The circuitous, but essential, path to a circular economy
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Energy Sector Analysis
Growing world population and economic prosperity are straining the Earth’s limited resources. The time is now to move from our “take, make, dispose” economic model to one that’s circular, where materials flow through the economy. Materials innovations could be crucial for this transition.
The circuitous, but essential, path to a circular economy By Prachi Patel Feature Editor: Anthony Ku
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nce upon a time, we expected things to last. Instead of throwing away shoes and tools at the first sign of fault, we took them to cobblers and repair shops. Then, sometime after World War II, disposable products emerged as a way to promote business and create jobs. If products do not last, the thinking went, customers will buy replacements. We now live in a throwaway economy, where few products are built to last. One garbage truck full of textiles is burned or landfilled every second. A stupendous 5-plus billion tons of plastic is sitting in landfills or the natural environment, a number that could go up to 12 billion by 2050 if we continue apace producing disposable plastics, especially packaging and bottles that are tossed after one use. It might be time to come full circle. A booming world population, growing economic prosperity, and an insatiable appetite for consumer goods are straining the Earth’s limited resources. We are running out of metals and fossil fuels, and space to bury our trash. It might be time to move toward a circular economy model. The idea is to go from today’s linear “take, make, dispose” economic model—extract resources, make a product, discard at end of life—to one that is cyclical, where materials flow circularly through the economy. This captures the most value from materials while reducing waste and resource use. It also requires a profoundly different way of thinking about goods. Prosperity and consumption are traditionally thought to go hand-in-hand: as nations get richer, they create more trash. A circular economy flips that idea on its head, said Gabrielle Gaustad, a professor of sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “The crux of a circular economy is to be able to decouple economic growth from resource consumption,” she said. That decoupling will be the only way to continue making people across the world healthy, wealthy, and happy, said Nick Voulvoulis, professor of environmental technology at Imperial College London. “There are more and more of us on the planet and more people moving from poverty to middle class,” he said. “The world cannot sustain everyone in the middle class right now. We have to move towards a circular economy as a global need.” Getting there will require overcoming technical, social, and market barriers. Research, policies, and industry standards could speed things along. Transitioning would be expensive, but longterm benefits would outweigh risks and cost, according to a 2017 McKinsey & Company report. In addition to minimizing envi-
ronmental impact, it could cut costs, create work, and improve quality of life, because thi
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