ECONOMICS 101 -
As previously stated, economics is a science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. “Economics is the study of how people choose to use resources.” This page goes beyond the overview on the Economics page. It covers economic topics in more depth as we seek better ways to live green and preserve planet Earth for human well-being.
Circular Economy
Arup provides an overview of the Circular Economy. Arup states, "Consumption and use of natural resources has generally followed a linear approach. Materials are sourced, used and finally disposed of as waste. Known as the take-make-use-dispose model, this produces negative externalities that include rising carbon emissions, increased pressures on landfill, unsustainable levels of water extraction and widespread ecosystem pollution.'
'An abundance of cheap natural resources has enabled this approach to endure. However, as the world’s population grows and resources become harder and more expensive to access, it is becoming ever more critical to find alternative means of sourcing and using materials.'
'The [Circular Economy] approach has gained attention recently thanks to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity dedicated to promoting the global transition to the circular economy.'
'Drawing on these earlier works, the Foundation developed the system or ‘butterfly’ diagram (Figure 2) based on the notion that material flows can be divided into two interacting loops: the technical and biological resource cycles.'
'Within the biological cycle, renewable and plant-based resources are used, regenerated and safely returned to the biosphere — as in composting or anaerobic digestion. The bio-economy is a growing sector with the potential to lower raw materials consumption, reduce waste and generate higher-value products for sustainable biological re-use.'
'Within the technical cycle, man-made products are
designed so that at the end of their service life – when they can no longer be repaired and reused for their original purpose – their components are extracted and reused, or remanufactured into new products. This avoids sending waste to landfill and creates a closed-loop cycle."[E1-1]
The ReSOLVE framework
The ReSOLVE framework is a key output of the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation’s research. It outlines six actions to guide the transition towards a circular economy:
See figure 3 for these six actions.
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The six elements can be applied to products, buildings,
neighbourhoods, cities, regions, or even to entire economies.
1. Regenerate
Regenerating and restoring natural capital
Regenerate is a broad set of actions that maintain and enhance the earth’s biocapacity. In the built environment, net zero strategies, for example, promote low-impact design, materials and operation of assets and buildings.This also helps to reduce the negative social, environmental and economic impacts of the built environment – including emissions, air pollution, waste and associated costs.
Actions include the transition from finite fossil fuels to renewable energy. It includes reclaiming land and restoring or protecting ecosystems. Returning biological resources to nature also falls into this category, through composting for example.Biological resources can also be extracted and reused via anaerobic digestion, composting or bio-refining. This generates energy and cuts emissions and allows more biological material to be returned to the soil to replenish it.
Diverting waste from landfill, using materials and
products more efficiently, and improving air quality makes cleaner, more attractive and more liveable cities.
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2. Share
Keep product loop speed low and maximise utilisation of products by sharing them among users (peer-to-peer sharing of privately owned products or public sharing of a pool of products), reusing them throughout their technical lifetime (second-hand), and prolonging their life through maintenance, repair, and design for durability. Sharing strives to get the full use out of goods, avoiding waste and duplication. For example, the BlaBlaCar car-sharing scheme is growing 200 percent a year and has 20 million registered users in 19 countries. Airbnb has more than one million spaces for rent in more than 34,000 cities across more than 190 countries.
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3. Optimise
Increase performance/efficiency of a product;
--- remove waste energy and materials in production and the supply chain (from sourcing and logistics to production, use, and end-of-use collection). For example, fertilizer use is destablilising the nitrogen cycle, but 70% of the fertiliser that is spread on crops is washed away or goes into the soil, and never ends up being used by the plant. Precision farming techniques can delvier exact quantitis of fertiliser directly to the roots at just the point the plants look for it, ensuring that as little as possible is wasted.
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4. Loop
Keep components and materials in closed loops and prioritise inner loops. Where organic materials are composted in a circular economy, inorganic (or ‘technical’) materials are reused. They may be recycled, or even better, goods or parts can be remanufactured. Either way, resources are processed, looped around and put back into
the economy, rather than lost to landfill. For finite materials, this means remanufacturing products or components and, as a last resort, recycling materials, as Caterpillar, Michelin, Rolls Royce, and Renault are doing. For renewable materials, this means anaerobic digestion and extracting bio-chemicals from organic waste. In the UK, 66 percent of sewage sludge is treated in 146 anaerobic digestion plants, and another 175 plants produce bio- energy from solid waste, a number that is growing rapidly.
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5. Virtualise
Deliver utility virtually
– books or music, online shopping, fleets of autonomous vehicles, and virtual offices. Think how many different gadgets have been displaced by the apps on your phone – alarm clocks, maps, a daily newspaper.
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6. Exchange
Replace old materials with advanced non-renewable materials
Apply new technologies (e.g. 3D printing and electric engines); choose new products and services (e.g. multi-modal transport). Electric motors will displace internal combustion engines, for example. We may also exchange ways of doing things – perhaps swapping out private motoring, electric or otherwise, in favour of public transport and autonomous car-sharing.
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Next: go to Economics 102
Footnotes
[E1-1] Arup: The Circular Economy in the Built Environment. London, 2016
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