# data[].attributes.headline
No circular economy if current systemic failures are not addressed

# data[].attributes.subject
No circular economy if current systemic failures are not addressed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The 'circular economy' concept gains traction: As a term the general public is familiar with, becoming a field of academic research, and a must for business models. Despite the obvious success and wide interest for adoption and implementation of a circular economy at scale, I argue that this will not be feasible if a series of major systemic failures are not addressed. Here I attempt to outline some of these fundamental challenges (failures and disruptions) that impede transformative societal change towards a more 'circular' use of material resources. While there is academic research in these areas, such thinking is not necessarily mainstream in the current circular economy debate. Hopefully these ideas could form part of a less naïve analysis and contemplation on the possibility to turn circular economy from just an appealing concept to a real cultural shift.

Without defining what constitutes 'value' associated with materials, components and products (MCPs), how to measure it, and how to translate it into monetary equivalent (price), the circular economy cannot be sufficiently conceived - set aside implemented. The definition of a 'circular economy' and any other big idea with great appeal, is inevitably loose - think 'sustainability'. A popular empirical definition put forward by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation advocates keeping the value of after-use MCPs at their highest level possible at all times. It is impossible to operationalise this approach without defining and measuring such a 'value'.

Given how the economics of waste and resource recovery currently work, it is meaningless to expect the monetary value (price) to fully reflect such a wider 'value'. Rightly so, in the current status quo, the greatest loss of monetary value occurs at the point of initial discard, at classification as 'waste' by the owner. There is a considerable cost downstream of that point, associated with restoring the now 'hidden', embodied or embedded value in the MCPs: task undertaken by the waste, resources and reprocessing sector, and largely in isolation from the wider circular value chain.

Let me give you an example: Take the material properties of food packaging (contact) plastics. Implementing eco-efficiency, the water polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle became lighter and lighter, saving primary resources. At the same time, however, being less dense, it became more expensive to collect and transport per tonne and most importantly less lucrative when collected by the waste pickers and more inherently prone to end up in waterbodies if littered/dumped, as it rolls more easily. The cap of the bottle is typically a different polymer to PET, as it needs friction; and friction is higher between different materials. This choice contaminates the PET recycling, reducing its value as recycled material. And so on.

Inevitable value loss, for example during the use phase, and the need for additional resources to restore functionality needs be openly acknowledged and (accurately?) quantified. The CVORR (complex value optimisation for resource recovery) ( Millward-Hopkins et al., 2018) approach attempts for the very first time to concurrently navigate the technical, environmental, health and wider socioeconomic aspects of 'value' and provide a quantification framework and method.

Costas Velis
School of Civil Engineering, Water - Public Health - Environmental Engineering Group, University of Leeds,Leeds, UK
Email: c.velis@leeds.ac.uk

Esbensen, KH, Velis, C (2016) Transition to circular economy requires reliable statistical quantification and control of uncertainty and variability in waste. Waste Management & Research 34: 1197-1200.
Google Scholar

Millward-Hopkins, J, Busch, J, Purnell, P. (2018) Fully integrated modelling for sustainability assessment of resource recovery from waste. Science of the Total Environment 612: 613-624.
Google Scholar

Velis, C (2017) Waste pickers in Global South: Informal recycling sector in a circular economy era. Waste Management & Research 35: 329-331.
Google Scholar

Velis, CA (2015) Circular economy and global secondary material supply chains. Waste Management & Research 33: 389-391.
Google Scholar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
No circular economy if current systemic failures are not addressed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 'circular economy' concept gains traction: As a term the general public is familiar with, becoming a field of academic research, and a must for business models. Despite the obvious success and wide interest for adoption and implementation of a circular economy at scale, I argue that this will not be feasible if a series of major systemic failures are not addressed.

# data[].attributes.body
Portal to EMF CE content

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Build a Circular Economy | Ellen MacArthur Foundation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Help build a circular economy: a better system that can help fight climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Explore the solutions for businesses today.

