Dr. Paul H. McMahon spent 16 years with the Wimpey Group, where he progressed to geotechnical and environmental consultancy. This involved working mainly on contaminated land assessments and foundation design for various housing and civil engineering projects. He also carried out research into the properties of cement-stabilised minestone for pavement engineering use. In 1992 he became an academic developing HND, BSc Degree and MSc Courses at Bolton Institute before moving to the University of Salford to research in contaminated land assessment, waste management and geotechnical reinforcement of soil. He recently moved to RoC Consulting, an engineering practice that aims to address technical aspects of urban land regeneration.

Dr. John Binkley spent seven years in the plastics industry prior to studying for a first degree in Polymer Science and Technology(1980), followed by a PhD in Photochemistry (1983)and post doctoral research at UMIST for two years in Phase Transformation Kinetics and Polymer Synthesis (1985). He lectured at Manchester Polytechnic for five years in Physical Chemistry. In 1990 he was appointed senior lecturer at Bolton Institute and has worked in areas of research including photochemistry, effluent treatment and recycling. Publications have included the Journal of the Textile Institute and Advances in Polymer Science. He is currently co-chair of Working Group 1 of the COST Action 628 - a major European initiative exploring the life cycle assessment of textiles.