Ellen MacArthur on the basics of the circular economy

Summary

The transcript discusses the concept of a circular economy, emphasizing its two main components: the technical cycle, which involves the reuse and recycling of non-biodegradable materials like metals and plastics, and the biological cycle, focusing on the degradation and regeneration of natural materials. It highlights the importance of keeping these cycles separate and the value in extending the life of products through remanufacturing, repair, and sharing. The concept of regeneration is introduced as a way to positively impact natural systems, promoting a shift from an extractive mindset to one that enriches and sustains the environment.

Takeaways

• 🔄 The circular economy is based on two distinct material cycles: technical and biological.
• 🔩 The technical cycle involves materials like metals and plastics that do not biodegrade and should be recovered and reused within the system.
• 🌿 The biological cycle includes materials like food and wood that can biodegrade and return to the soil, regenerating natural resources.
• 🔧 Importance of keeping technical and biological materials separate to prevent contamination and facilitate recycling.
• 📱 In a circular economy, products like phones are designed for longevity, remanufacturing, and recycling to maximize their value and minimize waste.
• 🚗 Remanufacturing engines and other products uses significantly less energy and materials compared to creating new ones, contributing to resource savings.
• 🔄 Repair and maintenance are crucial components of a circular economy, extending the life of products and reducing waste.
• 💡 Designing products with the end of their life in mind is essential for successful remanufacturing and recycling.
• 👕 The concept of cascading use, where items are used for as long as possible before being repurposed or recycled, is central to the biological cycle.
• 🌱 Regeneration in the biological cycle means not just minimizing negative impacts, but actively enriching and improving natural systems.
• 🌟 A shift in mindset from consumption to regeneration is necessary for a sustainable and circular economy.

Q & A

What is the core concept of a circular economy?

The core concept of a circular economy is to transform the traditional linear model of 'take-make-dispose' into a circular model that focuses on the reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling of materials to minimize waste and make the most of resources.

What are the two different types of materials in a circular economy?

The two different types of materials in a circular economy are technical and biological. Technical materials are those that do not biodegrade, such as metals, rare-earth metals, and plastics, which should be recovered and reused. Biological materials are those that can biodegrade and return to the soil, like cotton and wood, which should be managed in a way that regenerates soil and natural systems.

Why is it important to distinguish between technical and biological cycles in a circular economy?

It is important to distinguish between technical and biological cycles because they have different values and require different management strategies. Technical materials are valuable and should be recovered and reused to prevent loss and reduce the need for new resources. Biological materials, on the other hand, are valuable for their role in regenerating soil and ecosystems, and should be managed to ensure they return to the earth in a way that supports natural cycles.

What is an example of a product where combining technical and biological materials can be problematic?

An example is clothing made from a blend of poly cotton, where the different fibers are woven together and cannot be easily separated for recycling. This mixing of materials can make it difficult to recover and reuse the individual components, reducing the efficiency of the circular economy.

How does remanufacturing contribute to a circular economy?

Remanufacturing contributes to a circular economy by taking broken or used products, stripping them down, cleaning them, and reassembling them into new products with a significant portion of the original parts. This process uses less energy and materials compared to making new products, thereby saving resources and extending the life of the products.

What is the potential impact of designing products for circular economy principles?

Designing products with circular economy principles in mind can lead to significant resource savings, reduced environmental impact, and economic benefits. Products can be designed for easier disassembly, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling, ensuring that materials are kept in use for as long as possible and that the value of the products is maximized throughout their life cycle.

How does the concept of sharing fit into the circular economy?

Sharing is a key aspect of the circular economy as it extends the life of products by allowing multiple users to access and use the same item without the need for each individual to own it. This reduces the overall number of products needed, decreases resource consumption, and can lead to more efficient use of items that are often underutilized, such as power drills or cars.

What is the significance of repair and maintenance in a circular economy?

Repair and maintenance are crucial for a circular economy as they keep products in use at their highest value for longer periods. By fixing items before they break or become obsolete, we can prevent the need for premature replacement and reduce waste, thereby making the most of the energy and materials that went into creating the product.

How can the biological cycle in a circular economy be regenerative?

The biological cycle in a circular economy can be regenerative by managing biological materials in a way that enhances natural systems rather than depleting them. This involves collecting and returning waste materials like human waste, food waste, and plant matter back into the soil to improve its quality, increase its water retention, and support overall ecosystem health.

What challenges are associated with implementing circular economy principles in the biological cycle?

Challenges in implementing circular economy principles in the biological cycle include ensuring that materials are non-toxic, organic, and biodegradable so they can safely return to the environment. Additionally, there's a need to develop systems for efficiently collecting, processing, and reintroducing these materials back into natural cycles without causing harm or contamination.

