Circular Economy And Its Four Main Concepts
The circular economy is a system of production and consumption in which materials never become waste and are regenerated. The material and products will be reused while keeping them in circulation through processes such as sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling. The core of the circular economy is thus that the life cycle of products will be extended, contributing considerably to tackling climate change and other environmental challenges by reducing waste to a minimum.
The idea, opposite to the traditional non-linear economy, was first proposed by economist Kenneth E. Boulding in 1966, stressing that concept within the global economy is unavoidable to ensure the existence of human life on Earth in the long run. The traditional linear model, on the other hand, is a system in which people buy a product, use it, and then throw it away, with no thought for recycling or reuse.
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According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an initiative founded to accelerate the world’s transition to the circular economy, the concept is defined as one that is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between technical and biological cycles.
Scholars have generally associated four major concepts associated with circular economy. To begin with, reuse is the major pillar of the circular economy, thus minimising the use of raw materials and instead promoting repair. The second one is recycling, another major constituent of the circular economy. The process transporm wastes into new products, thus ending the production-consumption-disposal cycle and starting the production, consumption and recycling process. The third concept is waste reduction, which involves developing procedures to produce goods with minimal waste, advocating for decreased packaging waste and the production of durable and eco-friendly goods.
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The fourth concept is product redesign, which includes the focus on producing goods and foreseeing the potential for recycling. Companies should also consider generating products that are sustainable and have to use material and packaging which can be reused repaired or recycled easily.
In addition, key concepts related to a circular economy can be categorised as three “Rs” and the first R stands for ‘reduction,’ meaning resource-efficient and eco-friendly production, creating value while decreasing climate impact. The second R stands for ‘reuse’ meaning remanufacturing repairing, and thus reducing transportation and packaging. The third R stands for recycle, meaning waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances. The process includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations.
