CIWM (Chartered Institution of Wastes Management) Design Council, WRAP, and URGE Collective, have partnered with waste management company Biffa and retail business Decathlon for the next phases of the Design Skills for embedding circularity programme.
The Design Skills for Embedding Circularity pilot programme is now gearing up for a design sprint that will focus on ‘designing out waste’.
An intensive 6-week deep dive, exploring challenges and barriers to circularity through both business, design and waste and resources lenses. The Sprint is part of an innovative pilot project funded by CIWM that links professional designers with resources and waste operators to embed designing out waste principles into everyday design practice.
The design cohort have spent the last four months visiting industrial waste facilities guided by circular economy expert Sophie Thomas.
They have observed technical processes and met waste resource experts across the country, including at Sherbourne Recycling’s Super MRF, SWEEEP’s waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling plant, DS Smith’s largest UK recycled papermill, Enfinium’s energy from waste plant, Biffa’s Edmonton MRF, Enovert’s landfill sites in Gloucestershire, and SUEZ’s Renew Hub in Manchester.
They have also visited Decathlon’s London HQ, and Allermuir’s furniture remanufacturing hub in Manchester to explore how circular business models are being realised.
Each site visit and expert session revealed myth busting facts concerning how products are designed and manufactured for recovery, reuse or recycling and the barriers to circularity.
These insights range from: the amount of lost material at the MRF stage from size or material complexity, coloured PET ruling out recycling, problematic waste arriving at MRFs including vapes, textiles, nappies, cookware, and the extremely limited intervention points for repair or reuse between user and industrial waste sorting.
Dan Cooke, Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs at CIWM, said that policy is moving in the right direction and will ‘increasingly nudge’ businesses towards circular models.
“However, a vital element for progress is cross-sector collaboration and expertise – designers who understand what happens to a product at end of life, and resources and waste professionals who can influence design thinking upstream,” Cooke continued.
“These connections are important in helping to move the world beyond waste. In just a few weeks, this cohort is moving from waste facility floor to design studio, and knowledge is now being applied to live challenges from Biffa and Decathlon.”
