THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

INTRODUCTION
CIRCULAR ECONOMY

In a circular economy economic activity builds

and rebuilds overall system health. The concept
recognises the importance of the economy
needing to work effectively at all scales – for big
and small businesses, for organisations and
individuals, globally and locally.
 Design out waste Keep products and
IT IS BASED ON THREE PRINCIPLES & pollution Materials in use
• Design out waste and pollution
• Keep products and materials in use
• Regenerate natural systems

Regenerate natural
systems
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY SYSTEM DIAGRAM
BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL MATERIAL
FLOWS

The first thing that most people notice about

the diagram is the separation into two distinct
halves, or cycles, which represent two
fundamentally distinct flows of material:
biological and technical.
Biological materials - represented in green
cycles on the left side of the diagram - are
those materials that can safely re-enter the
natural world, once they have gone through
one or more use cycles, where they will
biodegrade over time, returning the
embedded nutrients to the environment.
Technical materials - represented in blue on
the right hand side - cannot re-enter the
environment. These materials, such as metals,
plastics, and synthetic chemicals, must
continuously cycle through the system so that
their value can be captured and recaptured.
ACCESS VERSUS OWNERSHIP

In a circular economy, biological materials are

the only ones that can be thought of as
consumable, while technical materials are
used. It makes no sense to say that we
consume our washing machines and cars in
the same way that we consume food. This is a
subtle, but important distinction in how we
view our relationship to materials.
THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS

The circular economy has been gaining

traction with business and government leaders
alike. Their imagination is captured by the
opportunity to gradually decouple economic
growth from virgin resource inputs, encourage
innovation, increase growth, and create more
robust employment. If we transition to a
circular economy, the impact will be felt across
society. The slider below illustrates some of
the potential macroeconomic benefits of
shifting to a circular economy.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SYSTEM-WIDE
BENEFITS

The potential benefits of shifting to a

circular economy extend beyond the
economy and into the natural
environment. By designing out waste and
pollution, keeping products and materials
in use, and regenerating rather than
degrading natural systems, the circular
economy represents a powerful
contribution to achieving global climate
targets
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR COMPANIES

Businesses would benefit significantly by

shifting their operations in line with the
principles of the circular economy. These
benefits include the creation of new profit
opportunities, reduced costs due to lower
virgin-material requirements, and stronger
relationships with customers. The sliders
below expand on these and more benefits.
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUALS

The circular economy will not only benefit

businesses, the environment, and the
economy at large, but also the individual.
Ranging from increased disposable
income to improved living conditions and
associated health impacts, the benefits
for individuals of a system based on the
principles of circularity are significant.
THE ORIGINS OF THE CONCEPT

The notion of circularity has deep historical

and philosophical origins. The idea of
feedback, of cycles in real-world systems, is
ancient and has echoes in various schools of
philosophy. It enjoyed a revival in
industrialised countries after World War II
when the advent of computer-based studies of
non-linear systems unambiguously revealed
the complex, interrelated, and therefore
unpredictable nature of the world we live in –
more akin to a metabolism than a machine.
With current advances, digital technology has
the power to support the transition to a
circular economy by radically increasing
virtualisation, de-materialisation,
transparency, and feedback-driven
intelligence.

https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-management-construction-and-
demolition-materials
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: HOW
ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS CAN
CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING WASTE
Since the Industrial Revolution, humans
have had the ability to mass consume and
produce, which has led to massive waste
outputs. The environment can no longer
support the traditional practices of a
linear economic model. The circular
economy has not been a focal point of
architects and designers in the past as
factors such as schedule and budget
requirements were paramount. Now, with
accelerating natural resource depletion, it
is becoming increasingly relevant, starting
with the specification process. Design
professionals’ decisions could create a
ripple effect toward sustainability
throughout the construction industry.
DIVERTING WASTE: BEGINNING WITH
THE END

