The circular transition is occurring through reuse, upcycling and repair – not recycling alone

Let’s start by adding “slow” to the term “circular economy”, because language matters.

For our economy to be restorative and generative, not just cycling more and more resources around faster and faster, we need to both: slow the flow and close the loop by reducing production and consumption. This means reversing the waste hierarchy and putting “refuse” (as in, “don’t want it”) and “reduce” at the top of the list. This allows us to tackle consumerism, overconsumption and overproduction head-on while questioning the notion of growth altogether.

Yes.. this means consuming less and…

… rolling-out mindful and ecological designs that enable sustainable ecosystems for all of us.

It should look like this:

SIMPLE – It should be created with tools that are easy to understand and repair

INPUT-ORIENTED – Production must understand the value of all resources and how to conserve and use resources effectively, with a minimum of waste.

WITH PURPOSE – Products must be designed for longevity, promoting extended use to reduce buying more of the same stuff. They must be durable as well as repairable, reusable, refurbishable, recyclable. The end of life of the product and its disposal must be factored into this design phase as well as the material mix.

FOR MULTI USE- Reverse-engineering and modularity are key to enable repair and different uses of the product.

DESIGN GLOBAL, MANUFACTURE LOCAL — Combining globally shared productive knowledge, with distributed manufacturing closer to the place of use and demand.

… emphasize genuine sustainability to prevent and reduce environmental impact across the entire life-cycle of products to protect our planet, and:

PREVENT and minimise the impact of parts and materials.

Source your parts and materials LOCALLY.

Use efficient and RENEWABLE ENERGY.

Eliminate all TOXIC chemicals and pollution.

Avoid WASTE and make the by-products of today’s resources for tomorrow.

… open source information and standards to enable to repair and foster innovation, which is:

FREE – Information freely available for anyone to access.

EDITABLE – in formats that allow people to remix, add, build upon, learn and improve.

OPEN – share under open licenses to enable legal decentralised collaboration and enable the right to fix and the access to repair tutorials or spare parts.

So, Is this slow circular economy already happening??

Yes! Some concrete steps that are already changing the landscape of the economy and our cultural attitudes are tax incentives for repair, setting limits on advertising, mandatory take-back schemes or Extended Producer Responsibility regulations. Eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals, reducing resource use, such as energy, water and raw materials, as well as carrying out better working practices (wages, standards, health, working hours etc.) for manufacturers and in farming and mining. To improve production, people are slowing it down and making it more resilient. New, alternative business models (eg. sharing, renting, cooperative, non-hierarchical, slower fashion cycles) are also a common feature of businesses and organisations and facilitate a slow circular economy

A truly slow circular economy will require all the above as well as strong transparency, accountability, collaboration and localisation across value chains, industries and movements. Eventually, all the above will lead to an economy that is built on a foundation of shared ownership designed to generate value for those that create it while delivering fair and just outcomes which preserves resources and ecosystems while benefiting the many rather than the few.