How does the concept of cascading use contribute to the circular economy?

Cascading use contributes to the circular economy by maximizing the utility of a product or material at each stage of its life. This means using an item for as long as possible in its highest value form, then finding secondary uses for it before it is recycled or composted. For example, a piece of timber used in construction could eventually be repurposed for furniture, then broken down for particleboard, and finally composted, ensuring that the material is used to its full potential throughout its life cycle.

Outlines

00:00

🔄 Introduction to Circular Economy

This paragraph introduces the concept of the circular economy, emphasizing its simplicity and appeal. It outlines the two main types of materials involved: technical and biological. Technical materials are those that do not degrade, such as metals, rare-earth metals, and plastics, which are to be recovered and reused within the economy through recycling or other methods. Biological materials, on the other hand, are those that can biodegrade and return to the soil, such as cotton and wood. The importance of distinguishing between these two cycles is highlighted, as mixing them can lead to problems in recycling and regenerating natural systems. The paragraph also touches on the value of recycling, remanufacturing, and the design of products for longevity and ease of recycling or remanufacturing.

05:00

🛠️ Repair, Remanufacture, and Share

The second paragraph delves into the aspects of repair, remanufacture, and sharing within the circular economy. It emphasizes the importance of keeping products in use for as long as possible to maximize their value and minimize waste. Repairing items before they catastrophically fail is highlighted as a crucial part of the circular economy, applicable to various products like phones, cars, and clothing. The concept of sharing is expanded upon, with examples such as tool sharing and clothing leasing, which can reduce the need for individual ownership and increase the efficiency of resource use. The paragraph also discusses the biological cycle, drawing parallels with the technical cycle in terms of keeping materials in use and cascading their use through different stages. The idea of regeneration is introduced, advocating for a shift from being extractive and consumptive to regenerative practices that enrich and improve natural systems.

Keywords

💡Circular Economy

The circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and making the most of resources. It contrasts with the traditional linear economy, which follows a 'take-make-dispose' model. In the context of the video, the circular economy is divided into two cycles: the technical cycle, involving non-biodegradable materials like metals and plastics, and the biological cycle, which includes biodegradable materials like food and wood.

💡Technical Cycle

The technical cycle is a concept within the circular economy that refers to the continuous use of non-biodegradable materials. This cycle involves recovering materials like metals, rare-earth metals, and plastics through processes such as recycling, with the goal of keeping these resources in use and preventing them from becoming waste.

💡Biological Cycle

The biological cycle is the part of the circular economy that deals with biodegradable materials. It emphasizes the importance of allowing these materials to degrade and return to the soil, thereby regenerating natural systems and promoting sustainability. This cycle includes materials like food, wood, and cotton, which have traditionally been part of natural regeneration processes but are often disrupted in modern economies.

💡Recycling

Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. In the context of the circular economy, recycling is seen as a last resort to recover value from materials, especially when it comes to technical cycles, as the priority is to keep materials in use for as long as possible.

💡Remanufacturing

Remanufacturing involves taking a used or broken product, stripping it down, cleaning it, and then reassembling it into a new product with some or all of the original parts. This process is more resource-efficient and cost-effective than producing a new item from scratch, as it requires less energy and fewer materials.

💡Repair and Maintenance

Repair and maintenance refer to the activities of fixing and preserving items to extend their useful life. In the context of a circular economy, these practices are crucial for keeping products in use at their highest value for as long as possible, preventing premature obsolescence and reducing waste.

💡Sharing

Sharing is the act of making a resource available to others, often to reduce the need for individual ownership and to increase the efficiency of resource use. In a circular economy, sharing can extend the life of products by ensuring they are used more frequently and by more people, thereby reducing waste and maximizing the value derived from each product.

💡Cascading Use

Cascading use is a principle in the circular economy where a product or material is used for multiple purposes, often of decreasing value, before it is finally recycled or disposed of. This approach maximizes the value derived from each resource and extends the time it remains in use, thereby reducing waste and the need for new resources.

💡Regenerative

Regenerative refers to practices or processes that not only maintain but also improve or restore natural systems over time. In the context of the circular economy, regenerative practices involve using biological materials in a way that contributes to the health and fertility of the soil and ecosystems, rather than simply minimizing negative impacts.

💡Design for Circularity

Design for circularity is an approach to product design that considers the entire lifecycle of a product, aiming to maximize its value and minimize waste by making it reusable, repairable, and recyclable. This design philosophy is central to the circular economy, as it encourages the creation of products that can be kept in use for as long as possible and easily reintegrated into the system at the end of their life.

