F.A.T.C.O.N.O.M.Y

A service-design + innovation campaign rethinking the waste-fat sector.

UK UCO PRICE £820/tonne ▲ +1.8% WoW UPDATED · APR 2026

EXPLORE THE FAT MAP

A map of the UK's waste-fat ecosystem, from restaurant kitchens to overseas imports. Fatconomy helps the sector innovate, campaign and educate, building systems that shape policy and the circular economy.

Click any glowing marker to step into a zone.▾

EDIT MODE - drag markers, drag pink handle to resize

FATCONOMY (C) - STUDIO FICTA HELLO@STUDIOFICTA.COM

Services

How we work with the waste sector

Fatconomy is an experiential design studio running innovation campaigns across the circular waste economy. Four modes of engagement, scoped to fit the scale, audience and ambition of your programme.

Short films, interactives and campaign assets that make invisible waste systems visible — animated maps, factory case-study films and digital tools that translate complex material flows into public-facing stories.

Seeking Matter — Fatconomy digital campaign loop

Hands-on sessions teaching the economics of fat through scenario design, material play and futures thinking — prototyping fat-trap rigs, staging speculative futures and running participatory research with students, operators and the public.

Bespoke tools, rigs and speculative machines that help operators test their feedstocks — modular research devices for fraud detection, biomaterials experiments (fat clays, bioplastics) and next-gen biodiesel feasibility.

Biofuel-to-biomaterial experimentation at the factory

Research-led narrative strategy that turns technical evidence — fraud, imports, regulation, byproducts — into public-facing stories and policy-grade arguments.

Innovation research and material narrative work

Selected work

Three case studies from the waste fat economy

Client-partnered campaigns across industry, sanitation and education.

"So you're getting, you know, half decent stuff out of it."

EcoClarity

Recovering energy from wastewater. A documentary campaign turning FOG — fats, oils & greases — into public infrastructure.

"I actually go home and tell the kids that I'm saving the planet."

Argent Energy workshops

On-site with the crews who refine used cooking oil into road-grade biodiesel. A portrait of the people behind the fuel.

"…to give you live information about exactly what you have in your kitchen."

St Joseph's College

Design workshop and documentary with sixth-formers. Teenagers rebuild the waste fat economy from the kitchen up.

Screening Room

Films and reports from the field

A growing archive of short films, photo essays and reports from each zone of the Fat Map — workshops, factory tours, community labs and prototype studios. Click a tile to play.

NOW SHOWING · 6 FILMS

The number that matters

Tonnes of FOG produced annually, UK kitchens

Real-time read-out from the Fatconomy scale. Enough fat to power ~7,000 homes for a year — and yet it still flushes straight into the sewer.

Product

The Waste Fa(c)t Machine

A three-module device — SPIN-1, SEEK-0, TRAP-1 — that separates, tests and maps the fats, oils and greases produced in a single kitchen. Built to give operators, households and regulators a shared unit of truth.

The Waste Fa(c)t Machine — full assembly — 01Full assembly

SEEK-0 dial and display, top down — 02SEEK-0 · display

TRAP-1 sample being loaded — 03TRAP-1 · sample chamber

SPIN-1 module, angled view — 04SPIN-1 · separator

Explore our innovations

Making the Fa(c)t Machine

A studio diary — from Victorian-era grease traps that haven't changed in 150 years, to the workshop bench where the new device took shape.

01 / 02

"These steel cases have been around for 150 years — since the Victorian era."

About us

A campaign by Studio Ficta

Fatconomy is a research and design campaign from Studio Ficta — a service-design studio working at the intersection of public infrastructure, sustainability and popular culture.

studioficta.com →