The Circular Economy Show Podcast

This month: three stories worth your time.   The WEF published a piece on EV battery recycling that reframes the whole conversation. These batteries contain the critical minerals governments are scrambling to secure. The recycled minerals market could be worth $200 billion by 2050. That value needs to be designed for now, not chased later.   Up until now the policy agenda for bio-based materials,...

In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, Pippa speaks with JJ Freijo, Chief Sustainability and Product Innovation Officer at Brambles. JJ explains how the company rents, rather than sells, pallets, crates and containers, creating a continuous loop of reuse across global supply chains. Having achieved 100% certified timber procurement across 64 countries, Brambles began asking a bolder questio...

Today, amid cost inflation, geopolitical conflict, and an ever-changing global business landscape we are staring down a massive shift in corporate sustainability and it’s starting to prompt some pretty big questions.  Does navigating the triple threat of media, politics, and boardroom backlash mean we need to change the playbook? In this episode Lou is joined by Mark Lancelot from Better Business...

Trade wars, resource shortages, and the AI-driven scramble for critical minerals are exposing the fragility of our current economy.  And for businesses still operating on a linear model, the vulnerabilities are becoming impossible to ignore. The global economy isn’t just being disrupted, it’s being restructured.  In this episode, Seb is joined by Julia Binder, Professor of Transformation at IMD Bu...

This edition of Circular Snapshots covers a lot of ground. Mexico passed landmark circular economy legislation in January — and it deserves far more attention than it got. We also look at Circle Economy's latest report, which puts a €25.4 trillion price tag on the value destroyed every year by our linear economy, and the EU Circular Economy Act as it heads toward autumn adoption. Plus a quick run...

Flexible plastics are hard to collect, harder to recycle, and leaking into our oceans at scale. Could paper step in? And can it do so without creating a whole new problem? In this episode, Pippa is joined by Laura Smith, Programme Manager for Plastics and Packaging at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Jonathan Gill, Global Head of Sustainability, Plastics, at Unilever and Valerie Langer, Strategic L...

E-waste is our fastest-growing waste stream, expanding five times faster than we can recycle it. But it's also one of our greatest untapped opportunities. With the demand for critical minerals showing no signs of stopping, recovering materials from the billions of dollars’ worth of mobile phones hibernating in our drawers is increasingly important. In this episode, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s...

Why is it that despite the success of individual circular business models, we simply aren’t seeing a wider shift across the entire economy? In this episode Lou is joined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Strategic Finance and investment team, Emily Healy and Joe Rodgers. Together, the team explores how systemic investing and capital orchestration could be the tools we need to take this transitio...

In a world of rising tariffs and supply chain disruption, could circularity be one of the smartest business moves a company can make? Danielle Holly, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s North America Lead, is joined by Tensie Whelan, founder of the Center for Sustainable Business at NYU Stern and former President of the Rainforest Alliance, to explore this and more. Tensie explains the ROSI (Return o...

What if buying second-hand felt exactly like buying new? In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, we explore how IKEA is embedding circular principles into its core commercial strategy. Fin is joined by Conor Hill, Global Director for Circular and Sustainable Living at IKEA, who shares how the brand is delivering measurable impact, all while making circularity affordable and accessible for th...

In a circular economy, products may not be sold just once, but multiple times. This enables businesses to generate more revenue from one item. As a result, businesses are shifting their metrics beyond short-term profit to embrace the long-term strategic advantages of circular business models. In this episode of The Circular Economy Show, host Fin is joined by Emily Hill, Director of Sustainable Tr...

We are currently seeing a shift where circular economy policy is moving out of purely environmental ministries and into the hands of economic planning authorities and ministries of industry. In this episode, Lou is joined by Joss Blériot, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Executive Policy Lead, who cuts through the noise of global headlines and looks at what’s actually moving on the ground. Togethe...

Biodiversity loss is accelerating at an alarming rate, but could circular economy solutions help turn things around? In this episode of The Circular Economy Show, Lou speaks with Marianne Kettunen, Biodiversity Lead for Policy at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Bianca Brasil, Programme Manager at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. They explore why around 90% of biodiver...

Over the past decade, leading businesses have shown that progress on plastic pollution is possible. And while individual company action has been successful, even the most ambitious businesses are running up against the same obstacles. As a result, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has rallied leading businesses behind an evidence-based, ‘2030 Plastics Agenda for Business.’ In this episode of the Circ...

What do some of the more surprising stories of scale teach us about implementing the circular economy? In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, Fin is joined by Rachel O’Reilly, Global Human Sustainability Design Director at Accenture, to discuss their upcoming report. The report, titled ‘Circularity is Working’ provides direction on how to improve the consumer adoption of circularity. From m...

Welcome back to The Circular Economy Show and another episode of Circular Snapshots, where we unpack the headlines shaping the transition to a circular economy. This month, Seb explores the EU’s upcoming Circular Economy Act and its shift toward positioning circularity as industrial strategy, not just environmental policy. We look at new global data revealing rapid growth in national circular econ...

Wen-Yu Weng, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Critical Minerals Lead, joins Lou to explain why critical minerals are currently taking centre stage in global political conversations.  They explore: How we can create secure and resilient supply chains to close the gap on fast growing demand The circular opportunities that  currently lie in shaping supply chains to capture value right now The enablin...

Join Seb as he speaks to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s CEO, Jonquil Hackenberg about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the circular economy in 2026. What are your priorities for 2026? Let us know in the comments or on our LinkedIn page .

It's been a pivotal year for the circular economy, full of big ideas and practical breakthroughs. Before we fully dive into 2026, we’re hitting pause for a moment of reflection. Join Fin, Lou, and Pippa who have hand-picked their favourite, most insightful, and memorable moments from the conversations they’ve had this year. This episode may show condensed snippets, but it is packed with big ideas,...

It’s easy to look at the news headlines and feel like everything is going backwards, but in this episode we ask you to look a little deeper and see the story beneath the headlines. Progress is possible and happening everywhere from plastics to fashion to the automotive sector, and even at COP. Listen in to hear: Whether COP still matters, and if so, for what? Why Honda’s circularity center in Ohio...

Recorded live at Climate Week New York, in this episode we ask ‘why should retailers embrace the circular economy?’ The global food system is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, and is vulnerable to supply chain shocks.  Our guests discuss why circularity must be easier, more convenient, and more irresistible than the linear option, and why retailers and brands need to invest in s...

Recorded live during Climate Week NYC, this episode explores how technology can accelerate the transition to a circular economy, not as a bolt-on fix, but as a built-in business strategy. Host Danielle Holly, Executive Lead for North America at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is joined by Jen Huffstetler (Chief Sustainability Officer, HP), Jim Sullivan (Head of Product Management, SAP), and Vrusha...

This is the fourth and final part of our mini series on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new report: How not to fail: Avoiding 10 common pitfalls when scaling circular business models . In this episode, the report’s lead researchers, Maddy Oliver and Ella Hedley, explain how success at scale demands more than a strong model – what really matters is who is empowered to deliver it and how well are t...

Circular business models can drive new revenue streams, build brand strength, customer loyalty, and market traction, while also unlocking value through resource efficiency, cost savings, and reduced risk to supply chain volatility. But there is often too much focus on short-term gains in revenue or sustainability and waste reduction metrics, while overlooking their full business value.  In the thi...

Circular business models often fail when they’re designed without factoring how the business works, what the customers want, and what the product requires.  These need to be considered together, not in isolation, to ensure that delivery, adoption, and revenue generation are possible at scale. Thinking about fit might feel obvious, but in this episode, we hear how many businesses often overlook the...