Dear Hansen!

The best is to implement the triple helix concept in the waste management system where society, industry and academia can contribute with their input to find solutions and help to improve this system.

Regards

Yahya

Hello Hansen!

Manufacturers can seggregate the waste and supply to waste manager for reuse and recyclying, with having minimum level of business deal. That will create win-win situation.

Hi Erik:

A very interesting thought! This isn't my field per se, but sometimes multi-disciplinary thought brews/stews/steeps an idea... Unfortunately, in my opinion, there won't be any movement until a few things happen to move Adam Smith's invisible hand toward making it commercially viable:

- Governments mandate a minimum recycled content in products sold. This could result in a rabbit-hole of "how recycled do the recycled materials have to be" i.e.: post-manufacturing or post-consumer?

- When the material that needs to be reused in "new" products becomes scarce. One may think that plastic will become that way once we run out of oil...

- Tariffs on the imported materials to make it more economical to recycle. That being said, it would make the initial product too pricey to be sold...

- use social and market pressure to drive the manufacturers to create such programs... a market pull of sorts.

- "Sin Taxes" like they have on cigarettes and alcohol to pay for recycling.

- make people pay deposits on the materials/products - if you return it to the redemption centre, you get your 5 cents back...

- or a large, forward thinking company initiates this in a big way - think "cornering the market"... would have to remain a monopoly, which is never good for the consumer... but may create the intended goal...

Perhaps not much help, but if it spurs the conversation...

At some point in the distant future, we may be mining the landfills of old to recover materials to recycle...

Good Luck!

Brian

Dear Herik,

Your question touches a key challenge that should be overcome in order to introduce Circular Economy.

I think that maybe the platform economy could help to this regard: thanks to a platform, key actors and stakeholders can interact and then exchange ideas, best practices as well as buy or sell secondary materials and by-products.

Here you can find two examples of such a platform:

• https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/
• https://www.sfridoo.com/en/

I hope these two examples could give you some help

All the best,

Gianmarco

Hi Erik,

One of my colleagues and I have suggested a framework that discusses how different actors in a loosely coupled system, such as the one you suggest, can negotiate meaning related to "exchange content' in a specific 'exchange context' so they can identify a business model where there is a balance between the activities performed by the individual actor and the output (s)he/they get(s)...

See link below: (Ps. If you do not have access, then feel free to "hit the request" button...

Article Sensemaking in collaborative networks: Creating and balancin...

All the best,

Jacob

An example is to make farmers aware of the economic value and environmental benefits of forwarding crop wastes to the paper and board industry instead of just burning such wastes. The below mentioned research encompasses this issue. Happy new year.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315427845_Agricultural_Residues_Wastes_for_Manufacture_of_Paper_Board_and_Miscellaneous_Products_Background_Overview_and_Future_Prospects?_sg=rItwraxlSK2mpJHt6OtO0M4xTdTElPxRb-c0J7UkaKfpL1RuN9s5h3HWtp_8K17nLTJfPR3L3swxmHtuiJtAuKU4LXjUAO27L8vnsWBN.OP_ruRN7F5ncOxEkDaC6S8SzXaVaKiILwI94zeezTDHzxrSM0fMHH8EZ5n1641cEXd1QOgaFB-WSdukNEx97Fw

Hello Erik,

There is a wealth of experience in building cross-sectoral linkages facilitated by the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP). NISP was initiated in the UK in the early 2000s and has been rolled out around the world ever since by International Synergies. Find our more here http://www.nispnetwork.com/

NISP has been studied extensively by people such as Paul D. Jensen. I have also published a few papers on the subject of building cross-sectoral networks, whether facilitated or "self-organised". In my view, identifying possible resource linkages across sectors through network facilitation is fairly easy, but realising and maintaining them is another matter.

UK government support for NISP has largely ceased since 2012. However, with the recent introduction of the Resources and Waste Strategy the subject of facilitating circular economy is back on the public agenda, find out more here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england/resources-and-waste-strategy-at-a-glance. The idea, which is under investigation, is to facilitate circular economy through local resource efficiency clusters. It's a (re-)start but more facilatitive efforts will be required to realise the benefits of the significant proportion of potential longer-range exchanges of secondary resources as well.

Getting support for cross-sectoral approaches within government can be challenging because strategies and policies have a tendency to be sector-focused. One solution put forward is the restructuring of industrial classifications to include "circular economy sectors" such as reuse, repair and remanufacturing that span other sectors. Following that, one could develop strategies for circular economy strategies. It's a lot of work and surely requires more thought..

Kind regards,

Anne

So the circular economy should touch on basically all industry sectors - it would be an extensive exercise to undertake an examination of how practices need to change and the use / adoption of new technology, not only to reduce waste during a production stream but what and how waste is re-used for new commodities, across all sectors.