Is the circular economy just hype?

The answer to the question “Is the Circular Economy just hype?” is definitely not.

But, and this is an important ‘but’, it all depends on our collective political will to move in that direction: on a national level, a European level and even on a global level.

Returning as I have just done from the first Informal Environment Ministerial Meeting under the Italian EU Presidency in Milan, I was able to further reinforce my long held view that green growth, rather than being a challenge to the existing labour market, is an opportunity for new jobs as well as for a modal shift and a transition in the way in which we think, plan and act.

While the economic crisis that Europe went through almost crippled a number of countries, it also pushed forward an urgent need for a re-thinking of economic policies, spurring many recovery plans adopted nationally in many countries to go for measures that enabled and facilitated more sustainable economic growth through the inclusion of various robust green initiatives.

Nevertheless we need to continue stepping up our efforts to ensure further mainstreaming of such new thinking into our economic policy coordination and planning.

If well thought out higher recycling targets in themselves can prove to be ideal instruments to drive the transition to a Circular Economy by way of new jobs and sustainable growth.

In doing so we, and by we I mean Europe in general too, can render ourselves more competitive by reducing demand for costly scarce resources.

The move to a more circular economy has been triggered by the fact that as things stand they might be too linear.

To facilitate a deeper understanding of what one could have in mind the solution is simple. Instead of extracting raw materials, using them once and throwing them away, the new vision is for a completely different economic model.

In a circular economy, re-use, repair and recycling become the norm.

Consequently waste itself can easily become a thing of the past.

If we manage to keep materials in productive use for a longer period, actually re-using them, and apply more efficient approaches to the ways in which we do so, it would also help Europe itself improve its competitiveness on the global stage.

The development and promotion of a circular economy will not happen overnight.

The EU itself has long admitted that the policy framework for promoting it will need to be further developed over the coming years.

Three major directives will definitely have to come into play at some particular stage.

Mainly, the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive, and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

It is all down to a more integrated approach across various policy areas and levels.

As a point of departure we must accept a priori one important fact and realization: that business as usual is not an option as well as that the growth path that many countries are following is not the right one even for Europe itself in the 21st century.

One important milestone of the past was when Europe was bold enough to admit and realise that we simply had to make our objective that of decoupling growth from resource use and its impacts.

If we continue as some do both overseas and locally to look upon the environment as a constraint on growth then we might as well forget all these objectives and ideals.

We must realise that in the final analysis various issues can often make sense from both an economic and environmental point of view concurrently in a complementary manner.

Although this is definitely not the case in Malta, certain European countries might as well forget the mere notion that one can become more competitive by merely lowering wages and or social standards.

The only way one can avoid such a pitfall is by improving the productivity of both labour and resources to increase the value added throughout the process itself.

The moment our industries start producing products using less raw materials, less energy and less water they will have already made an important quantum leap.

Without realising it they will also be on track towards strengthening their own future industrial competitiveness.

The moment we manage to link our waste policies to our resource efficiency objectives we will be actually promoting the circular economy within our own shores and even beyond.

Although I obviously have no commercial interest or stake in the sector, one of the very first things that I realised when I started shadowing waste in 2008 was that the business case for using it judiciously has long existed. Particularly since there is gold in waste… often literally.

Why? Because as someone worked it out recently, it takes a ton of ore to get one gram of gold.

But at the same time you can also get the same amount from recycling the materials in 41 mobile phones!

We will have really succeeded in our transformation and shift towards a circular economy the moment we start realising that by retaining the resources within the economy when a product has reached the end of its life, they can still remain in productive use and create further value.

For some it might be a hard task to address. For others even to understand.

But once this modal shift begins to happen then we can start claiming that we are indeed moving towards a circular economy… in a manner that goes way beyond hype.

Leo Brincat is Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change