Honestly speaking, we all know what to do. We purchase, consume and discard things. Over the decades, the world economy has been playing a rather easy but lethal game: extract resources of the earth, create something out of it, and dispose of them when we are through. However, with our landfills becoming clogged and our oceans being choked with plastic, we are all beginning to know that there is no away.
This finding led to the emergence of the circular economy, a different approach to doing things that goes further than recycling more and transforms our way of thinking. Imagine a world in which trash is not actually trash, but food to prepare the next generation of creating things. It is not a fantasy land; it is an actual, working world that is arriving because of a strong body of products that are transforming our linear system into a loop.
Designing to Get Rid of Waste and Pollution.
The conceptualization phase is the point of beginning the circular economy. Approximately, 80% of the environmental impact of a product is known before the product has even made. Firms can prevent waste even before it occurs by reconsidering design differently.
Some of the techniques are:
- Modular design is simplifying the process of fixing, updating or dismantling things rather than disposing of them. An example of this is that customers will be able to replace a faulty camera or battery on a modular smartphone without necessarily purchasing another phone.
- Material innovation: Innovating with materials that can break down, can recycled or remade helpful to the environment and can help recover resources. Incidentally, plastics made of plant starches can employed in place of fossil-fuel plastics in packaging.
- Eco-design principles Designers consider the entire life cycle of a product, including the acquisition of the materials to its disposal, to reduce carbon emissions and other negative productions.
The first thing that industries can do is to avoid waste accessing the system by putting a smarter design in place.
The Power of Sharing and a Product-as-a-Service.
Do you actually have to possess a drill or do you simply have to have a hole in the wall? The round economy challenges us to raise a question about the close association we bear to the value of ownership. Suppose we put access to ownership? Automobile, tool and even clothing sharing sites are already causing it to happen.
One common car would replace 15 separately owned cars and this would reduce the things that have to manufactured. Product as a Service (PaaS) paradigm is more radical. Consider a company that has to use lighting-as-a-service rather than purchasing light bulbs.
The fixtures are still owned by the manufacturer, who has the responsibility of maintaining them in prime condition and lit. They no longer have the same motivation: they now interested in creating the longest lasting lights, the ones that will consume the least energy, and that can easily repaired because that is their source of income. This is a link between the wellbeing of the earth and the wellbeing of businesses.
Digital Technology that Can make Circularity a Possibility.
Circular methods can followed and more successful with the enhancement of digital technology. The Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and blockchain are simplifying the process of managing resources in a more intelligent way.
- Recycling is made more efficient, maintenance planned and without waste creating supply chains through AI and data analytics.
- The location of materials is easier to observe with the help of blockchain, and it is necessary to ensure that the activity is ethical and long-term.
- IoT sensors monitor the usage of products and their functionality. This aids in determining when the repair and upgrades are necessary and this reduces unnecessary replacements.
- The current circular systems operate on technology therefore they are easy to scale and measure.
Conclusion
Circular economy is not a new novelty in the environmental world, but a future-oriented strategic plan of a powerful and long-term future. By re-designing products, making them more durable, and altering the flow of materials in our system we will be able to save precious resources and reduce wastes and pollution.
An example of how economic growth and environmental conservation may be complementary can found recycling, upcycling, sharing models and biological regeneration. Ultimately, the circular economy requires all people including businesses, governments and individuals to collaborate to ensure the system is functional.
Whenever you make a repair, reuse a product or purchase something responsibly, you come to the loop and make waste a new opportunity. The more people adopt these techniques to reduce the amount of waste, the closer we are to the situation where living, working, and dining in a manner that makes sense to the environment is simply the way things are.