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Circular Economy Podcast

Circular Economy Podcast

Written by: Catherine Weetman
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About this listen

 Catherine Weetman interviews the inspiring people who are making the circular economy happen. We explore how circular, regenerative and fair solutions are better for people, planet and prosperity. We’ll hear from entrepreneurs & business owners, social enterprises, and leading thinkers. You’ll find the show notes and links at www.circulareconomypodcast.com, where you can subscribe to updates and useful resources.© Rethink Solutions Ltd Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • 176 Katie Allen – why healthy clothing starts with healthy soils

    176 Katie Allen – why healthy clothing starts with healthy soils
    Feb 22 2026
    Katie Allen, a regenerative farmer, maker and educator, who is creating healthy textiles, plant dyes and leathers and helping fashion students and others discover what soil health means for us, our food and our clothing. Katie Allen farms organically at Great Cotmarsh, in the UK. The farm produces lamb and beef in a 100% pastoral system and is implementing projects to improve soil health, increase biodiversity and embrace agroforestry. Under the brand ‘Katie Cotmarsh’, she creates award-winning knitwear using the fleeces from the flock and cultivates colour by growing plant dyes. Katie has developed a beautiful classroom space on the farm, to connect the future generation of designers with the story behind soil and give them a new perspective of what true circularity looks like, particularly in the face of an ever shifting climate and demand for new cradle-to-cradle models for fashion design. Katie tells us how she was first inspired by the Fibershed movement, and what it means to create a local, regenerative clothing supply-chain.
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    48 mins
  • 175 Stephen Fitzpatrick: remanufacturing as a strategic capability

    175 Stephen Fitzpatrick: remanufacturing as a strategic capability
    Feb 8 2026
    Stephen Fitzpatrick is Director of the Digital Factory at the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, based at the University of Strathclyde, and Director of the Remake Value Retention Centre, a new £10m initiative commissioned by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). A key focus of Stephen’s work is developing solutions that enable a circular economy, particularly in high-value, high-integrity sectors. ‘High-integrity sectors’ are industries that require strict adherence to safety and reliability standards, often because the potential consequences of failure are huge – we can think about aerospace, automotive, nuclear power, wind, and other industries where ensuring safety, performance and up-time is critical. Stephen believes that combining digital technologies with remanufacturing is crucial, both to maximise the life of existing products, and to support designing and manufacturing new products in a way that optimises circular opportunities and value. Stephen leads a multidisciplinary team of 75 engineers and scientists, specialising in Digital Manufacturing, Design Engineering, Additive and Repair Manufacturing, Robotics and Metrology Systems.
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    53 mins
  • 174 Sydney Harris and Jennifer Carrigan of Upstream: effective, equitable reuse systems

    174 Sydney Harris and Jennifer Carrigan of Upstream: effective, equitable reuse systems
    Jan 25 2026
    We learn about driving change towards an effective, efficient and fair reuse economy, with Sydney Harris and Jennifer Carrigan of Upstream, a nonprofit that works to support sustainable, equitable reuse systems across North America. Upstream works to normalise reuse, to support the expansion of the reuse sector, and to help create supportive policy measures. It was founded over 20 years ago, and is seen as an early visionary, realising that reuse is better from an economic perspective as well as better for people and planet. Upstream works across industry sectors in the US and Canada.
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    37 mins
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