The circular economy and waste prevention

As Contract Manager for South Bucks DC I had a reputation for insisting on high health and safety (H&S) standards and would do whatever it took to be reassured of this, including joining crews on their rounds. The complex challenges of incorporating H&S protocols in the Global South are covered in your Global Review on Safer End of Engineered Life report and I can also see from my own limited searches there appears to be a gap in the literature regarding monitoring and suggestions on how this can be resolved. There are those who benefit from the status quo, and I would be interested in discussing ways I could help fill research gaps that will rectify this.
The circular economy has caught everyone's imagination just as previous similar incarnations of this concept have done previously, however making it a tangible reality is slow progress. Within the Global South, the impact of colonialism and the current barriers imposed by Western countries which prevent circular economy aims being achievable may be one of many research gaps here. My own opinion is that the changes required globally to achieve these aims require policy driven approaches that will put manufacturers on a level playing field but that IT based solutions are key to local change.
The impact of waste prevention in the Global South (particularly emerging economies) could be enormous - in the rush to stop bad practices we need to stop and consider future ones. Single portion sachets, the environmental impacts and the poverty and inequality that contributes to their popularity is a long-standing interest of mine. However, I would be interested in looking at innovative ways any packaging or product could be eliminated or made to last longer.

Water-WISER will train a cohort of 50 British research engineers and scientists and equip them to work in challenging environments both in the low-income settings of rapidly growing poor cities and in the changing urban environment of the UK, Europe and other regions with a historic endowment of aging infrastructure. The vision is for a generation of engineers with the skills to deliver the trans-disciplinary innovations needed to ensure that future water, waste and sanitation infrastructure is resilient to the stresses posed by rapid urbanisation, global climate change and increasingly extreme natural and man-made disasters. Our alumni will address the urgent need to re-imagine urban spaces as net contributors to ecological and environmental well-being rather than being net users of vital resources such as energy, nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon. These new leaders will be an essential resource if the UK is to deliver on its commitment to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6 which calls for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services, within planetary and local ecological boundaries. This next generation of research engineers will enable UK-based engineering consultancies, manufacturers, and utility companies to grow their share of the expanding global market for water and waste services, for example; in the water services industry from 3% to 10% (an increase of £33 billion per annum) by 2030, and attract significant inward investment.
The research which Water-WISER cohorts enable will form the basis of new innovations in the design and delivery of resilient infrastructure and services. Innovations developed by Water-WISER graduates will inform how growing cities are designed and built in the global south and will be used to inform the re-engineering and replacement of the aging infrastructure on which the UK's water and waste services are currently reliant. Our alumni will form the new generation of leaders who will play a central role in securing a larger share of the international water and waste management consultancy market to UK consultancies. The network of expertise and skills created by Water-WISER will enhance potential for collaborations between major UK players (for example strengthening links between UK consultancy, the Department for International Development, and leading UK water agencies such as WaterAid and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor) and between UK companies and partners in the global south including international investors such as the World Bank, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Graduates of Water-WISER will enter industry, academia and development agencies having spent a substantial period (minimum of six months) embedded in an industry or development partner organisation delivering their field-based research. Water-WISER students will thus gain a unique combination of trans-disciplinary training, field experience and cohort networking; they are destined for leadership roles in UK and international engineering and development consultancies, academia, international development banks, international agencies such as the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations.