However, the endless desire of economic growth has become obsolete. With population explosion and scarce resources, what must be concerned is overly exploiting nature for economic output would only lead to the damage of humans itself. Therefore, rather than blindly pursue linear economic growth, it’s crucial to develop a circular economy for a long term resolution.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, circular economy is an economic system looks beyond the current take-make-waste industrial model, focusing on positive society-wide benefits which is based on three principles: 

1. Design out waste and pollution

2. Keep products and materials in use

3. Regenerate natural systems

The three principles ensure a closed-loop system that builds long-term resilience, minimises the use of resource input and creation of waste, and generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and social benefits. 

To gain insight into how a sustainable business using the concept of circular economy can benefit both the economy and environment, the following content would look into  “S.Cafe® coffee fabric" as an example.

In Taiwan, 28.5 billions cups of coffee are consumed annually. Behind such a vast market, as a result, there are huge quantities of coffee grounds created by our daily coffee drinking. 

Noticed the characteristics of coffee grounds are deodorant, fast drying, and UV protecting, a traditional Taiwanese textile company, Singtex,  takes advantage of their textile technology, successfully invented “S.Cafe® coffee fabric” by using coffee waste and plastic bottles. 

Coffee fabric can be used in cloth making. Statistically, the traditional textile industry ranks the second worst polluted industry in the world, producing overall 20% wastewater and 10% carbon emission. Therefore, coffee fabric is apparently a more sustainable choice for cloth making. Compared to a pure cotton shirt which has to consume 2700L of water, a coffee fabric shirt only uses up 3 cups of coffee grounds and 5 plastic bottles.  

With this innovative product, Singtex expands their business model from local to global. They cooperate with the Colombia Coffee Union, transforming 25 tons of coffee grounds to sustainable fabric everyday. Singtex not only dealt with this vast amount of unwanted coffee grounds, but also introduced the “fair trade model” that every ton of unwanted coffee grounds can create over 1000 dollars of income for the local farmers. 

From what has been discussed above, economic development and environmental protection do not have to be in conflict. Given the prosperity of the circular economy, every one could be a vital role to foster this business transition from linear to circular. Not only the government can reform the traditional industries through legislations and subsidies, but also we consumers can support sustainable products. The more sustainable awareness we raised, the more sustainable business would thrive, and the more close we are to a sustainable future.