Report particulars progress with 4 trailblazing circularity initiatives, one yr on

A brand new impression report particulars the progress of 4 initiatives that have been awarded funding as a part of the Round Future Fund, created to search out pioneering round economic system concepts. 

In 2022, 4 initiatives have been every awarded grants of between £150,000 – £300,000, from 245 purposes, to develop their modern options that challenged the ‘make…use…throw-away’ tradition of recent society. The £1 million fund was made doable by the gross sales of 10p plastic baggage by way of the John Lewis Partnership. 

Serving to menstrual cups go mainstream, redesigning youngsters’s sneakers to make them last more, creating ‘lend and mend’ hubs in libraries and enabling polyester to be recycled many times have been the successful initiatives chosen by an unbiased Grant Fund panel of trade specialists. Every winner was then supported by Hubbub to develop and obtain their ambitions.

The profitable initiatives have every reported important progress with confirmed outcomes that depart a robust legacy for his or her respective industries. By sharing their learnings and challenges within the report, they hope to encourage others to observe of their footsteps in direction of making a extra round economic system. 

Key outcomes from every challenge are detailed beneath:

DAME – Serving to menstrual cups go mainstream 

The proper round sustainable interval product, the menstrual cup, has existed for many years, but it stays a distinct segment product that solely 5% of individuals with durations use.¹  DAME aimed to interrupt down the limitations to utilizing menstrual cups. They gained perception of the limitations to cup use, by way of surveys and a small person group trial, figuring out the principle issues as consolation, leaking, and inserting a menstrual cup, plus cleansing it. 

The distinction made: 

• To assist fight these limitations, the challenge created a myth-busting cup person information, that includes Hayley Morris which is seen 4,500 occasions per day.
• DAME additionally designed a groundbreaking self-sanitising menstrual cup, eradicating the necessity to boil or sterilise cups. Launched in June, the self-sanitising interval cup has achieved a number of ISO requirements to show its security and effectiveness. 
• Every cup is predicted to contribute 99 occasions much less carbon over its lifetime² (in comparison with boiling a conventional cup) and avoids the necessity for two,860 disposable interval merchandise³ per particular person over a lifetime of durations.
• Subsequent DAME are exploring charity partnerships to see if the cup could possibly be out there to these experiencing interval poverty, and sharing the person information content material with educators to assist extra youngsters to attempt to follow menstrual cups. 

PIP & HENRY – Redesigning youngsters’s sneakers to make them last more 

Pip & Henry’s analysis and improvement challenge explored extending the life of kids’s sneakers. Younger youngsters substitute sneakers each 4 months, whereas 85% of sneakers presently find yourself in landfill ⁴. Pip & Henry’s challenge aimed to discover two options to disrupt the youngsters’s footwear trade.

The distinction made:

• Over the yr interval, Pip & Henry truly developed three ideas to work in direction of their imaginative and prescient of an expandable shoe and shoe that may be extra cleanly separated into their element supplies and subsequently extra simply recycled. 
• They hope to launch a capsule assortment in 2024 and are exploring licensing ideas to assist scale their round shoe improvements.
• The challenge has offered in-depth data concerning the environmental impacts of footwear manufacturing strategies and materials improvements, plus how one can design for higher finish of life recycling.
• Pip & Henry plan to share their learnings and insights with the footwear manufacturing and recycling industries, to assist create an trade step change to extra round shoe designs

SCOTTISH LIBRARY AND INFORMATION COUNCIL (SLIC) – Establishing ‘lend and mend hubs’ in Scottish libraries  

SLIC’s challenge aimed to create a community of lend and mend hubs throughout Scotland to assist communities to restore, reuse, hire and upcycle on a regular basis gadgets.

The distinction made

• 9 hubs have been created, with early indications recommend hubs have the potential to succeed in round 2,000 folks per yr by way of stitching and mending courses alone.
• All libraries are providing tools, workshops, and instruments freed from cost to beat price limitations for the general public, making on a regular basis round economic system actions extra accessible. 
• The hubs are fitted out with circularity in thoughts, utilizing repurposed workplace furnishings saving 5 tCO₂₅ in comparison with shopping for new⁶ and upcycled peg boards that have been a part of Kenya’s show at COP26 in Glasgow.

