Collaborating with the University of Edinburgh provides access to leading research, equipment, and expertise to explore solutions to net zero, nature-positive, and circular economy-related business challenges.
Victoria Darbyshire is the primary point of contact for circular economy-related research and commercial engagement at the University of Edinburgh. She collaborates with colleagues across the University and public, private and third-sector partners to ensure that groundbreaking research being conducted across the University can be utilised to progress towards a circular economy and the UN’s wider Sustainable Development Goals.
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Waste textiles from sailing boats could be given a new lease of life thanks to a research project to turn plastic fibres from sails into chemicals such as vanillin – the compound used in cosmetics and food products for a vanilla flavour and smell.
Whether they’re contaminating viable plastics recycling or clogging up sorting machinery, soft plastics are a headache for councils and recycling facilities alike. But now a group of Edinburgh researchers are working on new uses for these waste plastics: creating robust composites for use by the construction industry.
Two-thirds of our clothes are made using fossil fuels - 85% of which will be sent to landfill within 10 years and more than half of the top 100 pharmaceuticals on the market today are manufactured from fossil fuels. But using fossil fuels at our current rate is unsustainable. Dr Stephen Wallace, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in Chemical Biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, is engineering biology to replace them in common manufacturing processes, and working with industry to do so.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh using microbes to recycle lithium, cobalt and other expensive minerals.
The team, led by Professor Louise Horsfall, have formed an unusual new alliance in their fight against climate change. They are using bacteria to help them extract rare metals vital in the development of green technology. Without the help of these microbes, we could run out of raw materials to build turbines, electric cars and solar panels, they say.
University of Edinburgh chemists Professors Jason Love and Carole Morrison with geoscientist Professor Bryne Ngwenya have led a team in a five-year project that exposes the true value of e-waste and advances a more environmentally friendly way of retrieving its gold for re-use. While 1 tonne of ore yields just 1-2 grammes of gold, the same weight in e-waste yields 300 grammes.
Two research projects led by Professor Sean Smith, Chair of Future Construction at the School of Engineering, have helped inform government policy towards their ambitious 2045 net-zero targets at both a local and Scottish national level.
This programme is for those who are ready to disrupt the status quo and rethink how we design, make, and use resources in the world, and in all industries. On this interdisciplinary MSc programme, you will gain skills and develop knowledge of circular economy to support communities, businesses, and policymakers to create a more sustainable and equitable future. Explore your circular business ideas through coursework and the final project.
