Episode 21: Circularity 101
Click the links below to listen to the full episode
Have you ever wondered if we can actually achieve circularity? In this episode, Tad and Julianna discuss the basics of the circular economy, whether or not it is actually achievable, if it is possible for a product to be 100% closed loop, and what changes need to be made in order to achieve the circular economy on a large scale.
we're seeing a lot more activity around circularity and the circular economy. I know that you did a TEDx talk back in 2014 about this topic. Can you explain what is circularity?
“Yes, as you know, we just recently did our life cycle assessment podcast. We talked about the fact that we think about every product from cradle to grave. So basically, what we have as a society is called a ‘take-make-waste’ system. So we take raw materials out of the earth and out of the forest, and we make products. When we make those products we are creating impacts and emissions from using energy. There's a lot that goes into making the products that we use every day, and the majority of those products are not designed for long term use. So we basically make these things and then we dispose of them in a landfill.
Think about it even with our cell phones and all of our electronics. They're not really designed to be reused. I mean, how long does the cell phone last, right? And even though we're now doing a better job of recycling cell phones we're still losing lots of materials. We have to realize that on this planet, we're in an exponential growth phase as more and more people are born. Many of those people are moving into a stage where their economies are growing, and they're moving into more of a middle class lifestyle. So the thinking is that if we try to keep providing all these materials, products, and resources and to a massively growing population who has a lot more buying power, it's not going to be sustainable to keep the take-make-waste system.
So what circularity is all about is thinking, ‘how do we take something that we make and how do we either extend the life of it, make it more durable, more useful, repairable, or how do we recover the materials that went into the product and turn it back into the same or similar product?’”
Can we actually achieve a circular economy?
“I do actually. And it really starts with the way you design products. When we do life cycle assessment, we can understand the impacts of a product from the early stages, like the raw materials that we extract or use to make the product. I think in our life cycle podcast, we talked about paper. By doing the life cycle assessment, we then understand where the impacts are occurring. One thing that every company does is they have a new product development process or a next generation product development process, whatever you want to call it.
They use a system called stage gate, and in stage gate there's a series of stages of things you do. Then there's a gate where you get management approval to move on to the next stage. So if we can get these new product development teams that are comprised of research and design employees, or research and development, engineers, and marketing. There's a whole group of people that work on this. If we could get them thinking about sustainability in the beginning of the design phase through a process that we call sustainable product innovation, then that would definitely help with circularity.”
Is it possible for a product to be 100% closed loop?
“Yes, it is. I use this example a lot when I'm teaching, or if I'm speaking to an audience, I say, ‘what is the most circular product or closed loop product that you can think of?’ Everybody always says aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Aluminum is definitely highly recyclable and a recoverable material. If you could guarantee that you would get all those aluminum cans back and turn them into beverage containers again, then that is a closed loop product. Believe it or not, one of the most circular products right now is actually the automotive battery
The lead acid battery that is sitting in all of our vehicles at this point, unless you own an electric vehicle. Many of the battery manufacturers have perfected a system where they bring the batteries back and they can basically break them apart. They can recover all the plastic, which is polypropylene. That's why a lot of batteries are black because if they just recover the polypropylene, they can basically make a brand new case out of it. They recover all the lead and acid out of it. They do have to add some virgin materials, but most of the manufacturers are breaking them apart, recovering the acid and lead, and then they're making it into a brand new battery.
If you have something that's made out of metal, you can definitely make sure you're segregating that metal and recovering it. For example a huge percentage of an automobile is made out of steel, aluminum, zinc, or other things. So we do have the technology and what it comes down to is prices and commodity costs. We are seeing a huge move now around recycling. When people think about circular products or circular economy, they instantly think it's only recycling and it’s a lot more than that. Designing for reuse and designing for next life are extremely important in the movement towards circular economy.”
