Job title: Project & Solutions Manager – Circular Products, Primark
What does your job role involve?
I studied product design at university, specialising in furniture. After university I spent five years in homeware buying, firstly for Debenhams and then John Lewis. There was always a thread of sustainability in this for me in that I was always looking at how the life cycle of furniture could be extended, and this led to my interest in the circular economy. It is exciting that many large retailers are starting to consider the full lifecycle of a product, from the ‘cradle to grave’. Currently my role at Primark is looking at how we can design our products to be recycled at the end of life. I’m finding solutions for questions such as: are we designing clothes that can be recycled at the end of their life cycle? And have we got the correct circular business models to facilitate this? How do we ensure products end up in the right place through consumer education?
We also work collaboratively with our sustainability team to ensure we have the product has the right sustainable certification such as sustainable cotton which is at the heart of the Primark Circular Product Standard, We work with recyclers and suppliers to understand the limitations on making a product commercially widely recyclable such as removing rivets in jeans as this contaminates the recycling feedstock.
Where does your interest in sustainability come from?
In a work sense, from my studies. When I started my career companies didn’t have sustainability strategies and I saw this as a challenge as it felt like the right thing to do. I can directly influence a product’s lifecycle, and this inspires me. It’s a challenge and will require collaboration between industry and a redesign to what is considered ‘the norm’ but I am certain we can get there.
Why do you think Malvern College’s Green giving Day is so important?
It’s the urgency; when you’re looking at the studies of how to meet the 1.5-degree pathway, we only really have eight years to deliver this. There’s a lot of legislation that’s coming down the line, which is the right thing, but I think it is vital consumers come on this journey. We need support from schools to demonstrate why sustainability is important from an early age. Malvern College can set the standard and be at the forefront of sustainability in schools and we can drive change this way. We need to look back at principles from 50-60 years ago when our practices were more sustainable as we lived with less. We need to change consumers’ mindsets. This is an absolute necessity given the climate we’re in.