Re-thinking Progress: The Circular Economy | Video by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation

As I’ve previously explained, the Circular Economy is the idea that we can eliminate waste by modelling our industrial processes on processes that we see in nature. In nature there isn’t any waste — all by-products are used by another organism in a productive way.

The video below goes deeper into the specifics of how the Circular Economy can work. Some of the key ideas are…

• Making disposable items like packaging compostable, meaning that our ‘waste’ can be used by other organisms, just like in the natural world
• ‘Return and renew’ for electrical goods — rather than chucking electrical items out, returning them to the manufacturer so that they can be re-used (with products designed to make this possible)
• Powering the transport of these goods to / from the manufacturer through renewable energy

A three minute video clearly isn’t sufficient to present all the opportunities we have to make the Circular Economy work. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation have created a ton of resources with more information, if you’d like to learn more.

And if you’re wondering how these ideas can be worked into economic policy, check out Doughnut Economics.