Circular economy

maintained, there is ‘consumption of capital’ and therefore no sustainability42 . Daly reiterates the need to ensure the ecosystem’s continuing ability to sustain the flow of materials and energy from natural sources through the entire human economy, then returning to nature as waste. In the context of ever-increasing anthropic pressure, linked to indiscriminate global production and consumption, the concept of circular economy responds to the concrete need for sustainable development.

Circular economy

The term Circular economy dates back to 1990, when it was used in a book by two British economists, David W. Pearce43 and R. Kerry Turner44, entitled Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment45. The two authors, basing their idea on reflections by the economist K. Boulding46, pointed out that the economy is not an open and linear system but a closed and circular one, as depicted in Figure 247 .

42 Daly H.E. 1996, Beyond growth: the economics of sustainable development, Beacon Press, Boston. 43 David W. Pearce OBE (1941 - 2005) Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics at University College London (UCL). He specialised in and was a pioneer of Environmental Economics. 44 R. Kerry Turner (1948) associate professor in the School of Environmental Sciences and former professor of environmental economics and management at the University of East Anglia, UK. 45 Pearce D. W., Turner R. K. 1989, Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, Johns Hopkins University Press. 46 Author of: The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (1956) and Conflict and Defense: A General Theory (1962). He is also the originator of general systems theory. 47 Andersen M.S. 2006, An introductory note on the environmental economics of the circular economy, «Sustainability Science», n. 2, p. 136.

R

ER RR

h>y h>y h<y

Positive amenity

P C U

r W

A

W<A W>A

Negative amenity

Where the following must be considered R Natural resources U Utility and welfare ER Exhaustible resources W Waste RR Renewable resources r Recycling h High speed of extraction A Ability to assimilate waste and exploitation Into the environment y Resource regeneration Flows of materials | energy capacity p Production Utility flows

Fig. 2 The circular economy. Source: Pearce and Turner, Chapter 2 of The circular economy

In 2002 William McDonough and Michael Braungart elaborated further on the theme in their volume entitled Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Here they introduced the ‘cradle to cradle’ concept (abbreviated C2C), an approach that aims at achieving a continuous cycle of use and reuse of materials, tending to eliminate the production of waste. With the support of the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency

(EPEA)48, the two authors designed and developed the Cradle to Cradle® certification: this can be employed to assess a single product in detail, taking into account the following parameters: • the materials used are healthy and safe for humans and the environment; • the product can be recycled at the end of its life; • the design of the product shall be such as to ensure its reuse in the normal process of natural biodegradation or the reuse of all components during the packaging recycling process; the production sites must be 100% non-polluting, using renewable energy to replace fossil one, and compensate 100% of the CO2 emissions; • the quality of the water used in the plants must be preserved and optimised at the end of the production process; • the company must be committed to environmental and social justice and to defending biodiversity49 . The linear ‘production-consumption-disposal’ model that has largely characterized the international economy until now must be transformed into a circular one, where upcycling and re-cycling play a key role and where what was ‘disposable’ is transformed into ‘use and reuse’50 .

48 The Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung) founded in 1987 by chemist Michael Braungart, is an international scientific research and consultancy institute that works with companies, political institutions and scientific institutes, supporting them in the introduction of circular processes. 49 McDonoug W., Braungart M. 2002, Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the way we make things, North Point Press, New York. 50 Cumo F., Pennacchia E. et. al. 2015, Uso, disuso, riuso. Criteri e modalità per il riuso dei rifiuti come materiale per l’edilizia, FrancoAngeli, Milano.