💡Sustainability

Sustainability refers to the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In the context of the circular economy, sustainability is achieved by reducing waste, conserving resources, and regenerating natural systems through practices like recycling, remanufacturing, and regenerative agriculture.

Highlights

The concept of a circular economy being composed of two different types of materials: technical and biological.

Technical cycle involves materials like metals and plastics that do not biodegrade and should be recovered and reused within the system.

Biological cycle includes materials that can biodegrade, such as food and wood, and emphasizes the importance of returning these to the soil for regeneration.

The problem of mixing technical and biological materials, making them difficult to separate and recycle, as seen in clothing like poly-cotton blends.

Recycling as a last resort in the circular economy, with a focus on maximizing the value and use of products like phones and packaging.

Remanufacturing as a more resource-efficient alternative to manufacturing new products, exemplified by remanufactured engines.

The potential for predictive maintenance to reduce resource use by remanufacturing items before they break.

Designing products for longevity and ease of disassembly to facilitate remanufacturing and material recovery.

The role of sharing in the circular economy, reducing the need for individual ownership and promoting efficient use of products.

Repair and maintenance as essential components of the circular economy, extending the life and value of products.

The concept of cascading use in the biological cycle, maximizing the utility of materials before they biodegrade and return to the earth.

The importance of intelligent design in ensuring that products, from clothing to buildings, can be sustainably used and regenerated.

The potential for regenerative practices to enrich and improve natural systems, moving beyond mere sustainability to restoration.

The shift in mindset from minimizing negative impacts to actively building positive impacts through circular economy practices.

The critical need to transition to regenerative systems due to the consumptive and extractive nature of our current practices.

The innovative potential of circular economy principles to transform how we perceive and interact with materials and natural systems.

