There was a time in our, not so distant past, that recycling was just part of life. When something broke, we fixed it, period. Then the whole “New and Improved” era came along and changed us from, consumers, to, ultra consumers. Things started being “upgraded” before the original was even out the door. I, for one, think it’s time to bring back the old school ways!
Back in the day, there used to be such thing as rebuilding your car engine in your garage, bringing your coke bottle back to the store to get a deposit refund and actually putting a patch on a pair of worn out blue jeans. This was not considered radical or something “hippies” did, it was the norm. We were actually keeping stuff out of the landfills, we were living sustainable without even needing a movement.
So with that being said, it’s kind of funny running across the term “circular economy”. Which sounds a lot like old school ways to me. So, here’s the jist of it: Something gets manufactured, then it gets bought, then it gets used, then it either gets fixed by the consumer, reused as something else, refurbished to be something else or recycled. Companies are starting to take a look at using the circular economy model in their business. It’s not only cost effective, it produces jobs, helping the overall economy and it saves waste from clogging up our landfills. Zero waste, on steroids!!
So if you’re a business owner, you may want to take a look at the ways you can use the circular economy business model in your company. By using this type of model, you may retain more value of the material, labor and energy inputs that go into your product.
Our throw away economy is overtaking us and we must find ways to eradicate waste—not just from manufacturing processes, but systematically, throughout the life cycles and uses of products and their components. If we are going to create a sustainable, organic world, we must solve the issue of waste at its source.
In a circular economy, the goal is for durable components, such as metals and most plastics, to be reused or upgraded in other productive ways, recycling through as many processes as possible. I would say that in the vain of what’s old is new again, it’s time to get back to basics and get away from the buy–consume–dispose view.
Thank you for your interest
Sustainable Organic World
This post was inspired by this article “Moving toward a circular economy“
Conscious Consumer Network 