The first step to changing the economy from

linear to circular is reusing or recycling
materials. Construction waste is one of the top
offenders contributing toward landfill volume.
According to the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), 484 million t (534
million tons) of construction and demolition
debris was generated in the United States in
2014—more than twice the amount generated
by municipal solid waste. A circular economy
utilizes closed-loop systems to divert these
materials from landfills—recovering or
restoring products, components, and materials
by reusing, repairing, remanufacturing, or
recycling them. When practiced properly,
closed-loop recycling can increase the lifespan
of a product, which would optimally become
infinitely regenerative.
SOLUTIONS
California is aggressively mandating the
extended producer responsibility(EPR) for
many consumer products. These EPR programs
dictate end-of-life management costs be
incorporated into the initial sale of a product.
By doing so, California hopes to impart
positive change in design and manufacturing
practices to reduce waste and build awareness
about the circular economy. However, not all
states are equally aggressive, and
organizations who initiate regenerative
practices before governmental mandates will
likely have competitive advantages in future
costs. Architects and designers who participate
in sustainable practices, before required to do
so by law, will earn themselves credibility, gain
favorable public perception, and secure
customer loyalty.
WAYS TO INCORPORATE THE CIRCULAR
ECONOMY INTO AN ARCHITECTURAL
PROJECT: THE USE OF GLASS AS AN
EXTERIOR FINISH
As the focus of sustainable design
continues to shift heavily from the core
topic of the efficiency of buildings to the
other two pillars of the discussion:
sufficiency and consistency, the
conversation of “renovation” comes to Before the renovation and addition of
glass
the forefront. When it comes to glass,
industry leaders such as Saint-Gobain are
constantly developing new and innovative
ways to think about the material's
potentials and prospective usage,
updating systems that have become
outdated. Simply swapping old glass-
finish systems with new, sustainable, and
efficient ones can make a huge difference
in an architectural project's ecological After the renovation and addition of
footprint and energy efficiency rating. glass
REMANUFACTURING

Remanufacturing - also known as "value-

added manufacturing" refers to the rebuilding
of a product to the specifications of the
original manufactured product using a
combination of reused, repaired, and new
parts. It requires the repair or replacement of
worn-out or obsolete components and
modules. Many companies are beginning to
look towards ideas of remanufacturing,
especially in the automotive and construction
industries where machinery and material with
large manufacturing systems can be salvaged
and re-used in order to reduce environmental
impact. For example, remanufacture wood can
easily be used in the contexts of both framing,
finishing, and other value-added operations
within a built project.

https://youtu.be/PuMnFvHRgJ4
CRADLE-TO-CRADLE FABRICATION
GLASS WOOL INSULATION

Glass wool is an insulating material made

from minuscule fibers of glass, arranged
using a binder into a texture similar to
wool. The process traps many small
pockets of air between the glass, and
these small air pockets result in high
thermal insulation properties. Glass wool
is produced in rolls or in slabs, with
different thermal and mechanical
properties. Saint-Gobain's ISOVER, for
example, produces glass wool insulation
which is both energy efficient and
sustainable.
PAY-PER-LUX

Kitchen Oven Upcycled Into
Modular Lounge Furniture
FURNITURE RE-USABILITY
In the United States alone, 15 million tonnes
of furniture is wasted annually, and only 2% is
recovered for recycling. At the same time,
each year in a city like New York, a quarter of a
million people either move in or move out.
The actual potential in the used furniture
market has been estimated at $10 billion per
year. Alpay Koralturk set up Furnishare (now
Kaiyo) in 2014, after a series of frustrating
moves, having to sell and buy furniture each
time.
MODULARITY 

The demand for office furniture is

growing rapidly - by 2024 the size of the
industry will be estimated at 100 billion
dollars (USD). Manufacturing office
furniture requires a lot of materials and
energy, and 80-90% of these valuable
resources are lost after a short use
period.
CIRCULAR BUILDING

