[Thematic Report,January 2023] Circular-ish: Embracing The Messy Reality Of Circular Economyby Prince Foley | 18-01-2023 16:57 |
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What happened to the big, beautiful vision of a circular economy? The vision of a future in which we have redesigned everything so waste has been eliminated in the first place rather than cleaned up. Where we make convenient, useful products that improve people¡¯s lives, valuing and circulating them, at their best, for as long as possible. And, where we regenerate our natural systems so they are thriving and abundant. These principles – eliminate, circulate, regenerate – challenge the very fundamentals of our current, linear economic model. So why is the term being used to sell a product that contains a bit of recycled material? Increasingly, it feels like the public and the media have this reaction too. They say ¡®nope!¡¯ or ¡®we don¡¯t believe you¡¯ or ¡®look at the other stuff your company does¡¯ or ¡®it¡¯s not really that circular, is it?¡¯ or ¡®ok, so you recycled it once, but what happens after that?¡¯ As someone who says those types of things, in doing so, I feel like I¡¯m honouring the severity of the global challenges that we face, and hence the scale and ambition of the solutions we need to meet them. On top of that, I believe I¡¯m protecting the purity of that big, beautiful vision by sticking to what the theory says. At its core, the circular economy advances the concept of no waste and continues use for materials. This addresses both scarcity in raw materials and our ever growing waste problems. So when I think about the designers or innovators trying to accelerate this transition, I understand why they¡¯re proud of their achievement, even if it is a small step towards a circular economy rather than a great leap. In a circular economy there is a need for a ¡®functional service¡¯ model in which manufacturers or retailers increasingly retain ownership of their products and act as service providers, selling the use of the products, rather than the products themselves. This shift has direct implications for the development of efficient and effective take-back systems. It also requires changes in product design and business models to generate more durable products that are designed for disassembly and remanufacture or refurbishment Some efforts are more circular than others. If you zoom out across time and space, it¡¯s pretty safe to assume that most of the innovation we need to create a circular economy has not been realized. The economy is still linear, after all. So there¡¯s a lot of work to be done. I think it¡¯s important that we distinguish between different mindsets and stages on the journey to a circular economy. People are experimenting, which is essential. Innovating for a truly circular economy is a process, and each innovation takes us a step closer. But not all attempts at circular design are created equal. I think we undermine the idea of a circular economy itself if we don¡¯t get more serious about the pathways of thinking and implementation that will get us there. Some efforts are well-intentioned, incremental steps towards the circular economy. People ¡®get¡¯ the circular economy. They understand the full picture that big, beautiful vision. They¡¯re on the right track. But their ideas aren¡¯t finished and they know that they might never be finished. The transformation of our economy from extractive and linear to circular and regenerative is a systemic, ongoing mission. Evolving with continuous feedback is a core part of circular design. The circular economy model offers a hierarchy of strategies as we move from the outer to inner loops: from remanufacturing to repair, reuse, maintenance, and sharing, we increasingly preserve the integrity, the embedded energy, and labour of the product itself. So the main issue with their approach is that recycling should be the last option, not the first, it¡¯s the inner loops of a circular economy that should be the aim. I think we are in a circular-ish stage: Circular-ish is the bit in the middle. It¡¯s the stage we¡¯re at now – where things get real. It¡¯s where we translate the circular economy from premise to pragmatism. Circular-ish is an attitude or posture, one that reflects the dynamic nature of this transition. It¡¯s a commitment you make to yourself, your colleagues, and to society, that means ¡°we¡¯ve started, we¡¯re trying, and we¡¯re committed to doing better¡±. Circular-ish isn¡¯t a technical term. It¡¯s not an excuse for bad design. If you¡¯re thinking ¡®Great! I can do the bare minimum¡¯, shrug your shoulders and say ¡®don¡¯t hate me, it¡¯s circular-ish!¡¯, then I¡¯ve missed the mark. And I say to you, you can do better. Embrace the state of circular-ish, and learn to love the messy reality of circular economy innovation. References •https://unctad.org/topic/trade-and-environment/circular-economy |