# data[].attributes.headline
Circular by design - Products in the circular economy

# data[].attributes.subject
Circular by design - Products in the circular economy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This report explores the circular economy from a product perspective, applying a systemic approach and transition theory. Drivers of product design and usage are discussed in the context of emerging consumption trends and business models. For governance to be effective, it has to address the product life-cycle and the societal context determining it. Indicators and assessment tools are proposed that can help fill the current data and knowledge gaps.

Content

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Circular by design - Products in the circular economy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This report explores the circular economy from a product perspective, applying a systemic approach and transition theory. Drivers of product design and usage are discussed in the context of emerging consumption trends and business models. For governance to be effective, it has to address the product life-cycle and the societal context determining it.

# data[].attributes.headline
The role of waste-to-energy in the circular economy 

# data[].attributes.subject
The role of waste-to-energy in the circular economy 

# data[].attributes.headline
A Wider Circle? The CircularEconomy in Developing Countries

# data[].attributes.subject
A Wider Circle? The CircularEconomy in Developing Countries

# data[].attributes.headline
SoCo – Solidary Selective Collection of Solid Waste 

# data[].attributes.subject
SoCo – Solidary Selective Collection of Solid Waste 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SoCo - Solidary Selective Collection of Solid Waste : Just another University of Leeds WordPress Hosting site

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Around the world, millions of people make a living though recovering and selling recyclable materials from waste. Whilst these activities are predominantly found in low and middle income countries, the informal recycling sector (IRS) also has a notable presence in high income countries.

# data[].attributes.body
ISWA Task Force on Resource Management

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The reports of the Task Force were presented and discussed over multiple public and closed events, such as the ISWA World Congress 2014 Special Session in Sao Paulo in September 2014, the Task Force on Resource Management Expert Workshop in Paris in June 2015, the ISWA World Congress 2015 in Antwerp in September 2015 and the "Circular Economy: Resources and Opportunities: The Challenge of Circular Economy for the Waste Management industry' conference in Brussels in November 2015.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Read Making Waste Work to discover the importance of delivering better waste management for all, and how to build local recycling enterprises that create jobs and improve the local economy.

See the How-to guides for illustrated step-by-step instructions to making useful products from waste materials.

All the PDF documents for Making Waste Work are available for download in two different formats. You can tell them by the icons:

best for desktop and printing

best for phones

Additionally, you can download any of the PDFs by going to the Downloads page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Making Waste Work: Community waste management toolkit - WasteAid UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Read Making Waste Work to discover the importance of delivering better waste management for all, and how to build local recycling enterprises that create jobs and improve the local economy. See the How-to guides for illustrated step-by-step instructions to making useful products from waste materials.

# data[].attributes.headline
Waste pickers in Global South: Informal recycling sector in a circular economy era

# data[].attributes.subject
Waste pickers in Global South: Informal recycling sector in a circular economy era

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Report: Remanufacturing - Towards a Resource Efficient Economy | All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group

# data[].attributes.headline
An analytical framework and tool (‘InteRa’) for integrating the informal recycling sector 

# data[].attributes.subject
An analytical framework and tool (‘InteRa’) for integrating the informal recycling sector 

# data[].attributes.headline
Applying value chain analysis to informal sector recycling: A case study of the Zabaleen

# data[].attributes.subject
Applying value chain analysis to informal sector recycling: A case study of the Zabaleen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Applying value chain analysis to informal sector recycling: A case study of the Zabaleen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A methodology has been developed to apply value chain analysis (VCA) to the informal recycling sector, and demonstrated using the Zabaleen in Cairo, E...

# data[].attributes.headline
Moving up the waste hierarchy: Car boot sales, reuse 

# data[].attributes.subject
Moving up the waste hierarchy: Car boot sales, reuse 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Moving up the waste hierarchy: Car boot sales, reuse exchange and the challenges of consumer culture to waste prevention - ScienceDirect

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Moving up the waste hierarchy is a key priority for UK waste policy. Waste prevention requires policy interventions to promote reuse. The term 'reuse exchange' has been adopted by UK policy makers to describe a variety of second-hand trading outlets including car boot sales, charity shops and online exchange sites.

