Well, they say it’s new though personally I see it as an extension of how things were done 30 years or more ago.
If you’re older than 40 you’ll remember that, when you were a kid, if the TV broke, mom or
This guy! |
Either way, your television got fixed. The same way they also fixed your home appliances, your stereo and even the landline phone at home.
The broken pieces the technicians took with them, and either they’d fix those parts themselves, or they’d return them to the manufacturer so that they would refurbish them.
The process I just described is, in a nutshell, half of the circular economy. The other half, the newer one, involves having had your TV built using recycled materials to start with.
Technically speaking, the circular economy consists in production that aims to minimize or
eliminate the use of completely new resources, to maximize recycling and repurposing, and to ensure that the product is repairable; if not repairable, the emphasis passes to making sure that all components of the product are reusable or recyclable themselves. The overall focus is reducing the usage of new raw materials. It’s very distant from the current lineal production model of taking (mine, cut, etc.)/making/using/throwing away.
They say the circular economy is very good for the environment, but bad for companies. Is this true?
The resources of our planet aren’t endless, and that’s why we’ve been recycling since the 80s. The circular economy represents a logical follow-up to recycling. Back in the 80s and 90s we had grumpy people and companies that didn’t want to join the recycling wave, saying it was bad for companies; we have some saying the circular economy is bad for businesses.
Recycling wasn’t bad for business, though it did cut into the profits of those who specialized
Mining pollution on a river. |
The same thing happens now: business models need to adapt to the circular economy. Let’s use as example the light bulb. Electric engineers know how to build light bulbs that will never burn out. Some of the original light bulbs built are still burning today, over a hundred years later. While it’s true that those light bulbs use insane amounts of energy, what I mean
Sorted cardboard going to recycling. |
Thankfully people and businesses are beginning to see the error of this practice. Number 12 on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, drafted by the United Nations, and which 193 nations have agreed to pursue, reads “To guarantee sustainable consumption and production”.
And while many of them don’t boast, there are many companies –in fields that one would expect to be tough nuts to crack regarding these types of changes- introducing shifts to their production lines so that they turn towards a circular business model; to read about some of the cooler ones, here’s a few.
But cynics abound, and so do cushy business owners, who think that because their specific business models have been working out profitably for 30, 40, or 100 years, that why change?
The press can answer that very well: up till 20 years ago newspapers were printed, period. Today most of us read the news online, just check the printed production statistics of the last 2 decades for your favorite newspaper to see what’s happened to this 150-year old, very lucrative institution.
There are others who say that the circular economy cuts on the sales of new products, and that takes profits margins away from businesses.
Not long ago I spoke about the bad turn that the corporate mentality has taken in the last 30 years, a shift to caring exclusively about the bottom (profit) line, because the salaries and
Somehow, some still don't want to change... |
After all, nothing resists the passage of time and, if you ask the experts, the technological revolution has just now started. The Sustainable Goals are a realistic way of tackling the issues of a growing overpopulation, the need to feed them and provide them with jobs, and help them become a productive part of societies worldwide; and, to attain all this while nor destroying the planet in the process, because we depend on this Earth to feed us and provide all the resources needed for all the things to keep us all alive and thriving.
Ultimately, the circular economy is but one gear of a productive, sustainable machinery that is setting out to provide us all with a viable future; we could say that it’s a gear that shifts us to a new mentality: one that proposes to provide for today while ensuring that it will continue providing tomorrow. It’s a model that requires the education, now and in the future, of many more people, so that working for the expansion of a circular economy will raise the standard of living worldwide. I can’t feel much sympathy for those who insist on defending the take/make/use/throw away model because I find it obsolete and selfish. Personally, I will extend my warmest welcome to those who bid on a future that is all at once productive, reasonable, healthy and sustainable for all, including our planet.
If you want to learn more about the Global Sustainable Goals, this is the UN official webpage for them.
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