Circular Economy

Prof. Soami P. Satsangee

deiusic@gmail.com
University Science Innovation Centre (USIC)

Teachers: Dr. Shweta (Management), Drs. Yogita & Sachin (USIC)

 Syllabus of Circular Economy
Unit 1: Circular Economy & Business Value of Circular Economy (CE)
Definition of CE, Principles of CE, Need of CE, Butterfly diagram, Circular Economy roots, Introduction to Business
value, Closing Loops, Value Creation in a Circular Economy, Case study: Philips Healthcare, Business Models for a
Circular Economy, Need for circular accounting and challenges
UNIT 2: Longer Lasting Products & Remanufacturing
Introduction, Product Life Extension, Case Study, Designing Longer Lasting Products, Planned obsolescence,
Remanufacturing, Design of Remanufacturing( including relevance of maintenance network), Challenges of
Remanufacturing, Markets of Remanufacturing (including relevance of concepts such as Kaizen, IoT, big data) .
UNIT 3: Waste=Food & Thinking of Systems: Introduction, Recycling, Case Study, Nature Inspired Design, Thinking in
systems, A Global Perspective, A circular economy of metals, urban mines, Critical Metals.
UNIT 4: Circular Design, Innovation and Assessment Designing materials for Circular Economy, Eco design strategies,
Introduction to Nanotechnology, Assessing the environmental sustainability, Circular Systems, Assessing resource
efficiency.
UNIT 5: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Case Studies and Field Visits
Introduction & Principles, LCA framework, Goal & Scope of LCA. Case studies on circular economy models-
industry best practices and best practices in agriculture. Case studies on sustainable practices in circular economy
References

1. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy)
2. https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/circular-economy/
3. edX course- Circular Economy: An Introduction
4. edX course- Circular Economy-An interdisciplinary approach
5. Coursera- Circular Economy - Sustainable Materials Management
6. Various articles from Newspaper, Magazines, Internet, etc.
Unit 1: Introduction
What is an Economy?
“An economy is an area of production, distribution and trade, as well as
consumption of goods and services by different agents”. (Wikipedia)
A Major Revolution in Economy
• In 1684, invention of Steam Engine by Thomas Savery kickstarted the
Industrial Revolution.
• At that time raw materials and energy were seemingly infinite, and
labour was readily available. For the first time in history, goods were
mass produced.
Introduction (contd..)
• With passage of time the growing economy required more raw materials and produced more
waste. Initially our economy was smaller than our natural ecosystem and hence it could
absorb the waste. The natural ecosystem is both “source of our raw materials and sink for our
waste”.

How this led to problems

• The economy of today has become very large and has made products that have brought much
material comfort and luxury.
• However, in the process we are extracting increasing amounts of raw materials from ground
and dumping more and more waste. This is unsustainable as raw materials are finite (Copper,
Gold, Phosphorus, etc.) and rate of waste produced in the ecosystem is polluting the planet.
 EMERGENCE OF LINEAR ECONOMY
• Linear economy depends upon cheap energy, cheap materials and
cheap credit.
• We TAKE resources from the earth to MAKE products, which we USE,
and, when we no longer need or want them, DISPOSE (THROW,
WASTE) them away.
STAGES OF LINEAR ECONOMY

TAKE MAKE USE DISPOSE

TAKE-MAKE-USE-DISPOSE IS CALLED A LINEAR ECONOMY.

THIS IS ALSO KNOWN AS CRADLE(RAW MATERIALS)-TO-
GRAVE (DISPOSAL) CONCEPT
The Solution?
System Disruption- Circular Economy (Cradle-to-Cradle)
• The Circular Economy (inspired from Nature), in contrast, aims to
minimize the extraction of raw materials and the production of waste.
It does this by recovering and reusing as many of the products and
materials as possible, in a systemic way, over and over again. The
Circular Economy is a "make/remake – use/reuse" economy.

Make
Remake
_________
Use
Reuse
Circular Economy is a holistic model “resilient and restorative by
intention”, where, as it happens in nature, “nothing is created, nothing is
lost, everything is transformed” (Lavoisier's Law) ”
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the
way we make things (2002)
Willam McDonough & Michael Braungart

“It is made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers.

It is a prototype for the book as the technical
nutrient. That is, as a product that can be broken
down and circulated infinitely in industrial cycles.
Is Eco-Efficiency Ideal?

‘As long as human beings are regarded as “bad”, zero is a

good goal. But to be less bad is to accept things as they are,
to believe that poorly designed, dishonourable, destructive
systems are the best humans can do. This is the ultimate
failure of the “be less bad” approach: a failure of the
IMAGINATION.’

(Cradle to Cradle, 2002)

WATCH RETHINKING PROGRESS
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCRKvDyyHmI
 Main Points of the Video

In nature, one species’ waste is another’s food. The energy is supplied from Sun. This is
inspiration for the Circular Economy.
A circular economy cycles valuable materials and products and produces and transports
them using renewable energy.

References:
1. Ellen Macarthur Foundation (
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/what-is-the-circular-eco
nomy
)
Linear Economy
From en.Beecircular.org
Circular Economy
USE

REPAIR

REMANUFACTURE
THE LINEAR AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The circular economy offers the opportunity

to move away from our
"take - make - dispose" model, by ensuring,
through careful design and innovative
business models, that technical and
biological materials continuously flow,
safeguarding valuable resources and
restoring natural capital.
DHA
1. List 5 differences between linear and circular economy.
• Thank you