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EMR, a global leader in circular materials, has joined the newly launched Circularity in Practice initiative as a founding member, supporting a nationwide effort to turn circular economy thinking into practical action across UK industry.
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Circularity in Practice, inspired by His Majesty King Charles III, brings organisations together to rethink how materials are used in the places where we live and work – keeping valuable resources in use for longer through reuse, remanufacturing and high-quality recycling.
For EMR, the initiative reflects a simple reality: tomorrow’s products depend on today’s materials.
Every day, materials sitting in workshops, factories, vehicles and landfills hold the potential to power the next generation of vehicles, buildings, wind turbines and infrastructure. At EMR, our role is to keep those materials in use.
Working with businesses across construction, manufacturing, infrastructure and many more, we recover metals and plastics that would otherwise be lost. Across EMR sites, those materials are sorted, processed and prepared for reuse or recycling before returning to supply chains as high-quality circular materials for tomorrow’s products.
By keeping those resources in use – again and again – we help reduce carbon, cut waste to landfill, strengthen the UK’s long-term resource security and protect the resources we all depend on.
We also work with manufacturers to design products with recycling in mind — because the circular economy starts long before a product reaches the end of its life. It starts at design, ensuring the materials in today’s products can be recovered and recycled into the next generation of products
Bill Firth, General Manager Business Development at EMR, was a guest speaker at the Circularity in Practice launch event yesterday (16th March).
Bill Firth said: “It is a great honour to be a Founding Member of Circularity in Practice initiative. It’s inspiring to be part of turning circular economy thinking into real-world action and changing how we value and manage our finite resources.
“At EMR we see every day that tomorrow’s products depend on today’s materials. But achieving true circularity will only happen if we work together — sharing not just resources, but knowledge and experience too.
“Being part of this initiative gives us the opportunity to learn from others across industry and share what we’ve learned from decades of recycling and resource recovery. We look forward to strengthening those relationships, building new ones and solving tomorrow’s challenges together.”
Chris Sheppard, CEO at EMR added:
“The circular economy is at the heart of everything that we do at EMR. We create circular materials from our recycling activities which are then supplied back into manufacturing supply chains to ensure that we do not need to extract resources from the planet.
“We are extremely proud to be a Founding Member of Circularity in Practice Initiative. We look forward to working with other signatories to promote and raise the adoption of circular economy practices across the UK, learning and sharing with other likeminded companies and organisations.”
The initiative, inspired by His Majesty King Charles III’s lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship, encourages businesses to pledge to plan, act, partner and share progress as they embed circular thinking into their operations.
Founding signatories include organisations from across construction, manufacturing, property, materials, recycling and professional services. By sharing practical examples and working together across supply chains, the initiative aims to unlock the commercial and environmental value of circular systems.
With more than 150 sites and around 4,000 colleagues worldwide, EMR already processes millions of tonnes of materials each year – returning high-quality recycled metals and plastics to global supply chains and quietly powering the circular economy at industrial scale.
As industries look for ways to reduce carbon, secure materials and keep pace with changing regulation, initiatives such as Circularity in Practice show what’s possible when businesses work together to make the most of what we’ve got before it’s gone.
