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Will circular economy work ?

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended.

In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum....
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/economy/20151201STO05603/circular-economy-definition-importance-and-benefits (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/economy/20151201STO05603/circular-economy-definition-importance-and-benefits)

I'm biased on this because if the wastage is to be lessened, then it's good but it will work or not will completely depend upon the quality of the products that are being shared or sold ahead. If the quality of refurbished products isn't good, just the way I mostly see bad reviews of people buying expensive smartphones whose costs are cut down due to them being sold as refurbished products but still people are not satisfied, then this economy will turn out to be a huge failure. But yeah, if we talk about recycling of products, it is possible that some products (for eg.;) like plastic bottles or even glass bottles are not thrown away but given back to these companies through a chain, then that would definitely work in benefits of people.

Face the Global warming issue, it looks that we have no choices but to use the cricular economy [as defined by op]. this would also help tackling biodiversity extinction and polution which are main consequences of the classic economic model.
I can't count how many materials that can be manaaged through recycling, composting, and so on, it's huge quantity for sure. But i know that to get along on our globe, we should stop wasting too much of th Earth natural systems and the circular economy seems to provide the best possible solution until we maybe will find better solutions evading the space and start exploiting other planets or any other celeste object the same way we used to use solar energy for instance .

This will work for certain products that can are good to be recycled and refurbished. Well, right now, we're experiencing this. I've been looking to buy some things online that I need for example a laptop. Those that I'm looking at as brand new are quite expensive and I saw a particular shop that tells that they have brand new but as I look at the price, they're extremely cheaper. So I ask them if they're selling a refurbished laptop and they said yes. I think this example shows also that those that have been doing it to their products must be honest to their customers.

I don't think it will fully work, because at some point, those reused and refurbished items will have its quality degraded badly that its safety, efficiency, and practicality will no longer be beneficial to the members of the economy. Circular economy is not really 100% achieved even in most ideal settings, and people will have to throw away things that have far exceeded their usability. Recycling and refurbishing things is always good, but there needs to be a complementary solution to the problem that we have in overproduction and excessive waste in our planet.

I think the systems implemented in a circular economy are very good because they can be an alternative to a linear economy because with this circular economy we can keep resources in use for as long as possible, extracting maximum value from them when they are used, then recovering and regenerating products and materials at a level end.
and with this system they are able to drive higher green growth than the “business as usual” scenario, by designing production systems that require less resources, ensuring that raw materials are extracted and used as efficiently and as long as possible.
but it might be a problem too because it uses a recycling system and of course when goods are used continuously from recycled goods that have been used automatically the quality of the goods will decrease little by little and this will be one of the obstacles also for the circular economy.

It should work and it's better for the society in overall. Imagine: Instead of paying high price in new, you buy old in cheap price and make a new one out of it. Imagine if you could upgrade old PC components via recycling them instead of buying new ones every time, this is the case here. It's not only good for the nature but it can be cost effective for the business, it can meet the high demand and increase the supply.
We will adopt the circular economy. As time goes, the things change and this is the new thing that will come up in near future :) I guess it's becoming popular in Western Europe?

I can imagine the circular economy having steep on-ramps and that'll be a problem with it.

The companies that make the best comments normally go out of business because they can't compete on price and they collapse before their quality gets noticed (most of the time).

Style 1: you buy a phone from a circular economy place for $2000 and buy parts every time one becomes faulty as well as sorting the diagnostics for those parts. In the current economy this will always be really expensive unless you're planning on using your phone for say 2 decades in which case it might work.

Style 2 (and this happens a lot with custom made machinery already): you buy the item and pay a subscription/insurance on it to get it fixed. This would also be quite a costly approach for the consumer unless they're already used to paying a contract in the item (this is already done with cars in some cases).

It cannot be sustainably maintained in ever industry, but it surely can work in many others and can be a good way of reducing waste while reducing the cost if production as the previous waste products would simply be recycled for use again.

It can also help the lower class members of the society as many people own products which could be useful to others, but have no way of reaching out to them, a functional circular economy can connect that bridge and make it much easier.

