CIRCULAR ECONOMY
The circular economy: a silver bullet to address all sustainability challenges and ESG commitments, or just a fallacy that will fail to materialise in the future? By Nick Mannie*
HOW CIRCULAR IS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY REALLY?
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hile the burning issues of carbon footprinting and emissions capture headlines globally, the current ‘business as usual’ industrial practices continue unabated in many instances. The circular economy is a decoupler of material use and environmental impact from economic growth (Lazarevic & Valve, 2017). The Ellen MacArthur Foundation describes the circular economy as “looking beyond the current ‘take, make and dispose’ extractive industrial model, to a model that is restorative and regenerative by design. Relying on systemwide innovation, it aims to redefine products and services to design waste out, while minimising the negative impacts. This is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural and social capital.” So, the question remains: does the circular economy really take sustainability into account, and can we truly create sustainable practices all round? Blum et al. (2020) state that “sustainable practices must be assessed for circularity before being implemented.” How certain are the designers, manufacturers, developers and all other stakeholders involved in so-called circular economy solutions that they are addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as set out by the United Nations in 2015? (See Figure 1.)
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What is preventing stakeholders from achieving genuine circularity? Is it policies, guidelines, KPIs, executive decisionmakers, stakeholder input, lack of financial support, society or technology? When looking at the circular economy from an industrial point of view and its ecosystem, a question arises: can industrial players rearrange their activities and their processes in order to achieve the ideal of a real circular economy? By continuing to reflect on these questions, some literature points to the introduction of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) as the start of the circular economy journey back in the 1970s. Presently, it reflects a lot of hope
for transformation in policy, material flow, sustainability and an overall win-win outcome. As with this progressive implementation, there will be improvements and changes to the policies and measures put in place over time. However, has there been critical assessment of the success of all these policies and measures implemented? In other words, where or what are the notable improvements and what has hindered the circular economy from being circular? There are many arguments around a singular question – whether enough has been done to unleash the circular economy impact globally, with both yes and no answers being correct. It is highly dependent on the uptake by industry, communities, various stakeholders and governments. While ideation and innovation can certainly pave the way for a circular economy, the commitment to invest in innovation and transforming the materials and product landscape by industrialists
FIGURE 1 UN Sustainable Development Goals (Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment)