2. The circular economy means maintaining the value of natural resources
throughout its life cycle, beginning with raw material extraction and ending with
the natural resource circulating back into use. The plastic recycling presented in
part 2 was one such example.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation [1] encourages us to think of waste as “a design
flaw”, rather than simply accepting that the items we no longer need are waste.
3. In the case of waste, we started out defining waste as “unwanted” or “valueless material”, so how can
the value of waste be maintained?
According to the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation[2], 600 million tonnes of steel scrap
world-wide was used in 2017 for producing steel, which has significant environmental benefits. Such as
CO2 emission reduction, as well as reduction in other emissions to the environment.
In addition to reducing negative environmental impacts, recycling has economic importance as well.
As an example, in April 2021 the price for steel scrap was around 470 US$ per tonne. This would make
the total value of the recycled steel scrap nearly 300 billion US$!
4. Other materials, like paper and plastics don’t hold their value as well as metals do and of course, their
economic value was much smaller to begin with, but the idea is still the same.
Economic value is one of the key obstacles of moving to a pure circular economy. As long as it is
cheaper to produce and use new raw material, there is no incentive to collect, process and generate
recyclate. Another reason is in the design: not all products can be produced from recycled raw material
due to their purpose or design characteristics.
5. A circular product design and production (eco-design) is a vital step in enabling reuse [3]. Consumers
have the ability to choose products made from recycled materials and avoid single use items.
However, they also have the power to ensure enough recycled raw material is made available by
sorting their waste materials.
A great example of incentivizing people to recycle is the deposit model used e.g., in Finland. When I
buy soda or water in a plastic bottle, I pay a small deposit for the container. When I return the empty
container to be recycled, I get this deposit back. [4]
6. [1] Ellen Macarthur Foundation website. Retrieved from:
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/what-is-the-circular-economy
[2] EuRIC AISBL – Recycling: Bridging Circular Economy & Climate Policy
[3] Franco-García, M-L, Carpio-Aguilar, J. and Bressers, H. 2019. Towards Zero Waste
Circular Economy Boost, Waste to Resources. Greening of Industry Networks Studies book
series (GINS, volume 6). Springer, Cham. 978-3-319-92931-6
[4] Beverage container recycling website. Retrieved From: https://www.palpa.fi/english/
![The circular economy means maintaining the value of natural resources
throughout its life cycle, beginning with raw material extraction and ending with
the natural resource circulating back into use. The plastic recycling presented in
part 2 was one such example.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation [1] encourages us to think of waste as “a design
flaw”, rather than simply accepting that the items we no longer need are waste.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)