What are businesses doing to combat the climate crisis?

As much as small individual actions can feel like a drop in the ocean compared to the damage being created by the linear “make-use-dispose" system that our economy is built on, they do all add up.

The good news is that many businesses in Scotland are embracing a more circular way of working - where products and materials are reused, repaired and remanufactured to create new items from old. This is important because resources are in high demand to create new products, yet those products are often thrown away after only a short amount of time.

Read on to discover some great examples of a circular economy in action in Scotland...

Glasgow-based Beauty Kitchen is helping to wipe out single-use packaging for everyday products like shampoo through its pioneering reuse programme to help cut carbon emissions in the beauty industry.

Hear more about Beauty Kitchen’s simple ‘return, refill, repeat’ service from founder, Jo Chidley in episode 4 of the Towards Zero podcast.

Whether you’re a decaf-soy-latte-with-an-extra-shot or fall into the camp of don’t care as long as it’s hot, there’s no getting away from the huge volumes of coffee grounds created every day in the quest for a cuppa.  

Some businesses have started offering used coffee grounds to be taken away to be used in the garden or even as natural cleaning scrubs. ReviveEco have gone one step further when they discovered that the often thrown away coffee grounds had the potential to replace one of the world’s most harmful natural oils – palm oil.  

Here in Scotland, we waste nearly 988,000 tonnes of food every year with 25% of that coming from food and drink manufacturing. Two Highland businesses, Macleans Highland Bakery and Windswept Brewing Co, teamed up to help cut down on this waste and help combat the climate crisis by turning brewery waste into biscuits!