5 ways to achieve circular development on the local level
Put simply: the circular economy means understanding that everything is a resource to be kept in circulation. There is no garbage or waste.
Put simply: the circular economy means understanding that everything is a resource to be kept in circulation. There is no garbage or waste.
The pandemic has created many challenges for skills exchanges and other sharing initiatives that rely on person-to-person contact.
Not buying new laptops saves a lot of money, but also a lot of resources and environmental destruction.
Why do we have so much stuff? Why is it so hard to find good stuff? And when our cheap stuff breaks, why is it so hard to fix it?
A sweeping “circular economy” bill in the California legislature aims to drastically reduce plastic waste and boost domestic recycling.
A conversation between Emanuele Di Francesco and Tim Jackson, discussing post-growth concepts of a circular economy, the limits of labour productivity and the dynamics of inequality.
Why not make the economy circular, with waste from one process feeding into other production processes, thus dramatically reducing the need both for resource extraction and for the dumping of rubbish? We should mimic nature: it’s a central ideal of the ecology movement, with roots in indigenous wisdom worldwide.
The circular economy – the newest magical word in the sustainable development vocabulary – promises economic growth without destruction or waste. However, the concept only focuses on a small part of total resource use and does not take into account the laws of thermodynamics.
But advocates of the circular economy rarely grapple with a central truth: the circular economy depends on a significant and sustained period of economic degrowth. Instead they tend to focus on innovations that deliver efficiencies and unlock new economic opportunities.
While many companies don’t question the practices employed by farms or source cheap materials from overseas, Abby and Matt have proudly kept their wool homegrown. And they haven’t stopped there. They’ve become one of several trailblazers for Fibershed’s new designation of wool altogether: Climate Beneficial Wool.
The ‘circular economy’ is, in my opinion, a ruse to make affluent consumers feel that they can keep consuming without the need to change their habits. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the central reason for that is the necessity for energy to power economic activity.
The ability to cooperate brought us to where we are today, and it’s what will help us change the world. Without cooperation, the Circular Economy will not be possible. So how will this work, practically? And what are the key principles of cooperation that we can start applying everywhere we go?