SLIC plan to create a toolkit, disseminated by way of workshops, to share their learnings and assist different library companies throughout the UK replicate their method. 

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS – Innovating know-how to allow polyester to be recycled many times   

Polyester is the world’s commonest textile fibre and but solely 15% of polyester produced is created from recycled polyester (principally from plastic bottles) ⁷. At the moment there isn’t a true circularity within the polyester trade as a result of the dyes in polyester imply it can’t be simply eliminated which prevents it being recycled again into new virgin polyester fibre. The College of Leeds’s innovation created new novel ‘switchable-solubility’ dyes that allows them to be switched from water-soluble to water-insoluble to color and de-colour polyester.

The distinction made 

• The analysis proves the dyes will be each added to, and faraway from polyester, enabling the dye, water and material to be recycled with enormous potential environmental advantages, needing much less vitality and water use, and eradicating the necessity for auxiliary chemical substances within the dyeing course of.
• The introduction of the brand new CO₂ know-how delivers a really round course of that has the potential to recycle instantly and mechanically a few of the 57 million tonnes of polyester fibre produced globally every year⁸.
• The College of Leeds additionally made a bonus discovery, in that their know-how additionally works on different materials reminiscent of denim and present dyes in polyester.
• Subsequent the challenge plans to scale the know-how to check at industrial scale, plus full a full environmental lifecycle evaluation.
• The College of Leeds will share their discoveries with the textile and recycling sectors, plus exploring commercialising the know-how to maximise its attain and impression.

Marija Rompani, Director of Ethics and Sustainability on the John Lewis Partnership mentioned: “The Round Future Fund allowed us to attach and assist main innovators to boost their round enterprise fashions and drive the shift in circularity inside the trade and society. I’m so excited to share their findings, and hopefully that is only the start of the impression that every of the successful initiatives could have.”

Saskia Restorick, Director at Hubbub mentioned: “The 4 initiatives, whereas very completely different in nature, shared an ambition to carry modern, artistic and entrepreneurial approaches to designing out waste of their respective sectors. This forward-thinking fund, together with the winners’ arduous work and dedication has enabled them to search out tangible options and acquire enormous quantities of perception and data. It has been a pleasure working with them and seeing their concepts come to life. We sit up for seeing how they develop and to sharing their successes to encourage much more innovation to hurry up the transition to a extra round economic system.”

The Round Future Fund aimed to determine innovation and problem the established order, to spice up the round economic system. The 4 initiatives have delivered on their ambitions, depart a robust legacy and provide tangible examples of the round economic system in motion. 

To seek out out extra concerning the 4 initiatives, their impression and legacy, the Round Future Fund impression report will be seen at  hubbub.org.uk.

Notes
[1] ‘UK Female Hygiene and Sanitary Safety Merchandise Market Report 2021’ Mintel
[2] Based mostly upon unbiased evaluation by Local weather Companion, a conventional cup boiled would use 41.9514 kg CO2e over 10 years if boiled for 7-10 minutes, versus washing a DAME cup in chilly water would use 0.4357 kg CO2e.
[3] Assuming 22 disposables per cycle and 13 menstrual cycles per yr, so 286 disposables/ yr/ per particular person.
[4] Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and Reuse/recycling Applied sciences (SMART) Loughborough College (2007), Recycling of Footwear Merchandise, A place paper.
[5] Utilizing 31 repurposed workplace desks, 7 assembly tables and 102 chairs saves over 5 tCO2 in comparison with shopping for new[1],
[6] Based mostly on FIRA Research into the Feasibility of Benchmarking Carbon Footprints of Furnishings Merchandise 2011
[7] Textile Change, 2021, Most well-liked Supplies and Fibre report https://textileexchange.org/app/uploads/2021/08/Textile-Exchange_Preferred-Fiber-and-Supplies-Market-Report_2021.pdf
[8] maia analysis, 2021 – World Polyester Fiber Market Report 2021. Custom-made report