# data[].attributes.body
Vienna refurbishing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your scrap is our business!
The DRZ (Dismatling and Recycling Center) is a socio-economic enterprise run by „ Die Wiener Volkshochschulen GmbH". Through the refurbishment and recycling of used and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), job-seeking people get the opportunity to return to a regular working life. While employed at the DRZ under time bound contracts, the employees receive supervision from experienced professionals in order to improve individual strength, reduce social isolation, overcome possible personal handicaps and provide active support to seek a new job.
These services are provided on behalf of the AMS-Wien (Employment Centre Vienna). Based on our products and services we have established reliable partnerships with several private enterprises and the municipal administration.

Our main partners for co-operation

are the City of Vienna and the Repair Network Vienna ( Reparatur-Netzwerk Wien). Our total throughput of more than 1,200 tons per year includes parts of the WEEE (small and large household appliances) collected at Vienna's amenity sites, which we recycle and feed into material recovery processes. Further, some of our long-term clients are organizations and enterprises like The Austrian Ministry of Environment, Öko-Businessplan Vienna, Kontrollbank, Vienna Stock Exchange, the newspaper „Der Standard" or Boehringer Ingelheim.

Quality in all aspects!

As certified EMAS-enterprise und specialised waste management company we constantly monitor and improve our daily processes and procedures to keep them at the state of the art.
Numerous environmental and design awards point out our company's performance and uniqueness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Your scrap is our business! The DRZ (Dismatling and Recycling Center) is a socio-economic enterprise run by „Die Wiener Volkshochschulen GmbH". Through the refurbishment and recycling of used and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), job-seeking people get the opportunity to return to a regular working life.

# data[].attributes.headline
Conceptual framework for the study of food waste generation and prevention in the hospitality sector

# data[].attributes.subject
Conceptual framework for the study of food waste generation and prevention in the hospitality sector

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Conceptual framework for the study of food waste generation and prevention in the hospitality sector - ScienceDirect

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Food waste has significant detrimental economic, environmental and social impacts. The magnitude and complexity of the global food waste problem has brought it to the forefront of the environmental agenda; however, there has been little research on the patterns and drivers of food waste generation, especially outside the household.

# data[].attributes.headline
Waste prevention indicators and their implications from a life cycle perspective: a review

# data[].attributes.subject
Waste prevention indicators and their implications from a life cycle perspective: a review

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Waste prevention indicators and their implications from a life cycle perspective: a review

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) approach to waste management has been established internationally as one of the fundamental concepts for a sustainable society. In particular, the "reduce"...

# data[].attributes.headline
Understanding the role of waste prevention in local waste management: A literature review

# data[].attributes.subject
Understanding the role of waste prevention in local waste management: A literature review

# data[].attributes.body
One stop shop for UK waste prevention plans for LAs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The final stage in delivering waste prevention includes guidance on monitoring and evaluating waste prevention in your local authority. The section builds upon the official WRAP Monitoring & Evaluation Guidance and provides links to tools and resources to help effectively monitor projects and programmes.

# data[].attributes.headline
Post-consumer plastic packaging waste in England: Assessing the yield of multiple collection-recycling schemes

# data[].attributes.subject
Post-consumer plastic packaging waste in England: Assessing the yield of multiple collection-recycling schemes

# data[].attributes.body
How pachagic plastics are recycled in England?

# data[].attributes.headline
Beyond planned obsolescence: Product lifespans and the challenges to a circular economy

# data[].attributes.subject
Beyond planned obsolescence: Product lifespans and the challenges to a circular economy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beyond Planned Obsolescence: Product Lifespans and the Challenges...: Ingenta Connect

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shrinking product lifespans, whose side-effects include increased natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions, are negatively impacting the environment. The circular economy and bans on built-in obsolescence are widely embraced as solutions to today's "throwaway society". The serious limitations of both strategies, however, can be illustrated by analysing a marketing campaign of the Austrian mobile phone provider T-Mobile.

# data[].attributes.headline
19th century London dust-yards: A case study in closed-loop resource efficiency

# data[].attributes.subject
19th century London dust-yards: A case study in closed-loop resource efficiency

# data[].attributes.body
How recycling happened 200 years ago...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
19th century London dust-yards: A case study in closed-loop resource efficiency - ScienceDirect

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The material recovery methods used by dust-yards in early 19th century London, England and the conditions that led to their development, success and decline are reported. The overall system developed in response to the market value of constituents of municipal waste, and particularly the high coal ash content of household 'dust'.

