The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference is creating a lot of noise, from the noisy self-righteous politicians to a noisier and equally self-righteous privileged Scandinavian teenager. Whatever your opinion or political allegiance one cannot deny that action is required to stop wasting the limited resources this world has to offer whilst preventing, minimizing, or reversing damage to our fragile climate. Being somewhat self-indulgent, one of my favourite blogs was the one about Trigger’s Environmental Award, I urge you to read this as perhaps an appetizer to this article. You can access it here ->
Interestingly the UK government does have some positive things to say in it’s support for the Circular Economy such as that proposed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, where one moves, from a linear (raw materials in, waste out) economy towards a circular economy by intersecting this traditional process with several closed loop systems. However, with this approach waste is collected at a recycling facility then passed on to another specialist organisation for recycling. The responsibility for these materials then becomes the legal responsibility of the receiving company who may pass this onto several other organisations for recycling or export it. The net result of this distributed enterprise level process is that multiple companies can be involved, with the introduction of complexity, more polluting miles travelled, and the possibility of illegal disposal.
In the case of Trigger, he always retains ownership of the broom and keeps it going by changing its components and it is here that I believe the solution lies. However, to achieve this we need to look at both the current model of the Circular Economy and the role that consumers, both individuals and organisations, need to play. To read about that, why not download my article Streamlining the Circular Economy: How manufacturers and consumers can rapidly reduce the burden of waste, I would be interested in your feedback.
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