Local Circular Economy Principles

  • Linear vs. circular systems
    • Linear economy: products are made, used, and then tossed
      • Recycling is a fake loop / a bandaid for the problem
    • Circular system: waste products should be creatively used to facilitate the creation of something new
      • Redefine what waste means
  • Activity
    • Two types of systems: Forest & Plastic
    • We created concept / process maps for each system
    • Takeaways:
      • The plastic systems is messy and requires a lot of resources, repeatedly
      • There is no quick fix to the plastic system — e.g. bioplastics take palm oil, and who’s going to grow the crop?
      • Plastic (linear systems):
        • Inputs: many
          • Resources
          • Labor
          • Machines
          • Time
          • Land
      • Outputs: 1 (plastic)
        • Lots of unintended outputs! Pollution, health, heat
    • Forest (circular systems):
      • Inputs: 1
        • The sun!!!
      • Outputs: many
  • Competition: how many co-ops is too many?
    • When there’s more than one, that’s competition
      • Everything finds its niche in a circular system — too many = all need are met
    • Depends on abundance of resources
    • In a linear economy, you want to produce as much as possible, even if it floods the market
    • In a circular economy, things are self-balancing (there are negative feedback loops)
    • Self-interest vs. collective interest?
      • Shared economic success — build self-sustaining systems
    • I don’t think I really understand this, since capitalism is also a darwinistic ecosystem? So the market economy seems circular to me in many ways as well
  • You can support small businesses by reusing waste products
    • It’s cost-effective to share resources and lifts all boats
  • How to make plastics more circular?
    • What policies / ownership strategies to get plastics from disposal into inputs for new products?
    • Decrease demand via banning, taxing
    • Should companies be responsible for the byproducts of plastic production?
    • Consumers look toward producers, and producers look toward consumers to solve the problem
    • Localize production? Reduces transportation costs & creates jobs