The Circular Economy

Moving beyond the “take, make, throw away” extraction model of economic development, communities across the world are now adopting economic development models that design out waste and pollution and regenerate natural systems to build in long-term resiliency.

In a circular economy, manufactured and natural materials are kept in continuous use instead of discarded in landfills, using renewable clean energy resources.

This concept is not new. In 2002, a German chemist named Michael Braungart and an American architect named William McDonough published Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. In this book, they introduced a design concept inspired by nature, which eliminates the concept of waste.

In biological cycles, food and biologically-based materials (such as cotton or wood) are designed to feed back into the system through processes like composting and anaerobic digestion. These cycles regenerate living systems, such as soil, which provide renewable resources for the economy. Technical cycles recover and restore products, components, and materials through strategies like reuse, repair, remanufacture, or (as a last resort) recycling.

The Circular Economy is a way to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations in 2015. The SDGs cover social and economic development issues, and include environmental goals such as climate action, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, life below water, and life on land.