Circular Economy: Prisoner of the Corporates

Greater efficiencies on the factory floor increases greater profits for the few, accelerating centralisation of economic power, i.e. the driver of planetary destruction. Has the Circular Economy been hijacked and thrown into the wrong vehicle and if so, how can we change it?  

Biography

Eifion Williams is CEO of Circular Communities Cymru, dedicated to looping the value of material and monetary resources into re-growing our communities. One of number of sister organisations globally, each utilising the other’s blueprints to speed up the global arrival at Zero Waste.

Part of Wales’s Zero Waste journey for 20 years, Eifion designed and established exemplars across Wales that helped prove the case for Zero Waste goals. He had a leading role in the establishment of Wales’s first Zero Waste Villages and Towns, that reached 80-90% recycling. This eventually led to the adoption of Zero Waste as the strategic goal of the Welsh Government.

Supported by the Lottery, Eifion is now leading a consortium of social enterprises in Wales to refine the global ‘Precious Plastic’ model; moving it from one-off reuse of mixed plastic to a fully circular model where polymers are kept separate.

Eifion is an Acumen Fellow 2020; which recognises social economy leaders globally. Eifion is also a Churchill Fellow (2018), having carried out a Europe-wide study tour of specific Complementary Currency systems that builds community resilience. Building on this, Eifion is founder of Wales’s Mutual Credit system, the Celyn, which is now recognised by the Financial Conduct Authority and ready for launch.