EFT Consult, which launched the South West Wales branch of the Circular Economy Club last year, organised a special meeting in early March for screenings of the world’s first feature-length documentary film about the circular economy, entitled ‘Closing The Loop’.

These events were held at UWTSD’s Construction Wales Innovation Centre on Tuesday 5 March and Carmarthen Business School on Wednesday 6 March.

The Circular Economy Club (CEC) is an international network of over 3,100 circular economy professionals and organisations from over 100 countries.

The documentary provided a range of examples and insights for our global society and the environment including what we make, buy, consume, throw away, recycle and reuse. The film also advocates how an economy can be moved to a more circular approach through meaningful change.

By keeping resources at their highest value for longer, the film provokes solutions to the problems we and future generations will face imminently and in the future.

Following the screenings, the audience had the opportunity to discuss the film with an invited panel, including Adrian Matthews, organiser and consultant at EFT Consult, Adrian Rabey from The British Training Board, Julia Chesney-Roberts from Riversimple, Dr Tyra Oseng-Rees from Oseng-Rees Reflection, Dr Ben Reynolds from Urban Foundry, Dr Sandra Dettmer, Economics lecturer at UWTSD and Ade Sobola, student at Carmarthen Business School. The events were chaired by Dawn Lyle from 4theregion, with Barry Liles OBE, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Skills and Lifelong Learning) at UWTSD, welcoming members to the Swansea event.

Adrian Matthews, organiser of the Swansea CEC events and circular economy consultant at EFT Consult, said:

“After screening the film in Swansea and Carmarthenshire, I was blown away by the energy, passion and wisdom in the room. It is self-evident that the guiding principles of a socially-minded circular economy has the ability to couple resilient like-minded people and communities together in order for society as a whole to contribute towards the aims and objectives of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, now and in the future.

“It is great to have a consensus to prioritise and normalise circular economy practices through effective and easy-to-understand storytelling, supported by an intrinsically-linked education, training and job system that recognises the importance of creating a truly ethical, responsible and self-sustainable circular economy that works for everyone - economically, environmentally, socially and culturally. The key to unlocking a circular economy approach is to embed best available practices and techniques into public sector procurement.

“I’m really glad to hear the students enjoyed attending their first Global Circular Economy Club screening session and I look forward to organising Circular Economy Club mapping sessions after the Easter Break.”