Circularity – a crucial part of product development The ability to re-use all material needs to be prioritised from the start
T
he World Bank predicts that global annual waste generation will have reached 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050. That’s almost a 75 per cent increase on the 2 billion tonnes we generate today. Building a circular economy will play a crucial role in reducing this forecast. Here, Mats W Lundberg, head of sustainability at global engineering group Sandvik, looks at why circularity needs to be considered from the initial design process, otherwise it’s already too late. Product lifecycles traditionally follow a linear economy, where materials are transformed into products that are then used and thrown away in a ‘takemake-waste’ approach. This is unsustainable. The primary principle of a circular economy is keeping assets in use to create a responsible way of using
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resources at the same time as reducing waste. Circularity is crucial in closing the loop of product life cycles. A key component of this is keeping products in use for as long as possible, such as by sharing, maintaining, reusing and remanufacturing the product. The preferred end of life strategy is recycling, which is perhaps the most common circular economy approach adopted.
Time to act Manufacturers should take steps to reduce waste in line with goal 12 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, which is ‘responsible consumption and production’. In addition, a 2020 survey by IBM found that over seven in ten consumers say
it’s either moderately or very important that brands are sustainable, environmentally responsible and/or support recycling. The circular economy is applicable for all products, no matter how large or small. For example, a mobile phone is a relatively small piece of technology
