“That’s what no one wants, what people think cannot be reutilized in some form. And yet, what we see in nature is that nothing goes to waste. It’s us, humans, who are the parasitic influence, the garbage makers. And it doesn’t have to be this way.” – Tião Santos
Last week, The World Resources Institute hosted a pertinent webinar called “Time to Act: The Circular Economy Action Agenda”, in which leaders from The Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and other speakers invited listeners to engage with the idea of a ‘circular economy’ that challenges the design of currently dominant linear economy models. The transition towards a circular economy was argued to be an essential move towards reaching climate goals and attaining greater, more equitable social impacts in the process.
Here’s a helpful video from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that gives a brief and helpful introduction on the structure and aims of the circular economy https://youtu.be/zCRKvDyyHmI.
While ditching extractive and pollutive energy sources reliant on fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy sources such as wind, water and solar will be necessary for achieving climate change mitigation, the better use of energy in production and consumption, as well as the consideration of the life cycle of products created, will determine the scale to which mitigation potentials can truly be reached. This will necessitate a transformation in the value placed on energy, in which energy sources are to be viewed as precious and used carefully, efficiently and equitably.
The circular economy functions by taking waste and pollution out of the integral design of production activities while designing products and materials that stay in use for as long as possible. The circular economy will require not just a reconfiguring and rerouting of waste, but enabling innovations that can eliminate the notion of waste to begin with. It is an economic system of ‘biomimicry’ in which single-use, cheaply made products or systems of planned obsolescence do not fit within its design. This ‘cradle to cradle’ rather than ‘cradle to grave’ economic model aims for a regeneration of natural systems by letting up stress on natural resources, thus being able to redirect energy into activities that uplift communities and the natural environment they depend upon.
The circular economy must be fueled by innovation and technological progress if it is to make impacts at meaningful scales. A company that takes the values and the mission of the circular economy to a large scale is Miniwiz, which is an engineering, research and design company that relies on upcycled materials to fuel modern innovation. Miniwiz specialises in sustainable architecture, interior design, consumer products and circular economy consultancy. Miniwiz has an impressive catalogue of accomplishments, from working with successful individuals such as Jackie Chan, corporations like Nike, hospitals, high-end restaurants and many more, to creating groundbreaking machines that transform waste, to housing an open-access database for upcycled materials made from trash that others can purchase for their building endeavours or consumer products. This is a company to keep an eye out for, as it will be leading progress far into the future.
“At Miniwiz we exist to show the world the unlimited potential of trash by taking the recycled material to the highest form of product engineering.”
‘Developed’ capitalistic economic models collide with the planetary boundaries and degrade human well-being. In terms of environmental injustice aspects, linear models are concentrated in the wealthier, global elite countries, corporations and households, which consume the majority of resources and leave the rest of the world with a shattered environment and little resources left to uphold their basic necessities. Thus, the circular economy is not just an economic model, or one that solely focuses on the environment as a separate entity, but one that exists as a value system and tackles the critical aspects of how humans are disproportionately affected by industrial inefficiency and waste.
The circular economy is a relevant proposition that aims to strengthen the efficiency and resiliency of production while also assisting the transition towards good quality jobs for all, thus further enhancing social well-being and boosting up economies, especially during a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has economies falling through the cracks and in need of sustainable recoveries that consider the future of our planet and social systems, opening up opportunities to #BuildBackBetter. This will require a just transition, in which people in previously unsustainable job positions must be re-skilled and supported within this transition, while also improving education on the circular economy, so that everyone can understand why this is a necessary and unavoidable transition for a better present and future world.
Without the circular economy, the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will continue to fail to reach standards. Extracting heavily from the environment to create short-lived products just to eventually be disposed of right back into the environment is a growth model that cannot be sustained, especially for a planet that is projected to carry future human populations of up to 9 billion people. An economic model that understands its limits and uses resources as efficiently as possible is the only way forward if we are to live in a healthy world that works for us, while also owning up to the responsibility of caring for the Earth that envelopes our lives and communities.