Circular economy promotes an economy that is restorative and regenera- tive by design, and relies on effective management of two cycles. For the technical cycle, the aim is to recover and restore technical materials without consumption. It aims to keep product, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. The biological cycle consists of flows of renewable materials; the aim is to regenerate biological nutrients. The energy required to fuel the circular economy should be renewable as well.
To embrace the circular economy, we need to ‘design out’ waste so that technical materials are designed to be recovered, refreshed and upgraded, and energy input is minimized while the retention of value is maximized.
Anchored on systems thinking, circular economy is guided by three princi- ples (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015):
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● preserve and enhance natural capital by controlling finite stocks and balancing renewable resource flow;
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● optimize resource yields by circulating products, components and materials at the highest utility at all times in both technical and biological cycles;
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● foster system effectiveness by revealing and designing out negative externalities.
The above principles drive biological nutrient regeneration by enabling a more effective utilization of natural bioenergy resources. The priority is dematerializing utility, or delivering utility virtually, whenever possible.
It requires careful selection of production and logistics technologies and systems that use renewable or better-performing resources. In some coun- tries, more natural gas is used compared to petrol and diesel. The use of renewable fuels has become a regulated affair, such as with the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation in the UK. Products and their supply chains can be designed to allow extraction of biochemical feedstock that is re-circled back to the flow of biological nutrients. Some biochemical feedstock can be used to produce fertilizers and feeds for farming; others can be collected for generating energy through anaerobic digestion. The recovery of biochemical feedstock for generating biogas is another option. This is a crucial alter- native to the technologies that generate biofuel from food crops (eg corn ethanol).
The restoration of technical nutrients has always been a core objective of reverse logistics and recycling. The circular economy approach provides a hierarchical framework to prioritize the management of reverse logistics and recycling. Reducing is the most environmentally friendly option because it reduces consumption of natural resources and energy. Next is reuse of products or their components. Recycling involves collecting used products, components or materials and transforming them into other products, compo- nents or materials. If none of these are feasible, then they may be recovered into energy through incineration. The last option, which should be avoided, is landfill. Figure 7.1 illustrates the level of environmental ‘friendliness’ that can be determined from the hierarchy of waste and resource management.
Reverse Logistics and Recycling 183
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● Reduce involves use of fewer natural resources. It may also involve the use of fewer (hazardous) materials and less energy. Products can be designed to use alternative materials that are more resource efficient, or to use less packaging material. Cleaner production can help to reduce energy usage.
Industrial production can be modified to reduce hazardous waste and other materials. This method is also called source reduction; it involves changes in manufacturing technology, raw material inputs, and product formulation. Consumer behaviour can also contribute to reducing. The fewer natural resources we consume the less waste is created.
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● Reuse involves the use of a product or some parts of a used product if it can be shared, refurbished, repaired or remanufactured. Manufacturers are encouraged to produce reliable products with prolonged lifecycles and consumers can be provided with incentive and information about why such products are more beneficial. Reuse is a most resource-efficient and direct product recovery option. Products can be designed so that not all of them need to be discarded after being used by one user; they can be used again. Reverse logistics systems such as resource and tools sharing or hiring (eg openshed.com), upcycling, used-product exchange, car boot or garage sales, and secondhand sales for facilitating reuse can help to reduce landfill.
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● Recycle helps to separate waste into materials that may be reprocessed and incorporated into new products. Recycling is a product recovery option which requires reprocessing. Activities such as composting and the reprocessing of used empty beverage containers or packaging materi- als are examples of recycling. Usually recycling consumes energy in order to change the physical properties of the material; however, recycling of metal, plastic, glass, wood and paper and biochemical feedstock helps to fuel a circular economy by reducing the use of natural or virgin resources.
Figure 7.1 Hierarchy of waste management
Reduce
Reuse, remanufacture, etc Recycle
Recovery Disposal
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● Recovery normally means the process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the incineration of waste such as organic materials. Alternatively, it is called waste-to-energy or energy-from- waste. This is an option when the recovered materials cannot be reused or recycled, and they may contain bioenergy that would be wasted if landfilled.
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● Disposal or landfill is the last option. There are strict regulations that restrict landfills in many countries but for many developing countries landfills have become the main destination of industrial and municipal waste. The problem of this option is that some materials will not be easily degradable and some of them contain toxic substances.
The effectiveness of reverse logistic and recycling systems is often driven by regulations. So far, the United States does not have a national recy- cling law. There is a national solid waste management law called Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), but in reality, individual state legislation provides the main regulations for recycling in the United States.
The European Commission (EC) has been instrumental in setting up regula- tions driving the reverse and recycling movements in Europe. For packaging materials, EU Directive 94/62/EC of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste suggested that member states return/collect 60 per cent of glass, paper and board, 50 per cent of metals, 22.5 per cent of plas- tic, and 15 per cent of wood from their municipal waste by 2008. New targets of 55–75 per cent have been proposed for 2025 and 2030. In addi- tion to recycling, the incineration of waste for energy recovery is regarded as contributing to the realization of these objectives. Directive 2008/98/EC in 2008 further increased the targets. By 2020, the preparing for reuse and the recycling of waste materials such as at least paper, metal, plastic and glass from households and possibly from other origins as far as these waste streams are similar to waste from households, shall be increased to a mini- mum of 50 per cent by weight.
In addition, the EU Landfill Directive drives the reduction of the use of landfill (Defra, 2010). Each member state is required to reduce biode- gradable municipal waste landfill to 35 per cent of that produced in 1995 by 2020. EU directives on both packaging waste and landfill are putting immense pressures on plastics recycling, as well as on local authorities and government. In June 2008, a compromised agreement was reached between the Council of Environment Ministers and the European Parliament on revi- sions to the Waste Framework Directive. The main changes include EU-wide targets for reuse and recycling 50 per cent of household waste by 2020,