Experts told us that GDP is a meaningless measurement, bioplastics might do more harm than good and it is possible to go too circular
Asked to describe a circular economy for someone who had never heard of it, Bart Goetzee, senior group sustainability at Philips explains that it’s “an industrial system that is restorative by design which means you can focus on economic growth without the increased use of natural resources.”
For a product, the onus is on the manufacturer who needs to take care of the resources used in its products, so it keeps the metals, plastics etc in use within the product cycle for as long as possible and thinks about design for longevity, repair and re-use. For a country, we might want to see materials being kept inside the country, creating jobs and contributing to the economic growth. The two are not mutually exclusive.
“It makes no sense to expend more energy regenerating a product than is embodied in the product in the first place. Different products will need different approaches but always keep in mind what is the best way to retain value in the business system and economy,” says Pitts.
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