Waste and the CE

Design out waste is one of the principles of the circular economy. 'Design out' automatically implies we must engage the front end, the design process of our physical world. It also means that we need to link up the back end - re erse logistics and cycling and e erything inbetween! the supply chain, the material suppliers and all the other designers of all the components. Comple"# $es. %owe er, the circular economy unlocks a framework which makes this process a great deal more straightforward. &he 'rst rule of thumb is consumables which are made from biological material and durables which are made from technical materials. In terms of re erse logistics or 'waste collection,' this simpli'cation of (ows has the potential to greatly increase ef'ciencies at the systems le el. )ust think, most waste collection would consist of consumables and go straight to an anaerobic digester to be processed into energy, fertiliser and soil conditioner, restoring the system it originally came from. &he circular economy also promotes the puri'cation of (ows. &his is due to the economic reality that something purer has a greater alue. &his means that all waste will be designed to be more pure in order to e"tract more alue from it. &he circular economy allows for waste to be seen as a resource and enables all (ows to be gi en a alue, this in turn allows the market to reorganise in order to allocate resources more effecti ely. *f course, waste at a system le el does not +ust apply to our physical products but also our energy use, including human. *ur economy will restructure to take ad antage of the ef'cient use of our energy and our energy systems through effecti e information (ows. Waste (ows ha e already started to gain alue and as they purify, either by economic pressure or social, we will see the alue grow. What ad antage does this ha e for society# &here will be ob ious health bene'ts from puri'cation but also there will be huge ef'ciencies gained in local processing and the conse,uent resource e"traction. &his will increase local economic prosperity and employment. &he red line 'lost opportunity' in the diagram below, represents current linear thinking. When this is replaced with the circular model it becomes a dri ing force for puri'cation. -e erse logistics replaces waste collection creating the positi e restorati e feedback, which is so key to dynamic systems.

CE-optimal.com .n interesting possible outcome will be that technical waste will become almost entirely the sole responsibility of companies who are supplying through a performance model. .nd perhaps the only material (ow that the 'city' will be responsible for will be biological#

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