We have a waste problem.

世界抛弃了300 milliontons of plastic in 2019, nearly equivalent to the weight of the human population. Scientists expect there could bemore plasticthan fish in the ocean by 2050. One year's electronic waste weighs in at more than5000万吨。尽管太多的人仍然饿了,但我们浪费了三分之一在所有生产的食物中。

总共不仅仅是1000亿每年,大量资源流入经济,而60%以上的资源作为废物或温室气体排放。

While COVID-19 made a显着的凹痕在全球消费中,这不是清晰的图片。服装销售暴跌,但购买设备和锻炼设备的购买量增加了;酒店业的支出下降了,但杂货增加了。指某东西的用途一次性塑料大幅度增加,同时下降石油价格减少了塑料回收的经济动机。

2008年的经济衰退向我们表明,如果没有共同努力进行长期更改,那么任何消费的跌倒都可能是暂时的。

这不仅是消费者购买过多,而且回收太少。我们的全球经济建立在一种“消除垃圾”模型的基础上,在该模型中,自然资源被提取,使用并最终作为废物。这种效率低下的模型将我们的星球推向边缘,推动气候危机,并耗尽我们将来支持更公平和蓬勃发展的社区所需的资源。必威官网是真的吗

Benefits of Building a Circular Economy

我们需要改变思考和建立循环经济的方式 - 首先设计废物和污染;产品和材料停留更长的时间;天然系统可以再生。

朝着循环经济发展将为保护环境和缓解气候危机做出至关重要的贡献。必威官网是真的吗为五个关键部门(水泥,铝,钢,塑料和食物)创造循环经济,可以通过37亿tons in 2050, equivalent to eliminating current emissions from all forms of transport.

这不仅是一个环境问题。通过设计系统以避免浪费并将材料保留更长的时间,可以更好地利用社会和经济意义。考虑有100次的事实更多黄金在一吨废弃的手机中,比大量的金矿石中的手机。如果我们仅通过a quarter,我们可以喂8.7亿饥饿的人。

研究表明,创造循环经济提供了4.5万亿美元economic opportunity by avoiding waste, while also creating business growth and employment opportunities. The goal is to break the link between economic growth and the use of natural resources so that our global economic wellbeing is not tied to environmental destruction.

向循环经济过渡的3种方法

有三种方法可以解决我们的消费率:

1. Consume Less

循环经济重点是更好地利用自然资源,而简单的事实是,我们许多人的消费太多了。在20世纪,世界对原材料的使用增长速率两倍人口增长。在最富有国家的人们消费的世界中10倍尽管最贫穷,但我们许多人都需要减少消费,而其他许多人则需要更多地消费。

For companies, consumption issue is often the“董事会里的大象”,”as the fundamental principle of most business models is selling more products to more people. Disrupting that mentality will require business innovation, policy support and consumer demand.

在富裕国家以及不断增长的全球中产阶级,行为改变运动和政策激励措施在正确方向上推动行为,例如快速时尚, plastics and food waste.

切割一次性塑料袋的使用是一个普遍的重点,127个国家引入了某种形式的禁令或税收以规范其使用。最强大的政策之一是肯尼亚,where 80% of the population stopped using single-use plastic bags after the government introduced a ban in 2017.

2.更好地消费

A circular economy is not only about consuming less; it's also about consuming better. For consumers, this can mean choosing versions of products that have been produced in more sustainable ways or that can be recycled. It can also mean changing what we consume — for example by shifting to aplant-based diet,提供排放量和其他自然资源优惠,比肉类重餐。

消费者对可持续性的意识在全球范围内正在上升,随着大多数消费者saying they expect brands to do what is right. Consumer pressure is a crucial part of the picture in encouraging businesses to change their practices and governments to introduce favorable policies.

食用“更好”也可能意味着避免完全购买并转移到诸如共享平台之类的循环模型。当您考虑到average car停放了95%的时间,平均动力钻is used for less than 15 minutes in its entire lifetime, it's easy to see the potential for sharing platforms to cut down the use of materials.

Streaming services are another example of consuming better without necessarily making sacrifices. The last decade has seen a welcome decrease in the production and consumption of physical CDs and DVDs. This behavioral shift hasn't even made a dent on our way of life — we simply consume our entertainment in a better, more sustainable way.

向更好消费的转变为创新公司提供了巨大的机会,可以适应新的商业模式。

3.创建系统性更改

Consumers can only do so much when the entire economy is built on the take-make-waste model. What we need is systemic change, so that sustainability doesn't only depend on consumer choices.

循环经济的核心原则是,应该设计产品的零件或材料可以再次使用。

There is a clear economic case for this model for large machines such as photocopiers, MRI scanners or agricultural equipment. These machines have high upfront costs and are made from very valuable materials, somany companies成功地使用圆形模型将产品取回并翻新或重新利用材料。关键将扩展该模型并将其扩展到更广泛的面向消费者产品。

There is much to be done on the policy side to incentivize circularity at the systems level. There must be a major shift to incentivize or require the use of secondary or recycled materials, for example by placing taxes on products that use only virgin materials. The UK has taken a step in this direction by introducing atax on plastic packaging它的再生内容不到30%。

There must also be a major investment in infrastructure so that recycling can be expanded or even compulsory. One success story comes from the大韩民国, where introducing a compulsory food waste recycling program and a ban on food waste in landfills led to an impressive 95% of waste being recycled into compost, animal feed, biogas or solid fuel. The proposedEuropean Green Dealsets out many similar policies, including a循环行动计划

As more and more governments introduce policies that encourage recycling and reuse, and as consumer awareness around sustainability continues to grow, companies that adopt circular business models will find themselves at a clear business advantage.

Circularity Will Mean a Better Economy for All of Us

转向循环经济并不容易。但是,奖励 - 一个人,自然和经济都可以蓬勃发展的世界将是值得的。我们所有人都需要聚集在一起 - 政府,政策制定者,公民社会和社区,以成为更好的消费者。