The Circular Economy Show Podcast

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 Business School, and Manuel Braun, entrepreneur and co-author of The Circular Business Revolution, to explore why circularity has moved from the sustainability agenda to the boardroom.

They discuss:

Why today's disruptions are structural, not episodic, and what that means for supply chains

How the circular economy offers a direct answer to resource dependency and geopolitical risk

The shift from an impact case to a business case, and how to have that conversation with your CFO

What companies like Hilti are doing differently, and what executives can act on tomorrow

Mentioned in this episode:

IMD circular value creation courses for leaders: https://www.imd.org/sustainability/cvce/creating-value-circular-economy/

Material Advantage: How circular strategies drive business value: https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/innovation/material-advantage-how-circular-strategies-drive-business-value/

Circular Business Revolution book: https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/books/the-circular-business-revolution/

Startup landscape: https://www.circular-republic.org/insights/circular-startup-landscape-2026

Follow us online on these channels: 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/EllenMacArthurFoundation 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ellen-macarthur-foundation/ 

Website: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

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 through of four shorter stories: HP mining its own e-waste to build new laptops, the UK Packaging Pact launching with 100 founding organisations, a new fashion industry initiative to scale textile-to-textile fibre recycling, and fresh data on what's really driving the secondhand boom.

Show notes: 

Circularity Gap Report 2026 (Circle Economy): https://dashboard.circularity-gap.world/report/2026/cgr-2026-overview

EU Circular Economy Act: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/eu-circular-economy-act

Mexico Enacts General Law for the Circular Economy: https://mexicobusiness.news/sustainability/news/mexico-enacts-general-law-circular-economy

HP mining its own e-waste: https://www.fastcompany.com/91501080/hp-is-mining-its-own-e-waste-to-build-its-latest-laptops

UK Packaging Pact launches: https://www.wrap.ngo/media-centre/press-releases/uk-packaging-pact-launches-unlock-progress-transforming-packaging

Circular Fibre Collective launch: https://www.thefashionpact.org/industry-leaders-launch-the-circular-fibre-collective-to-scale-t2t-recycled-materials-by-2030/

ThredUp 2026 Resale Report: https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/thredup-spots-worrisome-trend-consumer-150700654.html

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 Lead, Next Generation Solutions at Canopy. Together they discuss the six critical criteria for responsible paper-based packaging, the innovation and collaboration needed to scale solutions, and why there's no silver bullet.

Read the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s report on paper-based flexible packaging

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 Danielle Holly, Executive Lead for North America, and Wen-Yu Weng, Executive Lead for Critical Minerals, join Pippa to explore how the circular economy can transform how we produce, use, and recover electronics, and the critical minerals inside them.

Find out more about the Foundation’s work in Critical Minerals.

Sign up to the Foundation’s North America newsletter.

If you enjoyed this episode, then please share with your colleagues, or leave us a review or comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.

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 transition forward, and look at where we are currently seeing this thinking brought into ‘on the ground’ demonstration projects.

Emily and Joe also explain how in many cases the right financing is out there, but more thoughtful allocation and coordination could result in better, more resilient outcomes. 

If you enjoyed this episode, then please share with your colleagues, or leave us a review or comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.