Increasing lifetime of products and materials is not enough for society.
Thanks!
It´s start ... but even in a circular economy, the materials will be occupeid by the companies products (and production capital). To secure the control of material availability, the materials cannot be owned by companies, but must be governed by society in a democratic order. Maybe the states should run a material bank, that lease out the materials to companies?!
Dear Marcus Wendin,
In my opinion, ensuring the availability of raw materials in a circular economy is a process spread over time per min. several stages. The first stage is a situation in which not all originally obtained from the environment of animate and inanimate nature (e.g. fossil raw materials extracted from the earth's crust) are fully renewable, not all are recycled, etc. However, in the last stage of the pro-ecological transformation of the traditional brown economy into a sustainable green economy / circular economy all raw materials used in economic processes should be fully renewable and should be fully climate neutral of civilization, i.e. the economy should not emit surplus greenhouse gases and toxic, non-biodegradable waste into the atmosphere. A significant part of the raw materials currently used in classic energy based on the combustion of fossil fuels and raw materials used in various industries is a derivative of coal, crude oil, natural gas and metal ores. In an economy operating under the circular economy formula, a significant part of raw materials derived from such minerals as crude oil, natural gas and coal should be replaced by organic raw materials derived from cultivated crops. A significant part of arable crops should be used instead of feed for livestock (3/4 of the area of farmlands globally), it should be a source of organic raw materials for the needs of various industries, e.g. to create biodegradable substitutes for plastic currently used in the production of various types of packaging. However, in the field of raw materials from the metal group, it is necessary to improve the techniques and logistics of waste segregation and recycling processes. I described this issue in more detail in my publication (on the subject: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT AS A KEY ELEMENT OF THE PRO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMY TOWARDS GREEN ECONOMY on the CIRCULAR ECONOMY portal), which I posted in August 2020 on the Research Gate portal. I invite you to research cooperation on this important and future-oriented problem.
Regards,
Happy New Year 2021
Dariusz Prokopowicz