Hi Alex here. Today's video is about circular economy. It is a term that we
hear a lot these days. I was asked many times to make a video
about it so here it is. I will explain what we mean by circular economy. I will
go through all the things we can do to go from our current economy to a
circular one and I will use many examples. If you stay untill the end, I
will share a book with you that you can read to learn more about it. You will
see there is way more to it than just recycling. Okay let's get drawing!
When my son was three years old and asking his mummy what was this circular economy
thing she was working on, here is what she told him: it is when everything is
healthy food for something else. So simple and sweet. I loved it! In other
words, it means running the economy like nature runs its own business:
plants use carbon dioxide and nutrients to grow and produce oxygen.
Animals use oxygen and create carbon dioxide and nutrients. Nothing is wasted.
It is a closed-loop system. Circular economy is generally opposed to the
linear economy take-make-waste we have been running for many years. Some people
also use the term "cradle to cradle" as opposed to cradle to grave.
As explained in my triple bottom-line video, the economy is part of society
which is part of the environment. You can click here if you want to watch this
video. Now let's look at the economy: we can split into two categories the things
that we need to run into closed loops: technical materials, biological materials.
Technical materials have this typical life cycle: raw materials are mined, the
product is manufactured then it is transported to be used until the end of
its life. We often tend to think about the end of life and the importance of
recycling and this is true but for our economy to be circular there are many
things we can do before the end of life. It starts with using resources that are
already extracted. Say my product needs copper. It is best to "mine" copper and
that is not used anymore (that we also called post-consumer)
as opposed to mining some new one from the ground. Especially when you know that:
1) copper is predicted to be mined out worldwide by 2040 and 2) processing
recycled copper uses only 10 to 20% of the energy it takes to process new
copper from virgin ore. When manufacturing my product I can design it so it can
easily be dismantled and the copper can easily be recycled next time. I can also
manufacture my product so it lasts a long time, so it can be maintained and
repaired. I can design it so it uses as little energy as possible. This TED video
uses a great example of a tea kettle and the fact that during commercial break of
a popular TV show, England has to buy nuclear power from France because
millions of people go to the kitchen at the same time to boil an entire two-liter
kettle to make one cup of tea. Once a product cannot be used anymore then it
needs to be collected and recycled. Here comes an important question: does the
recycled material maintained its quality to be used for similar applications? Or
is it "down-cycled" into a material that has a poorer quality? Down-cycled was a
term from the book "cradle-to-cradle". You can find a link in the description below.
Remember in a circular economy everything is healthy food for something
else. Nothing goes to landfill. Biological materials are farmed or collected and
then possibly processed and transported before reaching the consumer. Once
consumed that can be used to create biogas, biochemicals or be composted.
Finally they can go back to nature to restore it. But again in a circular
economy, nothing goes to landfill. Two transition
strategies can be very helpful as we are trying to create a circular economy:
substitution and dematerialization. Substitution is about using different
resources to achieve the same goal. For example the world is running out of
lithium so unless we can recycle lithium batteries more
efficiently, sodium-ion batteries might be a better option for car manufacturers
in the future. Dematerialization refers to using less of a resource to serve the
same economic function in society. As an example, interface is the world's largest
designer and maker of commercial modular carpet. But they don't sell the carpet
anymore. Their customers buy the service of having carpet on their floor.
Interface is in charge of maintaining and repairing the carpet and they do
that very efficiently because it is their specialty and they control the
entire process. Using tiles they can replace only the ones that need
replacing. The old tiles go back to the factory to be recycled where new tiles
are made with 98% recycled or bio-based content. How is that for almost circular?
Of course creating a circular economy is only one piece of the sustainability
puzzle and many other aspects have to be taken into account to get 100%
sustainable: climate change, sustainable energy, sustainable
agriculture, social sustainability, etc. As promised in the beginning, here is a
great book I recommend if you want to learn more. It is very well put together
and it talks about circular economy in the modern age. I will put a link in the
description below. If you found this video useful please like it, subscribe
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sustainabilityillustrated.com.Thank you to all our patrons and I will see you in the next video.