Technology

Friend of the earth

With the 2020 recycling targets creeping up on us, Charles Newman talks to Friends of the Earth’s Michael Warhurst about boosting recycling rates, reducing material use, and bringing about real change in how we view resources

Some people know exactly what they want to be when they grow up and have a specific career in mind from an early age, but most take rather more convoluted routes to where they ultimately end up. This is certainly the case with waste campaigner Michael Warhurst – now Senior Campaigner for Economics and Resource Use at Friends of the Earth, who started off his early life working on chemicals policy. Despite this change of focus, his involvement in Friends of the Earth (FoE) has remained a constant fixture for the majority of his life.

Warhurst first got involved in FoE when he was just a teenager, campaigning with his parents to stop the East London River Crossing and taking the ‘Earth matters’ mantra to heart. Following this he joined various local groups and was on the Board of FoE Scotland while at university.