Villa Welpeloo is a house and art studio

designed and constructed in 2005 by Superuse
Studios. Whilst the house is certainly
architecturally striking, there are two features
of its creation that make it especially
noteworthy. Firstly, 60% of the house is made
up of materials salvaged from the local area,
and Superuse employed a novel yet accessible
strategy for finding this feedstock. “We spoke
to people who have access to waste materials
flows – Google Earth helps us to identify waste
stock in industrial zones", explains Jan Jongert,
architect and Head of Research at Superuse
Studios.
4 WAYS ARCHITECTS ARE USING
CIRCULAR ECONOMY PRINCIPLES TO
FUTURE-PROOF HOMES

1.CHOOSE NATURAL AND RECYCLABLE

MATERIALS

Swapping steel and concrete for renewable

materials is a good place to start. Wood and
brick can offer plenty of potential, but there
are also more imaginative options available,
such as cork or straw. London studio Practice
Architecture used natural hemp to create the
walls of Flat House, a three-bedroom family
home in Cambridgeshire. This material is not
only sustainable to source, its insulating The kitchen/dining space in Flat House, with
properties ensure the house requires very walls made from natural hemp
little energy to heat. There are even designers
exploring whether mycelium, the vegetative
section of a fungus, could be used in the same
way.
 2.PRODUCE MORE ENERGY THAN YOU
CONSUME

It’s no longer just about carbon neutral. Some

architects are proving it’s possible to build
houses that produce more energy than they
consume. Lark Rise, a new-build house in
Buckinghamshire, is one of the most extreme
examples. Designed by sustainability specialist
Bere Architects, it produces double the power
it needs, meaning it draws 97 per cent less
energy from the national grid than the average
UK home. Architect Justin Bere describes it as
a mini power station that could pave the way
for a ‘smart energy revolution’.
The living room of carbon-positive project Lark
Rise
3.FIND RESOURCES THAT ARE ALREADY IN
USE

Repurposing used materials is essential,

particularly if you’re working on a renovation
project. When creating Reuse Flat in east
London, architecture studio Arboreal tried to
repurpose all the materials collected in the
‘deconstruction’ of the old building. ‘We don’t
say demolition,’ explains architect Tom
Raymont. ‘It is about careful deconstruction of
a building, separating its parts so they can be
assessed for reuse, and recycled, sold or
donated if not used. Smashing things up just
destroys their value.’ There are also
opportunities to find used materials for new-
Reuse Flat, created with repurposed materials
builds. Copenhagen-based Lendager Group
from the original build
sources waste materials from manufacturers
such as flooring brand Dinesen, yet there is
nothing second-rate about the results, which
include cabin-like woodland retreat
Sommerhus.

Beech Architects’ holiday units are plaster-free
and easy to disassemble
https://www.constructionspecifier.com/the-circular-economy/4/
4.ENSURE BUILDINGS AND COMPONENTS
CAN BE REPURPOSED
Designing out waste possible, but also making
sure components can be reused in the event it
does have to be demolished. Some building
products, plasterboard for instance, are
difficult to recycle and potentially toxic to
dispose of. Beech Architects had to consider
this when designing a pair of holiday homes
on a fast-eroding cliff top. With minimal
foundations, they can be easily craned to a
new location if needed. But as the structures
are plaster-free, they can also be disassembled
and their components reused. Many
prefabricated homes offer similar benefits.
Koto’s range of Scandinavian-style cabins are
made of FSC-certified timber modules,
meaning they are easy dismantled and
repurposed.
Conclusion
Planning for the reclamation of building
materials in the demolition phase is a priority
because it directly reduces contributions to
landfills and increases the likelihood
reclamation is done properly within time
restrictions.
Design professionals can further support a
circular economy by selecting sustainable
products, including researching those with
recycled content and avoiding those with
possible VOCs. HPD, EPD, and the
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Greenguard Shearing separates the reusable fibers of post-
certifications can be a valuable resource when consumer broadloom carpet, thereby limiting
evaluating products. Striving for LEED waste
certification and the WELL standard will also
place higher emphasis on selecting
transparent and sustainable materials.
Utilizing programs such as EPR and Cradle-to-
Cradle will increase the ability for materials to
be reclaimed. It is important to implement all
of these aspects in the design process. https://www.constructionspecifier.com/the-circular-economy/4/