Circular Economy: Slowing Resource Flows and Increasing Value
Nancy Bocken is Professor in Sustainable Business at Maastricht Sustainability Institute (MSI), Maastricht School of Business and Economics, at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. She is also Visiting Professor at the International Institute for Indus
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Why Slow Consumption Is Needed in the Circular Economy Current global consumption levels coupled with steady world population growth, and the current state of the climate and world require urgent responses (Chu and Majumdar 2012; IPCC 2018).The Circular Economy—an alternative paradigm to our take-make-dispose linear economy to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility at all times though extension of product lifetimes, as well as recycling (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017)—represents an alternative sustainable development pathway. The Circular Economy is often seen as a panacea for sustainability issues (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017). There is indeed great opportunity in retaining the value of products rather than destroying the value after just a few product uses, or sometimes even no product use at all (e.g. when consumers buy products they later regret (Skelton and Allwood 2017; Achterberg et al. 2016). However, significantly more efforts are needed to understand how business can move to a Circular Economy and create sustainable impact (Blomsma and Brennan 2017). Product lifetimes across multiple product categories from white goods to electronics and clothing have been decreasing over time (Bakker et al. 2014). Products like clothing have become ‘disposable’ goods and systems around clothing are largely linear leading to increasing amounts of waste (EMF 2017). To illustrate, total global clothing production appears to have doubled the past 15 years, while clothing use (number of wears before disposal) has decreased by nearly 40% (EMF 2018). The fast fashion sales model seems to dominate and mainstream business appears to rely on a business model of cheap and fast. Similarly, food waste has become an intensifying problem (WRAP 2018). Roughly one-third of the food produced annually in the world for human consumption gets lost or wasted (FAO 2018) and in developed
N. Bocken (B) Maastricht Sustainability Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 S. Eisenriegler (ed.), The Circular Economy in the European Union, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50239-3_10
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countries over 40% of losses happen at retail (e.g. due to quality standards that overemphasise appearance) and at the consumer level (FAO 2018). Furthermore, even considering increased energy efficiencies of devices and appliances, refrigerators bought in 2011 should still be used for 20 years instead of the current average of 14, and laptops for at least 7 years instead of the average of 4, because the benefits of reuse would outweigh benefits in energy efficiency (Bakker et al. 2014). Different models that break through the marketing-driven constant need for consumption, novelty, and aesthetics are necessary. And, according to a 2014 European survey, 77% of EU consumers would in fact prefer to make products last longer and repair products rather than buying new ones, but the cost of repairs and the level of service available
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