The circular economy is built on three design-driven principles, as outlined by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation:

1. Eliminate waste and pollution: Shifting away from the linear model, where raw materials are used to make products and then discarded, preventing them from ending up in landfills or incinerators.
2. Circulate products and materials at their highest value: This involves keeping materials in use for as long as possible, either as products or, when no longer usable, as materials, ensuring nothing is wasted.
3. Regenerate nature: By embracing a circular economy, we promote natural processes and create more space for nature to flourish.

Implementing the Circular Economy

Here’s a summary of actions at each stage of a product’s life in the circular economy:

1. Design: Products can be designed to minimize waste by making them efficient, durable, and easy to repair. Designs should also consider reducing excess materials during manufacturing.
2. Manufacture: Producers can use materials from products at the end of their life instead of relying on raw materials.
3. Consumption: Consumers can choose long-lasting, reusable, or recyclable products to reduce waste.
4. Maintenance: Encouraging regular maintenance and repair can extend the lifespan of products and cut down waste.
5. Reuse/Refurbishment: Reusing or refurbishing items nearing the end of their life restores value, reducing the need for new purchases and minimizing waste.
6. Recycling: Recycling ensures that valuable materials are reused in new products instead of being discarded.

These principles guide a shift from a linear to a circular economy.

Incorporating a Circular Economy into Everyday Life

Let’s consider how we can apply the circular economy to everyday items, like clothing. Here are some questions to ask at each stage of the circular economy cycle for clothing:

1. Design: Can designers use less waste by utilizing recycled materials or packaging? Can they ship items in reusable packaging? Are designs efficient enough to minimize excess material orders?
2. Manufacture: Is it possible to produce clothing with minimal to no offcuts?
3. Consumption: Are we buying only what we need or items we'll wear multiple times? Can we focus on making clothing last longer?
4. Maintenance: If clothing gets ripped, can we repair it to extend its life?
5. Reuse/Refurbishment: If an item can no longer be worn, can it be repurposed for another use?
6. Recycling: If the clothing is still in good condition, can we sell or donate it instead of throwing it away?

Adopting this mindset encourages us to consider every stage of the cycle rather than simply designing, using, and discarding items.

Promoting Circularity for Sustainable Energy Development

Closed Loop Molecules

Gas and fluid molecules, such as oil, are essential for global energy production and transportation. Currently, they operate mainly in an open cycle, significantly impacting atmospheric carbon levels. This must change; hydrocarbons extracted from wells should be reintroduced below the surface as CO2, ideally passing through various industrial or power generation processes.

Additional molecules like hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, biogas, e-fuels, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will be crucial for establishing these closed loops. Electrochemistry is emerging as a key technology, bridging the gap between the molecular and electrical worlds, enabling bidirectional flow. Water (H2O) will also be vital as a feedstock for hydrogen production.

Clean Electrons

Electricity currently accounts for about 20% of total final energy consumption, but this figure is expected to rise significantly as heating and transportation increasingly electrify.

At present, only one-third of global electricity generation is carbon-free, highlighting the need for substantial efforts to meet 2030 targets. Renewable energy sources can facilitate more local, distributed, and affordable electricity production; however, a more capable smart grid will be necessary to manage this variability.

Additionally, geothermal energy will play a crucial role in addressing baseload challenges during the transition. Batteries are also vital, enabling the power grid to function as an energy grid.

Zero Carbon Minerals

The rise of electric vehicles, energy storage, renewables, and power grids demands significant amounts of lithium, manganese, nickel, iron, magnesium, copper, and alumina.

Producing these minerals will have a substantial energy footprint, making it essential to manage emissions through a circular closed loop. The refining and transformation of ores, rocks, and brines into minerals will involve chemicals that must be recycled to minimize waste. Additionally, other waste byproducts from these processes should also be carefully managed to ensure sustainability.

Zero Waste Materials

Currently, a small percentage of non-biodegradable products are recycled or recovered, with a significant amount ending up in landfills, improperly collected, or dispersed.

However, advancements in technology can convert this waste into valuable feedstock, create new categories of materials, and generate clean energy sources.

Reused Assets

Big data, cloud systems, computing power, and machine learning facilitate the circular flow of information.

Data stored across various locations can be retrieved, cleaned, aligned, and integrated to generate insights that improve our understanding of machine and asset performance, as well as predict future functionality.

Advanced machine learning chatbots are demonstrating remarkable potential to optimize diverse operating assets, achieving new levels of productivity.

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