Circular Economy at the World Cup 2026

One to save for next year....

Financial Times piece.

Nike sponsored kits for the FIFA men's World Cup 2026 were made from a new material made from textile waste (rather than recycled plastic bottles) to better cope with the heat at the venues.

It's called Aero-FIT.

This provides better thermal comfort.

It also gives hope to a sector which has not been doing well.

66 North and Circularity

My favourite clothing brand is the Icelandic brand: 66 North.

Their gear is 'reassuringly expensive'. It is also designed with the circular economy in mind.

Their website has lots of information on their commitment to circularity, repairs and careful selection of fabrics.

Buy Now!

A cross-posting from my LivingGeography blog.

We have a unit called People as Consumers which looks at consumption and the economy. There is a new resource that we can now consider adding here.

The Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACtT) have shared a valuable new resource.

The full resource is now available. You will need to register to download them, but they are free.

It goes with a new documentary which is called 'the Shopping Conspiracy'.

The Buy Now! documentary is on Netflix. You will need a subscription to access this.

In lesson 1, Buy Now! How does advertising influence consumption and its environmental consequences?, students:

• Use film clips to introduce issues related to consumption, corporate responsibility and sustainability
• Discuss how citizens have addressed these issues
• Explore the ‘information neighbourhoods’ model to understand media
• Analyse tactics companies use to increase sales
• Examine the influence of celebrity endorsements on purchasing behaviour
• Create an advertising pitch to learn about corporate strategies
• Discuss environmental and ethical impacts of rapid consumption
• Debate whether companies or consumers bear more responsibility

Here's a review of the documentary. 

It is a certificate 12 so useful for older KS3 and above students.

Directed by Emmy-winning writer and filmmaker Nic Stacey, Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy “pulls back the curtain on the world’s top brands, exposing the hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying—no matter the cost.”

Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy “grants viewers exclusive access to the secretive world of the richest and most powerful brands”, including Apple, Amazon and Adidas. “Stunning revelations from insiders and whistleblowers reveal everything from billion-dollar marketing machines to the design ploys and psychological tricks intended to manipulate consumer behaviour on a global scale. With a playful and subversive style, the film takes audiences on a wild ride through the dirty world beneath the gloss and glam, where nothing is quite as it seems—while arming them with life-altering insights to protect themselves from the tricks of the trade.”

Director Nic Stacey said, “ My hope is that when people watch the film, they realize that we can take back control. While the subject is inherently dark, I wanted to present it in an honest and entertaining way—emphasizing that as consumers, it’s not always our fault. Here’s how we can break the cycle.”

Ellen MacArthur and her solo voyage around the world

 Linked to our unit on ocean plastics and consumption.

Description:

What do you learn when you sail around the world on your own? 

When solo sailor Ellen MacArthur circled the globe – carrying everything she needed with her – she came back with new insight into the way the world works, as a place of interlocking cycles and finite resources, where the decisions we make today affect what's left for tomorrow. She proposes a bold new way to see the world's economic systems: not as linear, but as circular, where everything comes around.

Fast Fashion

Reducing the impact of fast fashion.

Gerrard Street - Headphones as a service

Thanks to a student Izzy for locating this good example of the circular economy in action.

Gerrard Street is a Dutch company that make headphones.

The headphones are of high quality, and once purchased can be repaired for free for a lifetime, with modular part replaced free of charge rather than leading to the need for a new purchase with most headphones once a small issue develops.

The company is used as a case study on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website.

Geography of Stuff - e-Waste

Say miaow to Hypnocat...

A piece in the BBC News caught my eye today - always working even over half term of course. Geography never stops after all.

It talked about giving electronic items a repairability rating.

The article also talked about the WEEE directive which we cover when we do our unit on the Geography of Stuff in Year 8 in the Lent Term.

Here's a graphic from the piece looking at what electrical items we throw away the most.

Source: Southampton University - copyright BBC News.

The article uses this graphic from Southampton University.

Last year, the EU adopted Right to Repair standards, which mean that from 2021 firms will have to make appliances longer-lasting and supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

The UK government has pledged to "match and even exceed EU eco-product regulations" in the post-Brexit era. 

That makes me laugh frankly, when you read the UN report on WEEE and who produces the most.

The article introduced me to Material Focus.

In the UK, the WEEE sector body, Material Focus – formerly the WEEE Fund with funds via the compliance fee part of the UK’s WEEE system, has also carried out recent research. It claimed that the UK economy could save £370 million if all the old small electricals that are “either thrown away or hoarded” were recycled.

They are behind a campaign to Recycle your Electricals, which uses Hypnocat...

This makes the point that there are hundreds of millions of pounds worth of unused electrical items sitting in sheds, garages, attics and under sink cupboards in the kitchens of the UK. The manufacture of these involves the use of raw materials which are in limited supply.

Tokyo 2020 medals

As you can see from the diagram above, a project which was launched a few years ago in Japan is close to finishing.
All the medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will be made from metals recovered from e-Waste.
I am putting together a presentation on this for Year 8 students, and it will be shared when completed.

Agbogbloshie: e-wasteland

Agbogbloshie is a suburb of the city of Accra on the Atlantic coast of Ghana in West Africa.

It is a well known example of a community which receives illegal shipments of e-waste, which provides employment for young men, often migrants from the north of Ghana. Cables are burned to melt the plastic revealing the copper wire.


Attempts are being made to stop the burning.

Pure Earth blog has more details on this.

In the most recent Geographical Journal from the RGS-IBG, there was an article on the places in the world where this activity takes place - it is not only Ghana, and in most cases there is a hierarchy of jobs which sustains other employment.

Source of image: https://www.voanews.com/a/wire-strippers-bring-some-relief-from-toxic-smokein-ghana/2498347.html