The Circular Economy: Hope for Planetary Survival

Through elimination, innovation and circulation of plastics, our world will breathe again. Then you, Dear World, will be in safe hands.

This is how our current economy works.

Industries take materials from the earth, manufacture them into products, sell them, and consumers buy, and subsequently toss them when they are no longer deemed useful.

Rinse and repeat.

It’s an unsustainable linear process that holds no environmental promise.

Enter the promising circular economy

It “entails markets that give incentives to reusing products, rather than scrapping them and then extracting new resources. In such an economy, all forms of waste, such as clothes, scrap metal and obsolete electronics, are returned to the economy or used more efficiently.

“A circular economy favours activities that preserve value in the form of energy, labour, and materials. This means designing for durability, reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling to keep products, components, and materials circulating in the economy.”

So let’s consider circularity for plastic, a product that will survive long after we are no more.

With well-considered caveats in place and enforced, could it sit within a circular economy?

Experts will tell you

It’s difficult and expensive to recycle plastics. Many will also say that only clean plastic is ever a recycle consideration. Consequently, much of it simply ends up in landfill.

And given the cheapness in making it, it’s hard to imagine agencies breaking their necks to find a solution any time soon…for business is business and business must grow regardless…

But the time has come and world leaders are stepping up to use their powers to mandate ways for plastics to have uses beyond their initial production, again, and again, and again.

Implemented effectively, this has the power to slow production down significantly, and allow our planet to heal.

United Nations Environment Assembly

“When the gavel came down on the resolution to end plastic pollution at the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) in Nairobi last March, there were hugs and tears among the delegates. The emotion reflected the importance of this historic milestone: a legally binding global instrument toward ending plastic pollution.”

Let’s just re-read this statement: a legally binding global instrument toward ending plastic pollution.”

“Crucially, the resolution addresses the full life cycle of plastic, a holistic approach necessary to tackle the growing plastic pollution crisis.”

There is hope, lots of it, if we stay true to a commitment, if businesses are legally bound, and if each cares enough to be absolutely honest about their practice.

Plastic production

Still, it’s hard not to despair about the plastics industry as it daily ramps up more and more production. The statistics provided by UNEA-5.2, are chilling.

Humans love their plastic. They can’t imagine ever doing without it. There is no such durable product to compare it to. And so, to that end, to meet demand:

• 460 million tonnes are produced annually.
• This will triple in less than 40 years if no action is taken.
• 46% of plastic is consigned to landfill.
• 22% becomes litter.
• 17% is burnt.
• 9% of the rest collected is actually recycled.

It’s worrying, is it not? Which means we have to find a way.

The plan is to assess it through the circular economy which, at its core, has three tenets:

• elimination
• innovation
• circulation

All future plastics must meet one at least of these tenets.

Simplistically speaking, the circular economy is a system where materials never become waste.

Plastics NEVER become waste! Music to my ears!

Imagine things never becoming waste, as opposed to the present waste crisis we are facing.

The very thought that by mandating the type of plastic manufactured, and usage and turnaround, nature would be given a chance to regenerate.

This is surely mellifluous music to the ears of those who care.

In a circular economy, products and materials would be kept in lifelong circulation through processes like:

• maintenance (of products)
• reuse
• refurbishment (a new life)
• re-manufacturing
• recycling, and
• composting

In order to have plastics used again and again, the challenge in the first instance is to examine its design and method of manufacture.

I imagine this will require fighting huge resistance, as well as implementing and monitoring the huge systemic change. necessary.

Still there is no time to be precious about things.

We, all of us, are all called upon to do our share.

Take the fashion industry

The fashion industry is, for the most part, a plastics industry, and is a major polluter, standing out for all the wrong reasons.

Marking their own homework in terms of being called out about their deceptive green washing tactics, can never be an option.

There are two players here:

• clothing manufacturers
• consumers, each doing a pretty lousy job.

“Why it matters: Despite much chin music about the environmental sins of the fashion industry — how it’s a major polluter and carbon emitter but wants to do better — progress is slow toward the goal of “circularity,” in which a garment is repeatedly reused, repaired and recycled before it’s discarded.”

Reused, repaired and recycled before discarding…

Now there’s a thought. I imagine almost all of us don’t repair clothes, give or take sewing a button on a shirt.

And yet it’s only a couple of generations ago that people did repair clothes, and people did wear patches on elbows, cuffs, and knees in particular, the parts of clothes that get most wear.

I know! Most of us would rail at the notion of patching our clothes, but, if you could do it creatively and set a trend, you just never know where it might take you.

Something chic, maybe? Let’s face it, if people are turned on by jeans with holes in them, why ever would they not believe that patches could become the essence of chic?

This YouTube below is a fine example of visible repairing.

Convincing our youth

In talking to a lot of younger people about the circular economy, most of them are unaware of just what it means.

Also, many are not really in touch with how their shopping actions are impacting their futures.

They’re not really attuned to the devastating environmental impact fast fashion has on people and the environment.

Because…

Cheap and fashionable, is such an alluring partnership that it makes circularity a difficult leap for them.

“As for the fashion groups committed to a circular economy, they have implemented inspiring environmental principles into their brand without compromising fashion and within reasonable price frameworks.”

There is so much more to explore on this topic.

• How to win the will of cheap clothing companies, before sanctions become necessary.
• To open the world’s eyes to the fact that places such as Ghana, suffer incredible environmental harm due to our using the country as fast-fashion’s dumping ground.
• To look at ways of giving fashion discarded by others, another life.
• The mandating of what plastics will be allowed to be made.
• Bringing the fashion industry in line with sustainability.
• ensuring their workers are paid fairly and that working conditions do not flout the law.

“The fashion industry is known for its significant environmental footprint, including carbon emissions, water usage, chemical pollution, and waste generation. Ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and ethical treatment of workers throughout the global supply chain, is an ongoing challenge.”

From now on…

“There are a number of INC sessions planned for the coming two years, with the second session taking place in May 2023 in Paris. These sessions will see governments work out the content and logistics of the plastic treaty, in order to develop and adopt a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The INC requested the secretariat to prepare a document with potential options for elements towards an international legally binding instrument for this second session.”