How can you achieve this circular economy? When people have a lot of money, their desire new and premium things instead of buying something old and used, even if its fully functional. If a government tried to regulate this and limit how much things people could buy, this would have negative consequences for the economy and would be met with serious protests.

Well, precisely because not everyone has a lot of money, and there are people who like to save. You can buy reconditioned things much cheaper. I do believe that it can have some success.

I support the recycling of materials like plastic to be increased.
Less garbage wasted and less environmental pollution.
I don't know about whether or not the concept of "circular economy" would work.
There should be an incentive for the companies and households to join this process.
If recycling lowers the quality of raw materials,then maybe new types of materials should be invented.
Materials that don't lose their quality,when they get recycled.There's room for innovation.

Ofcourse, that could minimize wastage but you have to be really humble and prudent to be able to reuse things in that manner. Lots of people don't really like used things probably for the wrong reasons. The only acceptable reason why you may need to avoid certain used things is safety issues. You would need to make sure that former owner didn't misuse a product in a way that it becomes harmful to you and others. So, you have to be sure it's clean/safe before use.


I actually like that kind of economy alot but it needs to be done the right way to avoid problems. Shared things will need strict rules to avoid misuse/abuse and to ensure that something is in proper shape before it's transfered to the next user.
I really like how a gentleman who deals on used vehicles treat them before resell. Probably a standard set by the country (I guess UK) he's from. Guess a vehicle has to pass certain safety checks before they can be sold in the country.

I also prefer things to be built for multiple purposes not just one or few purposes. That should help curtail the number of product a user has to buy to take care of important needs

For me, it will work. This is because from the Producer to the consumer there is a lot of stages embedded in this which actually be a good one for the economy in the long run eventually. Like we are thought in Economics then that the producer gets man labor from the consumer which in turn buys from the producer and all

It all comes down to "right to repair". Open source software vs proprietary closed source code. DMCA allowances for reverse engineering software and technology for credible purposes. The degree to which markets are centralized, consolidated and monopolized to influence quality control. And similar topics.

Its easy to say automobiles should be repairable by customers, for purely ideological reasons related to a "circular economy" (would sustainable economy or a right to repair economy be more suitable terms perhaps?). Until one realizes special OBDII computer hardware is often necessary to run diagnostics on modern cars and trucks. Without which, the average person could not interface with electronics to troubleshoot issues.

Farmers have recently had issues with tractors being difficult to repair. Modern manufacturers often place obstructions to their products being field maintainable or repairable.

If consumers support right to repair trends, they may need to do a better job being informed and voting with their wallets. Or negative trends could easily become normalized due to lack of resistance.

IMHO it cannot replace fully a non-circular economy. There is a law that says that "entropy can only grow on a closed system" - so it would never be perfectly circular in any case.  There is case to have an economy "as circular as possible", the problem being that, as of now, it is cheaper not to. Sustainability in general has to be incentivised artificially by, for example, introducing taxes and rights to the carbon emissions.

If you want to refurb, repair, etc... you would need to introduce heavier taxes for not doing it. The problem is that would depress the economy, which is something no govmnt. likes.

The circular economy isn't really "circular". Its part of the ESG jargon like sustainability, life-cycle management etc. All it aims for is to reduce wastage as much as possible and re-use materials in manufacturing process.

With all the recent push towards renewables, electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, a whole set of novel manufacturing practices will start. The planners and thinkers want it to start with the notion of minimum wastage and maximum re-use. Unlike the industrial revolution or the 20th century, the planet no longer has the luxury of being unexplored and virgin. We have consumed everything to the brink and have hurt ecosystems, flora-fauna, polar caps, permafrost etc. etc. We can no longer be cavalier with the way we produce and consume.

This concept of waste management in such a way that material are re-used is thus a necessary requirement for the industries of tomorrow. And yes, it can work. The question is whether corporations are willing to put the investments to enable such re-use and whether consumers are willing to temper their consumption habits accordingly.

I am not sure in what world I am? Isnt all these things are already happening? We do recycle, refurbish and do follow all the re-usable practices all the time since tech has gone far. I mean whether it simple waste or is it a iphone everything is reused these days. More and more economist and environmentalist are active as compared to the previous decade or so. They are very careful about the nature also. In the process most of the things are getting reused wherever possible.