# data[].attributes.body
EC - Waste Framework Directive 2008

# data[].attributes.headline
Household waste prevention – a review of evidence

# data[].attributes.subject
Household waste prevention – a review of evidence

# data[].attributes.body
Are PP and paper/board patof a circular economy?

# data[].attributes.headline
The paracommons; competition over ‘freed up’ efficiency losses

# data[].attributes.subject
The paracommons; competition over ‘freed up’ efficiency losses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The paracommons; competition over 'freed up' efficiency losses

In a scarce world, society is increasingly interested in the efficiency of resource use; how to get more from less. Yet if you 'save' a resource, what does that mean and who gets the 'saved' resource? In other words who gets the gain of an efficiency gain? The question over who gets the gain from an efficiency gain was recently writ large by the US Supreme Court decision regarding Montana vs Wyoming. The Court backed Wyoming's defence that their prior appropriation water law enabled them to use the water freed up by introducing and expanding consumptive irrigation sprinkler systems. The previously 'inefficient' flood technology spilled drainage water that downstream neighbouring Montana had become accustomed to. Australia takes a different approach to this question dividing efficiency gains fifty-fifty between the irrigator and river.

I consider the competition over future resources 'freed up' by efficiency gains in the Earthscan book on the 'paracommons'. The prefix 'para' indicates that the paracommons sits alongside 'the commons' (e.g. fish/fisheries in seas, trees in a forest). The paracommons conceives that there are four parties or destinations competing over efficiency gains; the proprietor making the efficiency gain (e.g. an irrigation scheme); immediately connected neighbours (e.g. farmers or villagers using drainage water from the irrigation scheme); the common pool (the river system) and the wider economy (other users such as towns and industry). 'Para' also hints at the efficiency paradoxes involved if policy-makers assume, but subsequently fail to account for, how 'losses' are delivered to one or more of these four destinations.

The citation is: Lankford B.A. 2013. Resource Efficiency Complexity and the Commons: The Paracommons and Paradoxes of Natural Resource Losses, Wastes and Wastages. Earthscan Publications, Abingdon. ISBN (978-0-415-82846-8)

In the diagram below, the paracommons is exemplified by the passage of a to-be-more-conserved apple-core through the household to four destinations including the household. In the top of the diagram the apple core is discarded by the proprietor household and ordinarily goes to the city garbage where it might be picked over by people whose lives depended on households throwing away food and goods. For both the apple on a kitchen table and the apple core in the city dump there are two commons. The household members compete over the apple and the city dump 'harvesters' compete over who eats the apple core. However between these two positions are options that might or might not transpire. The household deciding to eat more food (case B in Figure 4) or recycle the apple in garden compost (case C) deprives the waste pickers at the garbage dump of their sustenance. The waste picker fears the outcomes of a household drive to be more efficient and 'green'. Alternatively, a waste furnace needs waste to generate electricity depriving the householder, the waste picker and the compost of 'their' core.

Aspects of the paracommons are:

Competition over the core takes place between four types of groups; householder, garbage picker, furnace operator, and those who speak on behalf of apple tree populations.

In the paracommons, these four parties are termed 'destinations'. In the same order they are: the proprietor, the neighbour, the common pool (or environment) and the wider economy.

The destination of the core depends on switches and changes in interests and technology affecting the sequencing and cascading of the apple core through the household then onto the compost, city dump or furnace.

These four destinations cannot easily communicate with each other over who gets the core as do commons harvesters inside the house and at the city dump.

The common pool nature of the core is related to perceptions about today's waste alongside 'savings' to be made in the future. There are both spatial and temporal transitions involved.

