If you need motivation to skip the straw at lunch today, consider this: Scientists found that evenArctic sea ice- 从大多数主要的大都市地区取出的far - 不再没有塑料。根据英国南极调查的杰里米·威尔金森（Jeremy Wilkinson）博士的说法，“这表明微塑料现在在世界海洋的地表水域内无处不在。

Humanity has a waste problem. Globally, we generate about13亿吨每年的垃圾，远远超过我们正确处理或回收的要多。这导致环境悲剧，例如海洋塑料污染和地缘政治紧张局势，作为西方国家search为了藏有垃圾的新地方。

因为我们浪费了太多，所以我们必须提取不可持续的自然资源，以跟上日益增长的消费。经合组织已经计算出通过采集，运输，处理，制造，使用和处置通过的材料流量已大约负责50 percentof greenhouse gas emissions. The UN International Resources Panel projects the use of natural resources tomore than double by 2050。

How did we get here? In short, most of our global economy is designed for linearity—take, make, waste—rather than circularity. To create a truly circular economy, the world must overcome the following five barriers:

1.满足消费者的方便期望。

想象一下，没有产生任何垃圾，过着自己的生活。你会怎么做？Bea Johnson，作者Zero Waste Home，每天都在教练如何生活无垃圾的生活通过将亚麻袋带到杂货店的习惯，并从散装垃圾箱中购买米饭，豆类和其他主食。她模型的生活方式是典型的，在一次性，一次性的塑料产品和包装成为常态之前，今天我们使用了20 times像我们50年前一样多的塑料。我们可以期望消费者改变他们的操作方式和购买的产品类型吗？他们会放弃诸如塑料瓶和袋子之类的常见便利吗？

这些消费者的选择很重要，但问题的大部分在于业务和监管环境，使我们的经济运转。这使我进入接下来的四分……

2. Government regulations can create waste.

有时，法律和法规无意中激励公司和消费者之间的浪费行为。这是食品和饮料部门的常见问题。例如，法律经常要求到期日期标签来保护消费者，但可能不会说明食物的存储方式的差异 - 因此，日期标签eggs in Europe可以标记用于储藏室的储藏室，但冷藏时会持续更长的时间。到期日期也经常被误解，以意味着食物不再可食用，而实际上它仍然可以安全食用，但可能无法符合制造商的质量标准。（好消息：a consortium of companieshave agreed to fix this.)

3.许多地方缺乏适当的废物基础设施。

Nearlyone-third of plasticsare not collected by a waste management system and end up as litter in the world's lands, rivers and oceans. There could be more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050, shows一项研究。对于缺乏强大废物管理基础设施的发展中国家，这个问题尤其严重。More than half塑料垃圾来自中国，印度尼西亚，菲律宾，泰国和越南，因此改善这些国家的废物管理和回收系统可能会在使塑料远离我们的自然空间方面产生很大的不同。

Plastics pose a particularly tough challenge. (Flickr/Plastic Pollution Coalition)
Plastics pose a particularly tough challenge. (Flickr/Plastic Pollution Coalition)

4.回收技术还不够好。

大多数被回收的塑料都被切碎并重新处理成低价值的应用，例如聚酯地毯纤维；only 2百分比被回收为相同或相似质量的产品。这在很大程度上是由于如何通过化学成分对塑料排序并清洁添加剂的局限性。我们需要更好的回收技术，以保持质量和纯度，以便产品制造商愿意使用再生塑料。一旦大规模部署了这项技术，我们就可以开始重新夺回塑料的经济价值，从而激励它们的恢复和回收利用。

5. We use the wrong business models.

到2050年，这个世界的正轨将超过95亿人，贫困人口少于今天。得益于中国，巴西和印度等发展中国家的迅速工业化，全球中产阶级正在爆炸，这意味着更多的人想购买更多东西。

This is a human development victory, but a grave threat to our environment unless the businesses that produce and sell goods can reinvent how they do so. For example, clothing companies can lessen their environmental impacts by using non-toxic dyes and recycling cloth scraps. But to clothe the booming middle class within planetary boundaries, they will need to upend the current"fast fashion" business modelin favor of alternative models such as rental and resale. For example, Rent the Runway allows consumers to rent designer clothing for a fraction of the retail price. This service is great for consumers, and it benefits the planet because an item of clothing is used more than if it were sold to single buyer.

公司还应设计圆形产品的产品。例如，如果锂离子电池制造商使用类似的化学品混合物设计了产品，则可以进行更多的回收利用，因为回收商可以标准化其工艺。

How Do We Overcome the Barriers? Partnerships Are Key

The barriers listed here prevent companies, governments and consumers from solving our trash problem and making better use of natural resources. Each of these barriers must be overcome, but we cannot rely exclusively on companies, governments or consumers to do it all.

我们需要创新的公私伙伴关系，例如平台寻求的伙伴关系P4G和PACE。Companies, investors, governments and civil society each offer unique financial, intellectual and operational assets that can be strategically deployed to solve big problems they couldn't solve alone. For example,世界银行发现that private-public partnerships to build water infrastructure in Africa were most effective when financed by a mix of private and public sources, since public funding reduced risk to private investors and private investors' return requirements improved efficiency and prevented cost overruns.

We need government policies that provide essential protections while fostering innovation and risk taking by the private sector to advance circular solutions. We also need to ensure that the most vulnerable in society have a strong voice in designing solutions so that their concerns for jobs and health are assured. This is an "all-hands-on-deck" moment in history—and early movers are likely to capture significant市场机会。The coalitions are forming. If you run a major company, investment vehicle or government agency, you should be securing your seat.