Whether this is out of economical living or out of natures pride, things are as stated in the OP only. They are being re-invented for the newer usage. I think this is going on since long now and we might actually seeing the circular economy itself?

For me, it will possibly work, this could help minimize wastage. Maybe some other people won't use this for their own safety purposes. When using this, we must have to make sure that the former owner didn't misuse the product in a way that it will cause harm to you or else to others. Before using it, you must have to make sure that it was safe and it all clean. But, I guess not all are using this because they are afraid of their safety issues.

Çircular economy is effective until it gives the best out of the process. Right now almost every product is on the circular economy. This fails when the production cost goes high when made out of recycled process, whereas it have the same quality and costs less when produced out of the raw material.

The world suffering out of improper waste management. An example is the clothes manufacturing. Once after the minimal usage it is moved to African countries from Europe. Here the best is taken by the people and the rest were thrown directly as bundles. This makes a big garbage and serves as a big hazardous landfills.

https://i.imgur.com/IISBOCH.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/tQacgWq.jpeg
Source : Decolonising Fashion  (https://eco-age.com/resources/decolonising-fashion-dead-white-mans-clothes-ghana)

The circular economy is definitely going to work. It's not only sustainable but at the same time it's less pricey as well. But the whole idea 💡 is quite strange to some people and therefore they don't usually use it on a practical basis.

Well we did learn a couple of things in the Environmental class when we were kids :
Recycle
Reuse
Reduce
The three R's

But these things applies to a narrow range of products and it's essential to teach the general public and the people as well, the importance of them which would not only be beneficial for them but for the environment as well since we are right now at the borderline and we have to change the way we live or else the whole environment would be destroyed beyond repair.

It is quite a good idea as it is going to be helping to reduce the rate of waste products in our environments. I have seen some people already saying that it wouldn’t be a good idea in some cases, for example: refurbishing of products such as smart phone reduces their quality.

Well, in this case I think if a refurbished phone is refurbished by the same company that owns that product it would still be as good as new, take for example, an Apple iPhone that’s refurbished by Apple itself would be as good as new or at least close to that, than when it is refurbished by just some random company that’s not owned by Apple itself. So this circular economy really makes sense, and if it can be applied properly, it would be good.

When people see these kinds of things, they believe that it has to be done right now and it has to be done 100% and that should be the end of it. What people do not realize is that we could provide a lot more profit to people who recycle and repair and refurbish etc etc, and as people we could see stuff that are not brand new as still okay, then we will be doing fine.

We do not have to change it all, we could simply just do something like a bit more laws that support it, just paying more to people who recycle, paying more to people who pick up trash and put them in right places, all in all just promote this kind of behavior while also allowing brand new stuff as well, keep the world as it is on this part. Basically what I am trying to say is that, this could be an "option" and not forced and it would still be a lot better, it's proven that it would help the world for sure.

It definitely is possible and would work if everyone from the production up to the executive sector of things are responsible and willing enough to put in the extra effort of implementing such policies. I have seen structures and models that suppose circular economy would work but all of it included utter cooperation from each of the sector and would have little to no room for slacking off. Unfortunately this also means higher product cost but I would personally be willing to pay extra if such processes result into us securing a safer future for our children. These are just micro circular economies but nonetheless show that it will definitely work if everyone within the system of production and consumption cooperated. Japan is blessed enough to have traditions based on discipline and honor which made it easier for such policies other countries would think of as strict to be implemented with little to no issue or outcry from the public. Total Recycling is also an issue because only a very small percentage of our wastes gets recycled so unless we do something about that, it wouldn't work for the rest of the planet

I think there will be a chain of redistribution of what you don't want anymore for what the immediate need is, more as to say trade by barter. I know there are companies that deal on raw materials and that is just what they do. They employ workers and contract mini companies for their waste and they redistribute the waste to another company who are in need of it. Is a chain and I believe almost every waste is useful for something else. A by product for something will turn out a material for manufacturing other products.

In regards to paying people to pick up trash, I think you could do that in a way that does not encourage them to throw away trash in order to recieve more payments. I won't be surprised if those you pay to pick trash, secretly trash a clean place in order to get more payments. Maybe they should be rewarded more (not necessarily with money) if they are able to maintain the cleanliness or prevent people from littering the streets at all.

