Closing the loop

The circular economy model aims to strip out waste materials across the supply chain, keeping materials that are traditionally considered waste products within the economic life cycle. In South Africa, this could lead to the re-use of at least R17bn worth of valuable secondary resources such as viable polymer, fibre, metal, glass and organics that currently end up in landfills.

Natalie Greve

visualise taking a straight line and bending it inwards on itself until the end points meet to form a circle. This mental image depicts, on a highly simplified scale, the envisaged evolution from the existing linear economy to an insular one in which materials, energy and resources are fed back into the loop – a circular economy (CE). The CE, a generic system concept that has been developed by several schools of thought, including the industrial economy and regenerative design, is based on three principles. First, it relies on the redesign of polymers, alloys and other man-made compounds in such a way that they can be composted or fed back into the industrial process as crude feedstock. Second, the CE aims to keep material and products in use for as long…

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Finweek - English (Digital) - 1 Issue, 02-nov-17

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