Transcripts

when we talk about the linear to

circular from a straight line to a

circle we make this circular economy

idea sound really simple and one of the

things that appeals to me is that in

essence it is the first things that I

learned about circular economy is this

idea of it being made of two different

types of material technical and

biological so firstly technical what is

the technical cycle technical cycle is

is basically anything that doesn't by

degrade

so it would be metals rare-earth metals

most plastics polymers things that you

would want to recover within a circular

economy and feedback into the system it

could be through recycling that could be

chemical recycling it could be physical

recycling anything that doesn't

biodegrade and that the biological cycle

is the side of the circular economy that

would biodegrade now you could think of

that as being in a food or or wood but

it's it's very very broad it could be

cotton you know it could be a form of

wood which is chipboard it could be

anything that if it's designed correctly

which is also very important would

physically by degrade and return to the

to the soil and it's very important to

distinguish between the two because the

technical materials you want to recover

and feed back into the economy you can't

let those lie on the ground and

disappear because because they won't

apart from perhaps some metals will

eventually rust away but they're very

valuable at the biological cycle is

valuable in a different way because it's

biological material which for billions

of years has been returning to the earth

and regenerating soil and actually we've

kind of broken that cycle with with

timber with cotton with food with food

waste with human waste no we're not

returning that to the soil and

regenerating cycle so you think of those

two technical and biological cycles and

today we often one of the problems is we

mix those things up by the time we

combine biological materials with

technical materials in ways that they

can't be separated clothing would be a

great example with a poly cotton and we

can't recover those two different fibers

get all woven together

you met your assay clink how is it part

of circular economy

well recycling really yes you want to do

it absolutely of course we want to get

the materials and feed them back into

the system but it's almost the loop of

last resort most of the value in a phone

for example is the phone of course the

components have value and of course the

materials have value and you want to

recover them at the end of the life of

that phone but actually the phone itself

has the most value so yes we want to

recycle and packaging would be a an

example of a very high volume low value

material that you would want to design

to be 100% recyclable if it were plastic

for example but then you also have these

other products that that sit in a

different space where you want to keep

them as the product for as long as

possible so in essence if you have to

make something again that surely is

takes more money energy absolutely and I

think a great example of that is

remanufactured engines well if you think

about making an engine for example that

engine is a phenomenal piece of

equipment that's had you know millions

of hours of R&D put into it and it works

most remanufactured engines today have

actually broken they come into a factory

having been broken they get completely

stripped down ultrasonically cleaned and

then the majority of the parts get

reassembled into a new engine about 80%

of the original parts are in the new

engine the remanufactured engine 20%

will be replacement parts but that

engine then has 80 percent less energy

than 80 percent less material and it

compared to a new one so you're saving

so much money and resource through

keeping it in the system now that's a

broken engine if you can predict when it

engines about to break and then

remanufacture it before it breaks you'll

be changing much much much smaller parts

and if you design it for that then it'll

be a much cleverer system when you look

at cars today they're parked the

majority of the time in over 90 percent

of the cut at the time the car is just

parked not being used and then when it

is used the majority of the time it's

got one or two people in it so within a

circular economy of course you would

design the car so you can remanufacture

it so you can disassemble it so you

could recover the materials but we

probably wouldn't own it we've

probably have access to it somehow

either leasing it or you would pay per

mile or you know like Zipcar or

streetcar there are so many examples now

particularly in cities where more and

more people are living whereby you have

access to this car and once the car

isn't yours and you don't physically buy

it then almost the manufacturers

incentivized to build a slightly

different car because they don't want to

build it as cheaply as possible to sell

because they only make money when they

sell another car they want to make a car

that's actually that works that's

remanufacture all that they can recover

the materials from because they're

probably leasing that into a system they

will get that back they will want to be

able to get as much value out of that

for the second cycle or the third cycle

as possible okay from remanufacturing

what about things like repair and

maintenance are they the next level up

well repair our maintenance keep things

in use at their highest level if you can

catch something before it breaks that

would clearly be the right thing to do

before you have a catastrophic failure

that needs a remanufacture of that

engine for example so yes repair is

absolutely part of a circular economy

that could be a phone it could be a car

it could be clothing how can you keep

that thing that's been made with the

energy and materials in it in use for as

long as possible it's definitely growing

industry now several times I've repaired

my phone taking it apart follow the

instructions it takes a couple of hours

but actually by the time you've gone off

and taken the phone somewhere and paid

someone else to do it and gone back and

collected it and not had your phone for

a while it's actually quite inconvenient

and I think there are people who would

love to fix it themselves there are

other people who absolutely don't want

to do that so there are different

options but it's great to see the space

growing then lastly on this technical

cycle sharing as part of the part of the

picture and it could be related to some

of the other loops that we just

mentioned but we're seeing more people

share the products are there well if you

think about a power drill you know most

people have one in the home but most

people hardly ever use it and it's

generally not a very high quality drill

and it will probably break when you used

it just a few times because it's bottom

end of the market and you can take that

to the next level with China with white

closet you know you've effectively

leased your clothes you sharing your

clothes with other people but you don't

think of it like that you're leasing

them you're having this phenomenal box

of great clothes delivered to your home

and then off it goes and

so sharing doesn't just have to be

between you and your neighbor or you and

someone down the road you can actually

be done in a much more sophisticated

manner so that's the technical cycle

things like repair remanufacturing

recycling what about the biological

cycle because the roots are going to be

quite different if we want to make use

of those all the materials and value

within that cycle you can't rent or

repair a sandwich not really but if

actually if you think of the principles

they're very similar so technical

products keep them in use for as long as

possible you know think about this

building this is timber this has been in

use since the 1500s this is being kept

at a very high quality because it's

doing a very important job that could

have been burnt in the 1500s and then it

would have been very low quality very

quickly albeit doing a useful job so if

you think about applying that to today's

economy a piece of timber could be burnt

which we do in many countries all that

piece of timber could be made into a

table at the end of the life of that

table the table could be broken down and

turned into particleboard at the end of

life is that particle board it could be

broken down and it could turn into

compost if it was intelligently designed

so think about what we call cascading

how can you use the item you have for as

long as possible it could be said for

cotton you could make a t-shirt that

t-shirt could become wording or stuffing

or padding or sound insulation then

eventually if it's you know non-toxic

organic and biodegradable it could feed

back into that biological system so it's

not just the biodegradable things we

think of it you know like food waste or

human waste or leaves from trees it's

also the bigger things you know these

things and the fibers how can we keep

those in use for as long as possible how

can we keep them at the highest value so

many loops so many innovations and a

different way of thinking you know if

you put a toxic ink on a piece of paper

when you print it then actually you

can't really recycle that paper and turn

it into you know cereal box for example

so think about how you design think

about what system you're designing for

and on the biological cycle people often

talk about things being regenerative

more regenerating natural systems what

do we mean by regenerative and why is

it's so such an important part of that

biological story I see a regeneration is

an opportunity we've been so extractive

and so consumptive for so many years you

know we talk about in a 60 harvests left

before topsoil degradation means we

can't really grow anything in the way we

do today I mean that's quite critical

but if you can collect all the

biological material the human waste the

food waste of food production waste and

feed that back into the system you have

the ability to regenerate it in today's

world is a phenomenal opportunity now

we're so used to thinking let's just

make this last a bit longer let's eat

out what we've got a bit longer but this

is a completely different way of

thinking let's actually make it better

let's regenerate it let's make it richer

let's make it hold more water let's make

it better land is that flipped

perception from how can we just minimize

the negative impacts too how can we

build something better to have a

positive impact with with all the

different activities that are going on

in the economy every day absolutely it's

completely different mindset

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