Original title: The circular economy: New or Refurbished as CE 3.0? — Exploring Controversies in the Conceptualization of the Circular Economy through a Focus on History and Resource Value Retention Options
The circular economyAn approach that aims to keep products and materials in use rather than letting them become waste. aims to keep products and materials useful instead of treating them as waste. This paper traces how the idea developed and groups ways to retain value into a 10-part typology. It argues that recycling and energy recovery are already widespread in some places, but that businesses and policymakers should give more attention to shorter loops, such as remaking or refurbishing products. Those options still need to be judged for feasibility and their effects on the whole system.
A family tries to keep a household item useful instead of throwing it away. Some choices recover only part of its value, while others keep the item working or give it a new use; the best choice can depend on what is practical and what else it affects. In this paper, those household choices stand for ways to retain value, and the argument is to give more attention to keeping products useful through remaking, refurbishing, or repurposing.
Policymakers and businesses deciding how to reduce waste need to distinguish between ways of retaining a product’s value. The paper argues for greater attention to options such as repairing or remaking products, while weighing whether they are feasible and how they affect the wider system.
The abstract does not establish how much shorter-loop options reduce environmental harm, or that they are feasible in every case. It calls for considering feasibility and overall system effects, but gives no specific measurements or comparisons in the abstract.
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The circular economy: New or Refurbished as CE 3.0? — Exploring Controversies in the Conceptualization of the Circular Economy through a Focus on History and Resource Value Retention Options — Denise Reike, Walter J.V. Vermeulen, Sjors Witjes — Resources Conservation and Recycling — doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.08.027
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.