What is circularity?
What does it mean for the region?
A circular economy is one in which a corporate, city or region keeps resources in use for as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of their life. All materials are kept in a ‘close loop’ right along the value chain all the way to consumption.
It is a more efficient and environmentally sound alternative to the traditional linear economic model in which we make, use and dispose of resources. Circularity works at every level of the economy, micro, meso and macro.
How it would be applied in the Australian context
In 2014 the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimated that the global material cost savings of adopting a more restorative circular economy could be over US$1 trillion per year by 2025.
In a report commissioned by the CSIRO, KPMG estimates that the transition to a circular economy across food and agriculture, transport and the built environment could give Australia a $23 billion GDP boost by 2025.
KPMG estimates that the benefits of a circular economy across these three sectors will likely rise to a present value of $210 billion in GDP with the potential to create an additional 17,000 full-time jobs by 2047-48.
In addition, the transition to a circular economy provides the opportunity to:
- generate a new and sustainable competitor advantage at both country/regional level
- stimulates innovation in production processes
- facilitate increased digitisatio
- fosters supply chain collaboration, and
- spawn new circular revenue models.
A multi-stakeholder regionally networked platform with the technology and methodology to accelerate circularity
To bring circularity alive, Bega requires a regional, community anchored Circularity Hub, spearheaded by systems entrepreneurs, which can combine their experience, skills and contacts to connect the stakeholders collaboratively scaling impact, gather dynamic data and resource matchmaking and enabling local value creation and jobs.
- Providing access to tools, workshops, and educational resources to better understand and implement circular solutions
- Supporting a holistic view of the Circular Economy with additional focus on the smallest loops: Reduce and Reuse supporting Value Retention Processes
- Implementing the technology for increased impact by enabling networked regional cross-sector secondary-material and product-as-a-service marketplaces
- Providing added value by fostering a multi-stakeholder network
- Aggregating data in an open searchable dynamic database enabling businesses to identify relevant circularity opportunities and partners for innovation, reduce costs, accelerate time to market, increase differentiation in the market, as well as support alternative revenue streams and reduced expenditures via new value chains
A circular economy is about more than just recycling
- Using resources more efficiently by changing the way we think about products and production processes. Is the product the best way to meet the demand? Could we use fewer or different resources in its production?
- Design differently; for example, by considering reuse, repair and recycling options in advance of production
- Product reuse for same purpose
- Product repair, maintenance and revision
- Processing and reuse of materials
- Recover energy from materials
- Lastly, waste disposal and incineration without energy recovery is avoided where possible
To read about some exciting case studies Click Here