If everywhere remains clean and there is no job for them, they could litter the place themselves to continue to recieve rewards.
I'm not sure who deliberately and massively trash a place that was paid for to be cleaned. Sometimes I suspect it's those you paid to clean it up because one of them always comes by to ask that he gets the place cleaned up again. Or it could just be neighbors who are too stingy to pay for trash pickers, or just sadists

They should basically be paid sufficiently if they deserve to paid or if everything is done right.

Nowhere will be perfectly clean at all times, there are trash building constantly in the world at all times. Think of bottles that are used every day, we all drink stuff, not like if you clean all the garbage and all the bottles and cans then suddenly there is no more trash, we will keep on drinking stuff and there will be more bottles to clean, and that is literally just cans and bottles.

Think of all the plastic as well, do you think if you clean every single plastic trash right now, there won't be any new ones tomorrow? This is why there is no reason to trash places and get paid for it, plus the payment doesn't really worth trashing the places, it is only good if it is used and then trashed and then recovered. So all in all you could pay people to pick fast food trash, canned goods trash, bottles, can of soda and so forth all those type of stuff will be more and more everyday, so they could pick up that trash everyday and they will never have zero trash left.

It will work if government is serious about its implementation but if the products are being used again and again then company will not make profits so this will results into revenue loss for the government so they are not going to implement it completely. Already we are recycling lot of products but just for the sake of doing it not to save the environment as well as consumer satisfaction.

It better work, as it's probably our only hope. It also seems like the right thing to do because reusing and minimizing waste is definitely better than blind consumerism. Of course, not everything can be reused, and there are areas where it can be a health risk (reusable syringes are a health risk, reusable condoms are a bad idea, many medical things require single-use plastic for proper sterile conditions), but where possible, we should stick to reusing stuff and opting for long-lasting quality over cheaper but short-lasting products. People love the idea of recycling, but lately it's been discussed that this should be one of our last resorts because recycling is often difficult, and it shouldn't encourage people to use tons of 'recyclable' single-use stuff.
Speaking of cryptos, I think it's important to for miners to switch more and more to cleaner sources of energy and stop using coal if they can.

All said in just one instance. You know, as much as the rest of the world would always have a strong stand point and supportive behaviour with having products recycled, the resulting outcome must be of good quality too. On a scale of 1-10, it should be at least a 9 to a certain for it being good otherwise, it would be the same garbage all along and we might result to producing just the same waste we hope to avoid. What the is the point of recycling if it is bad? It doesn't doesn't much sense.

I am in agreement with this as, lack of resistance and alternatives is what creates monopoly and a monopolistic market isn't good for anyone. It puts consumers in a state where the will is hindered and the manufacturers exercise a direct control on what goes and don't which always doesn't help so much.

Not sure about using the recycling part, it'll go through many process and I don't think you'd be able to get 100% of the material back for your PC. I think something more like getting a discount is more possible. For example in my country there used to be "trade-in" for phones where you give the store your old phone when buying a new one and you get a discount.

I believe they'd base this on how much they'd earn selling the old phone to the recyclers but not sure since never availed of it. I don't think shops here do this now since several times I've had to buy a phone, no one gave me the offer. So all my old phones are in boxes.  ;D

on the other hand, it would be very good to see that civilization currently uses a lot of waste items which ultimately cannot be decomposed by nature which makes the world less good to live in because of various pollutions and wastes that exist in some places.
but on the other hand this will also be one of the difficult things, especially in recycling because we know goods that have been used automatically their durability and function will decrease and this is something that must be thought about properly what can be used and make the economy This circular is liked by many people.

when talking about TA, I think this is something that is only used as an aid, not a reference, because apart from that, all TA is just various formulas that are applied to convince us to speculate, as for the reality it can be right and it can be wrong.
I think you are quite good at doing something because by analyzing something based on the observations you see, but indeed the reality is that it is back again, speculation is 50-50 about this, it is the market that decides.

Consumerism and cycle is not really connected to each other. You could be doing blind consumerism and also pay a certain people to gather the dirt and then ... well ship it to space I suppose, I really do not know what is the healthy way to dispose of them or reuse them.

