certainly one of the things that I love most about the circular economy. But our interviews showed that I’m far from alone. And it was really notable that people who are working in these sorts of businesses commonly have a realisation that buying new isn’t the only way to get access to good quality goods. Here’s Bruno, a site operative at Suez’s Manchester Renew Hub, a convert to the idea that second-hand can be first-rate.

Bruno: When the items come here, we check a lot of things. We check the cable, we check the plug, we see if they work or not, the functionality, and we PAT test before then we price it and send it to the shops. And we also have the mentality of like, would I buy it? Before I worked for Suez, I was definitely kind of person of like, I need to buy new to make sure it will last. But since I work here and I’ve seen the process and actually been through the process of doing the PAT testing and checking the items, I really trust the reused items.

Libby: Meanwhile, Jason, Screwfix Returns and After Sales Specialist, made an interesting point. Refurbished tools often get checked more thoroughly than new ones. Many also come with warranties, another reason people are turning to circular options.

Jason: For new products that come through from our vendor base, they only actually test a sample of those products depending on their process. For the refurbished products, every single product is tested, which means that you’ll guarantee the quality of the product.

Libby: We’ve focused a lot on the hard-nosed financial benefits of the circular economy so far, which I think is right in a time of economic woes and a cost-of-living crisis. But there are other reasons to love the circular economy too, of course, and I want to focus in on what we heard about those, to close the podcast with the warm and fuzzy feeling I’m not ashamed to associate with these activities. Because we also heard a lot in our travels about how the circular economy builds connections and a sense of community. One of the stories I particularly loved hearing was how Rahima, a first-time visitor to the Easttown Repair Cafe, came across this space and what she thought of it.

Rahima: I was sitting at King George’s Hospital, waiting for my appointment, and one of the elderly ladies that was sitting next to me, talking about all kinds of things, and she said, I said I wanted some stuff done, I said my mother’s passed away, but there doesn’t seem to be anything out there for me to, you know, for somebody to be able to help me. But she just said it on passing, “repair workshop”, which I knew nothing about. She took a pair of trousers there and had it fixed. So I said fine, so that’s what made me come first to the workshop. It’s certainly a behavioural change for me and it should be for others. And the fact is that if I had thrown stuff away, I mean like I said I’ve got a clock at the moment, I would have thrown that away but because it was of sentimental value for my mother, I didn’t want to throw it away and I brought it here and now I’ve found that they could actually repair it. I think the communities that do come to the repair cafes, some come as friends, some come as new people who are just curious about what it’s all about and want to find out. But a lot of the workshops that I’ve been to are buzzing. There’s a lot of people around, a lot of people inquiring. But it’s not just only a workshop because some of the repair workshops have like today, tasting food. It’s also finding out about recycling. They’re all very positive, they’re all very friendly. I mean, I’ve come to this one today and I’m just talking to people I don’t know. And we’ve socialised, we talk, we share information. So that’s what it’s good for, as well as doing all the skilled work that people do here.

Libby: It definitely makes me want to spend more time down at my local repair cafe. But it’s not just in these places where people are making connections. We also heard from a number of people working at the Suez Renew Hub about how the volunteering opportunities can offer carers respite from their responsibilities and can combat a sense of loneliness that is all too common in our modern way of living. Here’s one of their volunteers, Sarah, talking about her experience.

Sarah: As I run my own small upholstery business at home, I can find that that can be quite isolating in terms of social interaction, but also maybe not necessarily having someone to bounce ideas or problems off, which is another reason why I chose to come and spend a day here out of my week. Lots of people from different areas of Manchester, different walks of life, are all coming together and talking about things that we like, geeking out over different types of chairs or new fabric, and also discussing different ways we would approach how to do a job. It gives me lots of confidence.

Libby: So that’s four pretty compelling reasons for the government to be ambitious with its strategy. But I can’t sign off without reminding everyone that this is all really, really good for the environment too. I spend much of my working life reminding people in the environmental movement and beyond that if we hope to stand a chance of tackling the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature’s decline and pollution, we really must tackle the root issue that drives all three of those. And that’s the vast wastefulness of the global economic system and its flagrant misuse of material resources, including food, fuel and minerals. And I’m pleased to report that people volunteering on the ground and working in circular businesses recognise this too, as do those who are using the services. Nick, another volunteer at East Ham’s Repair Cafe, told us that the first thing people say to him whenever they bring in something to get repaired is, I don’t want to throw it away. And a similar frustration with the status quo is actually what started him off in the world of repair cafes, too.

Nick: Well, I started working with the Repair Cafe about three years ago and it was basically due to two things. One of them was a frustration at the time that I was working for an IT company and we had very simple fixes with laptops, broken screens, and the company didn’t give us enough time to actually swap a screen and put it on another screen, or another laptop. So we decided to, you know, do it privately ourselves. And what I did, ended up doing was thinking that I could do this for more people. So I then volunteered with the Restart Project. I think it has a big impact on the environment because we are saving so many things from being thrown away and we are repairing things for people so they don’t have to buy more things. The other thing we’re doing is that people bring things to us that we repair. And they say, I didn’t know it could be repaired. We have people who bring not very high value items, but to some people, they don’t have the resources to be able to just order anything whenever it goes wrong. And very often the fixes that we do are very simple. And so we save people money and we save the environment at the same time.

Libby: Saving money while saving the environment. When you hear it like that from Nick, it’s hard not to see the sense in it. I’m going to give the final word to Jason at Screwfix, though, as I think he succinctly put what a lot of people feel and what I think the government most needs to hear.

Jason: We know we live in a throwaway society. That is not acceptable. We need to do whatever we can, however small, to stop that throwaway society and to keep products in use for longer in whatever means we can.

Libby: So there you have it. People with first-hand experience of the circular economy are full of praise for it and say they want to see more. If you want further inspiration, please check out the playlist, Five Reasons People Love the Circular Economy, on our YouTube channel at Green Alliance UK. We hope the government is listening and I just want to end with a few credits to the people who have been helping us with these messages. First of all, massive credit must go to my colleagues Emily Carr and Alice Stafford, who led this project and captured the spirit of the public so well. And I also want to thank the members of our Circular Economy Task Force, whose support enabled us to carry out this project, and plenty of the other research that went before it too. Current members include CIWM, Inkpen, Kingfisher, Suez, RAP and Zero Waste Scotland, and we were supported in our work by ION3, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. I think jointly we’ve demonstrated as compelling a case for action as is possible, and it’s now over to our colleagues in government to deliver.

Thank you for listening to this episode. Keep checking in as we will continue to bring you specialist interviews and highlights from our events here on your podcast feed. And you can follow us at Green Alliance on LinkedIn and Blue Sky. We encourage you to use the hashtag #GreenAlliancePodcast to join in on the conversation and share thoughts, questions and ideas. See you next time.