CIRCULÉIRE X Zero Waste Scotland CE Innovation Exchange Glasgow

CIRCULÉIRE team and members at Renewable Parts, Scotland

Last week, in collaboration with Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS), we hosted a group of over 30 circular economy stakeholders including CIRCULÉIRE members, DCEE representatives, LGMA and IMR for a two-day circular innovation exchange in Glasgow.

At Renewable Parts we learned about remanufactured wind turbine parts from CEO, James Barry, and General Manager, Magnus Firth. By using failure data to proactively redesign parts that consistently fail, the business even produces some parts deemed ‘better than new’. They then pair them with either remanufactured or new parts for optimal performance. Despite some ongoing ‘resistance’ to remanufactured parts, James eloquently highlighted 4 key customer benefits:

1) Remanufactured parts can be ‘Better than New’ through redesign;

2) Cost 30% less than new parts;

3) Really do work (think about the fact that 80% of airplane engines are remanufactured);

4) Are Sustainable with every 1T of steel saved equalling 3T of CO2e. 

In the future, Barry suggested that a move to a servitisation model, could work well to help mainstream remanufacturing.

Morag Clarke from Scottish Enterprise presented on the upcoming Circular Innovation Valley (ECIV) EU funded project with Call 1 opening for applications in December 2025.  More on this in due course, however, you can participate in their B2B matching events here.

At the National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland, Stephen Fitzpatrick introduced the circular projects his team have collaborated on over the last ten years with the ReMake Glasgow project being instrumental in helping ambitious manufacturers of all sizes to adopt circularity and extend the life of products and parts catapulting remanufacturing.

The project is developing a first-of-its-kind national ReMake hub within the NMIS Digital Factory which provides the skills and technologies needed to support ambitious manufacturers of all sizes to adopt circularity and extend the life of products and parts. There were many parallels between IMR and NMIS with large demonstrator space and action-based projects.

A visit to the HPE Technology Renewal Centre was a real eye opener. In a world where e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream, HPE is proving that technology retirement doesn’t have to mean technology waste. Jackie Rafferty showed us how they returned over 9.5 million IT assets to use over the past 3 years.

Day 1 concluded with a group dinner with Glasgow Chamber members active in circular innovation.  This informal meeting of minds was an excellent way to foster introductions and share knowledge, and we thank Zero Waste Scotland for facilitating the matchmaking process!  A big thank you also to the chamber members who attended on the night!

Day 2 kicked off with a site visit to BE-ST where Hanna Lundstrom delivered a powerful built environment impact presentation and site tour.  David Barnes, Head of Business Engagement at Zero Waste Scotland gave an overview of the systems approach they are taking to their built environment roadmap. Again, more on this in due course.

Celtic Renewables was our last site visit.  This biorefinery produces ABE chemicals by fermenting food waste and residues e.g pot ale residue from whiskey production and reject potatoes.  Mark Simmers, CEO, delivered a captivating talk and spoke about the need for co-location and symbiosis to scale the solution and further improve circularity by incorporating biogas production into the overall system.

We are busy collating insights, articles and site videos to share with our wider network.  Follow progress here, on LinkedIn or sign up for our newsletter.

Again, a very big thank you to Zero Waste Scotland for enabling such an informative trip.

We look forward to building on this collaboration.

The CIRCULÉIRE Team