We had that in our nation for YEARS now, and it has been working amazingly, we pay peanuts, like literally less than one cent for each bottle you collect, BUT when people make it their business, they collect TONS and that turns out to be a great profit for them. Sure it is not clean business, sure you garbage dive to find those stuff, and yes we still have some garbage left, but at least stuff like plastic gets collected and we are cleaner than most nations.

We still allow factories to use their chimneys to destroy the world, so we are not great at every green thing, but the collection of bottles seems to be a thing we managed to do along with consumerism together.

They call it better nowadays which is "reconditioning". Or that is how it's only called in my area.
I don't like it because I became a victim of an item that was refurbished or reconditioned that didn't last long.
That is the problem with products that was recycled, you didn't know when it was bought or how much usage it experienced.
Let's say a graphics card that was mostly overclocked and the owner wants to re-sell it with just a clean and brand new physical look.
You on the other hand as a buyer would not know that history and will think it is a steal for the cheap price.
Problems will occur in the next month or 5-10 more.

In a circular economy resources are used in a cyclical manner this means that from now on mining will not continue or waste will not be generated. Emphasis will be placed on recycling and that will be made possible by producing products that can be easily removed we will no longer own any products in the circular economy a consumer will not pay for any lighting device.

This is the kind of economy that we had for thousands of years so I think it could work, all of this consumerism for consumerism's sake is relatively new if we are talking in historic terms, and even in the current culture there are many people that are like that and extract all what they can from the products and services they acquire, and personally I see it with good eyes as the resources we have are limited and at some point we will have to accept that possibly and be more responsible with our consumption.

It will work depending on how the product a country produces in large quantities from plastic and the things that can be recycled back and become an item that has marketability.
Usually these products have many sources of treatment equipment from factory waste and are collected again. However, some countries still export waste to various countries with the aim of taking it back after the waste material has been processed.

The circular economy method has succeeded in reducing littered waste. This kind of processing is quite effective.

You agree or not, we are going to have complete circular economy in near future because all the resources we are using right now might be diminishing in its supply hence we need to adapt renewable energy resources so that we could sustain among increasing demands in our daily life. I believe there should be more innovations are needed to make use of our wastes effectively so that we could sustain against demands. If everything could be recycled then we can easily get into circular economically but as of now we are having less technology for recycling and for green and renewable energy. So, we must need to wait for a while before getting into a complete circular economy.

Depends on the product really. If you get a couch that was used for 20 years, then get it refurbished and resell it, then it is not going to be as good as the old one, this much is known. However, if you get bottles and recycle them and create new bottles out of them then you are going to be fine.

So, circular economy can work on certain items and will be a failure on some other items. There is really nothing that will have a short cut for you. If you would like the world to turn into full on cycle then we are going to have a lot of business going down because they can't create new stuff that people will buy, and we will have a lot of second hand stuff that is used like new and break down very easily.

Consumerism is at a level where we are buying the same stuff with different names, to make people buy old stuff would be a big problem in this day and age. Sure Cuba is poor so that is why they are using old cars and all that cliche stuff to show why poverty means using circulate economy for some people, but seriously, what is the big difference between iphone 12 and iphone 13? We are getting the brand new one though aren't we? I mean not me or you personally, I use a phone that came out in 2014, so I have been doing fine, maybe I will get a new one eventually, but it will be a mid segment low price one once again and not the latest one.

However there are enough people that buy the brand new one as well, it is quite expensive and for some reason all over the world we get to see so many new iphone 13's get sold as soon as it comes out. Which is a proof that if you can't convince people to not buy the brand new one each time it comes out, then you can't make circular economy work neither.

I think the systems implemented in the circular economy are very good because they can be an alternative to the best economy because with this circular economy we can use human resources for as long as possible, extracting maximum value from them as they are used, and then recovering and recreating products and materials to the ultimate level. This will help the circular economy. become strong and it will grow well for our entire national economy, I am sure. However it has some problems to solve such as the products that come out are difficult to sell and it will be one of the biggest hurdles of the economy.

