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A circular economy (also referred to as circularity or CE) [1] is a model of resource production and consumption in any economy that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible.
In order to grow an economy while preventing depletion of natural resources, a given amount of a resource must be used as much as possible with as little waste as possible. Closed-loop recycling systems attempt to maximize the amount of time a given amount of a resource is available to an economy.
Zero waste promotes a circular material flow that allows materials to be used over and over, reducing the need for landfill space. [10] Through zero waste the number of toxins released into the air and water would be decreased and products examined to determine what chemicals are used in the production process.
By extending the lifespan of goods, parts, and materials, a circular economy seeks to minimize waste and maximize resource utilization. [156] Advanced sorting techniques like optical and robotic sorting may separate and recover valuable materials from waste streams, lowering the requirement for virgin resources and accelerating the shift to a ...
Incorporating life cycle assessments, the report contrasts scenarios from maintaining the status quo to fully adopting zero waste and circular economy principles. It indicates that effective waste prevention and management could cap annual costs at USD 270.2 billion by 2050, while a circular economy approach could transform the sector into a ...
The Circular Economy Development Strategies Action Plan was created on January 23, 2013, and it further embedded the idea of a circular economy into Chinese legislation. [6] The plan outlined three levels of circular economies in China, being within a company, industrial park and city or region. [6]
The U.Ks Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) defines the Circular Economy as being an alternative to the traditional take, make, waste economy to one that keeps resources in use as long as possible, extracts the maximum value from the materials while they are in use, then recovers the materials to generate new products at the end of the ...
The phrase "cradle to cradle" itself was coined by Walter R. Stahel in the 1970s. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The current model is based on a system of "lifecycle development" initiated by Michael Braungart and colleagues at the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) in the 1990s and explored through the publication A Technical Framework for Life ...