Moving beyond the circular economy

Moreno, M.A., Braithwaite, N. ORCID: 0000-0001-6424-8919 and Cooper, T. ORCID: 0000-0001-8623-2918, 2014. Moving beyond the circular economy. In: Going Green - CARE INNOVATION 2014, Vienna, Austria, 17-20 November 2014.

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Abstract

The production model, which currently underpins our material prosperity, remains highly resource-intensive, and the volume of minerals, ores and fossil fuels consumed annually is set to triple by 2050 unless economic growth is decoupled from resource consumption [1]. One response that has been attracting significant attention is the idea of a circular economy (or close loop economy), in which waste is transformed into value rather than disposed of to landfill [2]. While acknowledging potential benefits to businesses of a circular economy, this paper critically reviews the model and proposes an approach that addresses concerns that even recycling processes have energy impacts through transportation, reprocessing and subsequent manufacturing, and that in practice it is impossible to have a complete circular system in which there is no use of virgin materials and no final waste. It presents an overarching framework that responds to such concerns, built by studying different circular models in a macro-level perspective and then tailoring tactics for different sectors in a micro - level perspective [3 ,4,5,6 ]. The paper explains how the framework was built and how it is applied to the large household appliance (LHA) sector, through developing two emerging models based on product-service systems (PSS). The paper presents findings from a workshop in which the two models were presented to industry representatives, revealing their responses regarding the opportunities and challenges to implement the proposed models to go beyond the circular economy.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Creators:	Moreno, M.A., Braithwaite, N. and Cooper, T.
Publisher:	[CARE Electronics]
Place of Publication:	Vienna
Date:	2014
Identifiers:	Number Type 392727 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:41
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2021 08:06
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1031

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