materials never become waste and nature is regenerated
products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting
decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources
The circular economy is based on three principles:
- Eliminate waste and pollution
- Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)
- Regenerate nature
transition to renewable energy and materials
renewable energy is Energy derived from resources that are not depleted on timescales relevant to the economy, i.e. not geological timescales.
we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste – the process is linear. In a circular economy, by contrast, we stop waste being produced in the first place.
technical cycle versus biological cycle
When something is valuable, you want it to STAY a high value thing for as long as possible.
Linear economy = TAKE MAKE WASTE
What will it take to transform our throwaway economy into one where waste is eliminated, resources are circulated, and nature is regenerated?
Maintenance!
Sharing!
Leasing!
Sophisticated "technical" things — borrow, share, lease, maintain, repair...
What systems are we designing for?
Regnerative: we have been so extractive, if we collect all the biological material and feed it BACK into things, how to make it clearner, better, etc. now
Don't just minimize the "bad" ACTUALLY IMPROVE THINGS
Eliminate waste and pollution
The first principle of the circular economy is to eliminate waste and pollution.
economy works in a take-make-waste system — the Linear Economy
We take raw materials from the Earth, we make products from them, and eventually we throw them away as waste
Waste ends up in landfills, or is incinerated. This is LOST resources.
We have finite resources. We can't support always LOSING matter.
The problem (and the solution) starts with design
it sometimes seems like waste is inevitable in certain situations, waste is actually the result of design choices
no waste in nature (Biomimicry)
tiny, short-lived products, like crisp packets, all the way up to seemingly permanent structures like buildings and roads
linear to circular
treat waste as a design flaw
a specification for any design is that the materials re-enter the economy at the end of their use
Technical: maintained, shared, reused, repaired, refurbished, remanufactured, and, as a last resort, recycled
Biological: materials that are safe to return to nature can regenerate the land (compost)
"Throw something away" — but where is away?
adopting reusable packaging as a way to eliminate waste
selling products without packaging
dying textiles without using water
stop waste before it is even created
What examples can you think of that we can add to this column of "solutions" or to this pillar of design ideas?
Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)
Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)
keeping materials in use, either as a product or components or raw material
intrinsic value of products and materials are retained
think about two fundamental cycles – the technical cycle and the biological cycle
In the technical cycle, products are reused, repaired, remanufactured, and recycled
In the biological cycle, biodegradable materials are returned to the earth through processes like composting and anaerobic digestion
technical: The processes that products and materials flow through in order to maintain their highest possible value at all times. Materials suitable for these processes are those that are not consumed during use - such as metals, plastics and wood.
biological: The processes - such as composting and anaerobic digestion - that together help to regenerate natural capital. The only materials suitable for these processes are those that can be safely returned to the biosphere.
Technical: maintain and reuse objects. Phone or car more valuable as functioning phone or car, not its components. How to share, how to get more uses out of it, resale, etc. Next best is remanufacture, introduce the fewest possible NEW components, keep it mostly the same, keep most of use value. Recycling is last resort.
Biological: By composting or anaerobically digesting organic materials, valuable nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and micronutrients, can be used to help regenerate the land. Some products, like cotton clothing or wooden furniture, can be circulated through both the technical and biological cycle. They can be maintained, reused, repaired, and sometimes even recycled, but eventually they can be returned to the biological cycle from which they came
Cradle to Cradle goes into a lot of detail on these things
Design with proper circulation in mind.
Many products designed that combine these nutrient types
keep finite materials in the economy and out of the environment; return biodegradable materials to the earth
Regenerate nature
support natural processes and leave more room for nature to thrive
shift the focus from extraction to regeneration
build natural capital
rebuild soils, increase biodiversity, return biological materials to the earth
emulate natural systems
no waste in nature
natural systems have regenerated themselves. Waste is a human invention.
Food is a good place to start: how to produce food regeneratively?
Climate change is a CARBON IN THE WRONG PLACE problem, its not that there is too much of it, we just put it into the wrong place.
These regenerative food production practises include agroecology, conservation agriculture, and agroforestry (growing trees around or among crops or pasture).
make agricultural land that more closely resemble natural ecosystems like forest and native grassland
keeping products and materials in use, less land is required for sourcing virgin raw materials (mines)
decouple economic activity from material extraction by keeping materials in circulation after use, more and more land can be returned to nature and rewilding can happen (a rare case that reverses Entropy!!)
land dedicated to material sourcing will increasingly be focussed on renewable resources, grown in a regenerative way, rather than the extraction of finite materials
underpin w/ switch to 100% renewable energy
infrastructure designers for reuse, repair, remanufacture, and recycling
Transitioning to renewable energy alone will only tackle 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions
regenerating nature is not limited to the land and can be applied to the ocean
No longer should our focus be simply on doing less harm to the environment, but on how we can actively improve it