Circular Economy! What is it?

for www.kosherdesigns.in

"Whats Goes Around Comes Around," is what we'd like to happen to bring forth a circular economy.

Well, what is this "circular economy?" And what are Linear and Recycling economies?

There have been various industrial models in function since we have realised the importance of "Want" over "Need." The strongest of them has been the Linear Economy model where you simply practice Take-Make-Dispose principle. This one, specially has been a real minesweeper for the exhaustible resources on our green/blue ball that we call Earth.

  This outrageous consumption of the natural resources, depletion and disposal of hazardous waste due to this industrial model lead to various shootouts calling themselves (the big "S" word) sustainable. The second one we know here, as a replacement for Take-Make-Dispose principle is as follows :

Yes, just as we see in the image above, it is the Recycling Economy. Dominated by the idea of "being sustainable" and all go-green, we see the recycling economy as the one trying to recycle the goods rather than directly sending it off to the landfills. Well, you can take it this way, recycling economy is the longer, but better route to the landfills.
Longer in the sense that the products are recycled and put to similar or different use till that product's soul is completely depleted and nothing more could be churned out finally leading to its way to the landfills.
Better in the sense that, this recycling process helps in minimizing the material requirements to some extent and delays the disposal time, which could be used to figure our alternate solutions.

But! Lets not sit back and relax. Yes, the recycling economy has helped, but now it has to be upgraded to another level. We envision a planet where the industrial cycles are just like the natural cycles.

"What goes around, comes around," you might know it as Karma. But, we refer to it as a Cyclic Economy. This idea has always been a suppressed practice since a very long time. (How is craft participate in Cyclic Economy? Lets discuss in the comments.)

Well, have a look at the following video by Ellen Macarthur Foundation. Re-thinking progress, the circular economy.

Re-thinking Economy - the Circular Economy

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Please get back in case of queries or dispute at letstalk@kosherdesigns.in

(Blogging with an intention of mass education)