DrEd Cook

Ed is a Research Associate at Imperial College London, working on projects to reduce plastic pollution and strengthen the circular economy. He is currently researching the intersection between the circular economy, public health, and environmental impact.

Ed has contributed to several leading plastic pollution modelling efforts in recent years. He was a core member of the team that developed the P2O model (Lau et al., 2020, Science (AAAS)) and its accompanying report, Breaking the Plastic Wave, leading the collection, sorting and mismanagement working group. He later worked with the OECD to develop the downstream component of the Env-Linkages model, published as the Global Plastics Outlook (2022). In 2024, he and colleagues (Dr Costas Velis and Dr Josh Cottom) released the Spatio-temporal Plastic Pollution, Origins and Transport Model (SPOT), published in Nature. This first-of-its-kind bottom-up model combines machine learning and probabilistic material flow analysis to model 80 waste management processes across 55,000 municipalities worldwide. More recently, he served as an expert panel member for an updated version of Breaking the Plastic Wave, supporting expansion of the model parameters and system boundary.

Ed is the lead author of What a Waste 3.0 (2026), the latest in a series of publications by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) that has become a widely used global reference for solid waste management data. For this publication, he developed a national-scale model generating projections for 214 countries and economies using correlations between waste management variables and socio-economic indicators.

Before moving into academia, Ed worked in the food, medical and international disaster response sectors. In 2002, he moved into waste management, initially as Managing Director of a company providing cleansing services to the events sector, where he and colleagues tested circular economy concepts using closed-fence music festivals as a practical testbed. In 2008, he brought this experience to the London Organising Committee for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, contributing to the development of the waste management strategy. Between 2011 and 2018, Ed worked as a technical consultant on circular economy projects, advising local and national government and commercial clients on industrial symbiosis, regulatory compliance, infrastructure prevalence, waste processing technology, transboundary trade in waste and materials marketing.

Ed is a Chartered Waste Manager and a member of the International Solid Waste Association.