"Circular Economy is surely changing the concept of only re-cycling into Re-Thinking – Re-Designing – Re-Cycling."

Circular economy is a kind of concept that made me wonder that in this world of innovations, why did somebody not think of this when we are trying for years to solve the problem of re-cycling waste to make the world a better place for our future generations. Operation management emphasises on effective production value with minimum and efficient use of resources that falls in line with the concept of circular economy. Circular economy can be simply explained as the concept of what goes around, comes around. It has been like this with the living world for thousands and thousands of years. We humans have been living the linear system that has been created by us for our benefits. We have believed it the process of take-make-dispose, where we always try to make something better than the previous one and throw away the old things without even thinking about the consequences.

Yes we are trying our best to improve the environment in our own possible ways, but our best has never been good enough. I think it is high time we recognise this and act proactively. In this world of finite resources where toxic wastes are released in tons and tons of proportions every day, why not try to change the way we use things daily. Just to be specific, in UK itself one million-tonne mountain of coal is used every day for various industrial purposes. At this rate it is sure that the day is not far when these finite resources will come to an end and so will mankind. Circular economy does not aim at reducing the consumption of the produced goods but instead reducing the consumption of the resources used to produce those goods or in other words increasing the use of renewable energy resources. It’s like instead of buying a new phone every time why not build phones with renewable parts that can be used again to build a new phone. Another example for better circular economy is instead of buying a new home appliance such as the washing machine or refrigerator every time it gets damaged why not use these appliances on a contract basis from the manufacturer.

Still in its developing stage Circular Economy has a long way to go but it sure is changing the way the world thinks about its environment, with effects seen on many companies across China and Holland. In the UK, The Ellen McArthur Foundation has taken a strong initiative in making this project a success in partnership with many companies including BT, National Grid, Cisco, Renault and many more. Stephane Morel, Head of Life Cycle Analysis Programme at Renault says, they have already started the experiment of using re-usable materials in their present cars that can be used in future cars instead of just dumping them away. This change cannot be driven effectively with the initiative of a single company changing its single product but with the help of complete industrial community moving forward with the aim to use today’s goods as tomorrow’s resources. Circular Economy is surely changing the concept of only re-cycling into Re-Thinking – Re-Designing – Re-Cycling.