It is my view that these transitions and associated expectations establish the feature of liminality associated with the paracommons. With the household apple, one observes a physical transition of the apple from one location to another, but critically it is the uncertain futures that determine liminality. One compares the reactions of the city dump recycler between her witnessing simply a longer delay ("the discarded apple will now take four hours instead of two hours to make it to the garbage dump") with a new waste policy ("all householders are to throw away less food or to recycle more food waste at home"). The latter is accompanied by much higher levels of uncertainty. So while there is always one apple, the insertion of an efficiency drive at the household gives the city dump recycler greater concern regarding what is about or not about to transpire. While the apple remains physically one thing, there are now at least two expectations for the apple; the housekeeper responding to new instructions about waste and the waste picker concerned that less food will arrive at the dump. Previously the unvalued apple core formed only one expectation (or no part of any expectation) as it simply wended its way from the house to the dump as it had many times previously. There is also a proprietor expectation regarding the apple core; the householder naturally expects to have and consume an apple comprising flesh and core. The proprietor's expectation arises because the apple core forms a commonplace part of the surrounding flesh - it supports the apple flesh (without specialist vacuum wrapping, apple flesh without a core would rot more quickly) and secondly for some (more efficient) apple eaters; the core is edible - it is the apple). Crucially, the apple core and apple are not separated from each other prior to entering the proprietor system and then discretely sent to each destination. On the contrary, the fate of the apple core is mediated by the proprietor and any matters that influence the proprietor.

This dimension of 'expectations' surrounding multiple possible realities arising from resources transiting systems undergoing efficiency changes is the salient feature of the paracommons. The transiting apple core, potentially shifting in space, use and amount, is the liminal object at work here - it is part of and creates these competing expectations held by users in different destinations. So while there is only one apple core, it arises in the minds of all four users, until it is completely disposed of (composted, incinerated or eaten by householder or dump picker). Between arriving at the proprietor's house and final disposition, the 'to-be-wasted/to-be-salvaged' apple core is, from the combined perspective of the four destinations/users, betwixt and between. The potential parallel fates of the apple core create this particular liminal paracommons.

Download the Earthscan flyer here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The paracommons; competition over 'freed up' efficiency losses In a scarce world, society is increasingly interested in the efficiency of resource use; how to get more from less. Yet if you 'save' a resource, what does that mean and who gets the 'saved' resource? In other words who gets the gain of an efficiency gain?...

# data[].attributes.body
BS Circular Economy standard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Executive Briefing: BS 8001 - a Guide | BSI Group

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Executive Briefing: BS 8001 - a Guide The world's first standard for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations

# data[].attributes.headline
Recycling and resource efficiency: it is time for a change from quantity to quality

# data[].attributes.subject
Recycling and resource efficiency: it is time for a change from quantity to quality

# data[].attributes.body
Shifting to a quality recycling makes full sense

# data[].attributes.headline
Circular economy and global secondary material supply chains

# data[].attributes.subject
Circular economy and global secondary material supply chains

# data[].attributes.body
How World trades its solid waste

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Forty years of fragmented, incremental efforts have failed to deliver impact at scale. Rethinking the global plastics economy requires an ambitious, systemic approach.

This means collaborating across silos, and moving in a common direction to deliver impact at scale. It requires overcoming the dizzying complexity of materials and the embedded fragmentation of processes. It's about thinking of an interdependent system rather than a series of isolated parts. It means being open to new ideas and experiments, to identify those innovations that can scale to shift the market.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The New Plastics Economy - The Future Of Plastics - New Plastics Economy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Forty years of fragmented, incremental efforts have failed to deliver impact at scale. Rethinking the global plastics economy requires an ambitious, systemic approach. This means collaborating across silos, and moving in a common direction to deliver impact at scale. It requires overcoming the dizzying complexity of materials and the embedded fragmentation of processes.

# data[].attributes.headline
Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags: a review of the bags available in 2006

# data[].attributes.subject
Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags: a review of the bags available in 2006

# data[].attributes.body
UK Environment Agency report

# data[].attributes.headline
EU ambassadors approve new rules on waste managementand recycling

# data[].attributes.subject
EU ambassadors approve new rules on waste managementand recycling

# data[].attributes.headline
An overview of chemical additives present in plastics

# data[].attributes.subject
An overview of chemical additives present in plastics

# data[].attributes.body
What additives are in there - how relevant are to a circular economy?

# data[].attributes.headline
Global recycling markets-plastic waste: A story for one player–China

# data[].attributes.subject
Global recycling markets-plastic waste: A story for one player–China

# data[].attributes.body
China dominates the recycled plastics markets - implications and concerns