Until a couple of centuries ago, most people lived just as their ancestors had. Tools and clothes were fashioned at home, cities were built by hand and travelling beyond a short distance was almost unthinkable.
But everything changed in 1764, when James Hargreaves, a textile weaver from England, devised a mechanical spinner to keep up with growing demand in London for his signature cotton and linen fabric. His “spinning jenny” – a metal frame with wooden spindles and a large hand operated spinning wheel – did the work of dozens of people, and signalled the start of an age of invention, discovery and prosperity.
New ideas and technologies unleashed humanity’s potential. Modern factories sprang up across Europe and North America, producing high quality goods from a seemingly endless supply of raw materials. Cities became bustling centres of commerce, and thousands of miles of gleaming new railways connected people as never before.
Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Lucas, Jr, explained that during the Industrial Revolution “the living standards of the masses begun to undergo sustained growth”. Earnings doubled for most workers and living standards significantly improved, giving rise to the modern middle class.
By 2030, the global middle class will more than double in size, according to the Brookings Institution. With these nearly 5 billion people expecting the opportunities and conveniences that we have long enjoyed, it is time to rethink our notions of manufacturing and design. Because continuing the model used since the early days of the Industrial Revolution requires two ingredients: an infinite supply of natural resources and endless space for waste. But we know that’s just not possible.
It’s time to spark a second Industrial Revolution.
The answer lies in nature, where resources are reused efficiently for multiple life cycles in harmony with the rhythms of the planet. As in nature, our new production ecosystem would ensure that all products are designed to not only be efficient and eco-friendly, but also essentially waste-free and wholly reusable.
This is becoming increasingly vital. Every day, we lose nearly $4 billion worth of natural resources, according to the World Economic Forum – supplies of which are dwindling and becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to source. For instance, the global supply of indium, which is used to make the touch screens on our smartphones, will be depleted within a decade. Supplies of europium too, which is used to make light bulbs, along with erbium, an element needed to produce fibre optics, will also be exhausted in a few years.
But just one look across any of the ever-expanding landfills across the developing world tells us these resources are not scarce. Man-made mountains of spent TVs and computers, dead mobile phones and abandoned appliances that have reached the end of their usable life are full of these resources that we need.
Our new manufacturing ecosystem must seek to reuse these resources. In real terms, this “circular” economy begins at the design table, by devising products that are easier to disassemble and reuse.
In traditional production processes, the design is limited to one life cycle.
Within this new framework, no materials are lost. Beginning at the drawing board, products are designed so that all of their material inputs can be reused.
This requires a fundamental rethinking of how we do business. Traditionally, companies have sold products that people own, use, then dispose of when it reaches the end of its usable life. We need to re-evaluate this mindset. Take a television set for example. What we really buy is not the value of its materials, but rather its benefits – 50,000 hours of viewing.
By revising our concept of ownership we will begin to design for the future: future recycling, future reuse and future life cycles for each material input.
Circular economy is not only about sustainability and environmental responsibility. It also makes good business sense.
The global economy is currently valued at over $70 trillion. Experts estimate that by simply integrating circular techniques into our current framework, businesses would save about $1 trillion a year – and that figure will increase significantly as natural resources become scarcer as the world’s population expands.
Malek Maysarah Sukkar is the chief executive officer of Averda, an environmental services provider in the developing world