I agree, this is the future of the economy, while the world is full of resources we cannot continue with this rampant consumption, this does not means that we are going to need to limit ourselves when it comes to what we buy it just means that the products we will buy in the future will be of higher quality than the ones we have, also the economy follows the direction its main form of money follows, people want to use their fiat because they know they lose purchasing power if they do not, this creates the incentive to spend your money in low quality items, but with a currency like bitcoin the opposite will happen and businesses will have to offer products of better quality.

     Such idealism is greatly needed and appreciated but the only problem is that people will always look into quality. And obviously, it isn't easy to trust such products since eventually, they tend to degrade im quality. The only people who would be willing to take such risks are the people who badly need it and have no other choice (which us a good thing since it can help people in need while reducing waste) but the thing about this is that even with cheap prices, if it does not work well it will spread bad reviews and would make even the less fortunate hesitant to buy it and instead try harder to opt for brand new items regardless of price.

From my point of there, people and some different countries are doing the circular economy work and likely in some parts of the world in the country are still in its process and the other parts have a long way to go or in short, has not progressed in the living of life cycle.

It is the same with people who have different points of view in life. Different people have different perspectives and different ways of life as the way they see, the way they fo economy work or the life cycle.

Different brands are working with sustainability connected to economy work, brands that I like

Adidas
Nike
H&M
Uniqlo

While here is one of the many you can know are here on my research https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/02/24/11-fashion-companies-leading-the-way-in-sustainability/?sh=140be5d26dba Not the brands that I know are provided in the link but still from what I see let's say its a 50 50 work.
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This is one of the things I could share to prove that the circular economy is working and at its progress to change the world.

some of circular economy its work like an business with then have also and definition and benefits are done some of ecosystems businesses barriers ,, are all managed by circular economy....

I agree that we cannot convince most people for re-using all day to day things which is specifically true for the case of electronic goods; people love to use the latest versions for social status reasons. If we go this way then I guess we must need to first convince electronic good manufactured for creating more sustainable model which may last for at least 3 to 5 years which again will help people not to go for latest versions on yearly basis (in between manufactures must stop releasing yearly new versions). Overall, when most people agree and work for re-using then only circular economy will be possible.

I really think it's hard for a circular economy to work since most of the people nowadays are more on brand new and more on high technology gadgets that most manufacturers will have a new release every year. It could be very less likely to work particularly for those people who have enough money to buy such new things.

However, for poor people, circular economy does work all the time since poor people don't have any choices either. But honestly, if they will be given money to buy new things, they would not sustain on using old but reusable things. I guess everyone wish to have brand news all the time. And that circular economy will find it hard to work even for those who are less fortunate people.

They should also not end support for old tech like you see with certain software companies. The idea that everyone must "evolve" together to something new and leave the old behind is contributing to the problem.
You will be surprised what people can do with the old if you allow & encourage them to make it better and useful

I agree that it is difficult to do this now as the tendency is to always think that the latest gadget is the best simply because it is the latest, however at some point we are going to hit the limit of what we can do with the resources we have available and this means that a change in the consumption culture will need to happen, that does not mean buying a smartphone every 10 years or only having a pair of shoes, by just extending the time we use our current devices by a year or two it will greatly help to diminish our current consumption.

We need more details on how it is going to work on practice, because as far as I know the products we consume are already recyclable. Shoes, clothes, accessories, furniture... Everything can be reused if the correct procedure is used when dealing with the waste coming from our houses. The problem is that not every areas are organized and equipped to deal with the waste properly, so much of that isn't reused.

I'm not sure if this circular economy means that, but I have already seen some extremist people who only use old stuff to wear themselves and to furnish their houses. Once they get tired of something, they go to a secondhand shop and exchange their old goods for another old goods. If that is what you really mean by circular economy I think it's terrible, because this way people will live precariously and there won't be incentive for the development of new models and technologies that could improve our life quality on long run.

But I fully agree this issue should be addressed:
Planned obsolescence is a shame for companies and are actually a discreet scam practice.

It is going to be very difficult to address the problem of planned obsolescence, after all companies will always be able to diminish the quality of materials or the design to reduce the lifespan of a product and hide themselves behind that, also some products already include how much usage you can expect out of them so if a person buys an inferior product instead of one that will last longer they can always argue this was what the client wanted.