Circular economy and sustainable society
>> Sunday, November 6, 2016
Ike Señeres
According to Wikipedia, circular
economy is a “generic term for an industrial
economy that promotes greater resource
productivity aiming to reduce waste and avoid pollution by design or intention, and in which material flows are of two types: biological nutrients, designed to re-enter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients, which are designed
to circulate at high quality in the production system without entering the
biosphere as well as being restorative and regenerative by design.
This is contrast to a Linear
Economy which is a 'take, make, dispose' model
of production”. Simply put, it is a type of economy that more friendly to the
environment, because it does not pollute so much as it produces, and whatever
it produces is cleansed first before these are returned to the environment.
Also simply put, the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) aims to have a sustainable society that
in essence would also result in a sustainable planet. Unlike the previous
definitions of the UN however, the new meaning of sustainability now includes
other aspects of sustainability, and not just the environment itself. True
enough, the slogan of the UN says that the SDGs are the “17 Goals to Transform
the World”.
Looking at these goals, we could not help but
notice that one way or the other, most of the goals would have something to do
with the environment, directly or indirectly. For example, the first three
goals are “No Hunger”, “Zero Poverty” and “Good Health and Well-being”, three
separate goals that obviously could not be met not unless we could reverse the
damage of industrial waste to the environment.
History will show that public policies and
modern technologies do not always go together when it comes to the restoration
and the protection of the environment. Sometimes, there may be public policies
in place, but there may be no modern technologies that could be used to enforce
these policies.
At other times, there could be modern
technologies available but there may be no public policies that have been put
in place. In between these cracks, there could be other problems that could get
in the way, such as the lack of measures to curb corruption, and the lack of
political will. Serious as these problems might be, it seems that looking for
the practical solutions for these would be easier than looking for the
technological solutions.
As we talk about the political dimensions of
this subject matter, it would eventually become clear that the debates about
the enforcement of environment laws would boil down to the conflicts of
interests between big business and the small people. By the latter term, I
would actually mean the poor people who are not only the victims of
displacement due to the actions of illegal miners and illegal loggers; they are
also the victims of man-made and natural disasters that could be traced to
environmental damage.
At times it could be said that the lack of
enforcement could be blamed on corruption, if and when public officials would
look the other way because of bribes. Aside from corruption however, it could
also be the abusive use of power and influence by those who are in public office.
It is not all bad news however, because the
incumbent administration now seems to be diligent about curbing corruption and
about enforcing environment laws. Aside from that, there is the other good news
of more pro-environment forces that are learning how to use the social media as
their tools for online protests and public advocacies.
Perhaps what would come out as better news is
if these forces would wake up to the reality that all the manufacturers could
be pressured to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) thereby ensuring that
all the industrial wastes that they would produce should be cleansed first
before these are released back into the environment. In theory, it would seem
easier to cleanse industrial wastes before these are released, rather than to
clean up after these wastes are already released.
In reality, the circular economy if put into
place, is not just all about cleaning the environment. It is also about
producing clean energy and clean food.
That is so because more power could be produced
by converting waste into energy. That is also because more agricultural land
could be made available for food production as more polluted soils are
re-mediated in order to make these arable again. That logic would also apply to
fisheries, because more marine food could be produced as more bodies of water
are cleansed of contaminants. The same logic would also apply to forestry,
because more fruits and edible leaves could be harvested as more pollutants are
removed from the air.
As the circular economy becomes more
widespread, there would also be more value added produced, as more minerals and
metals are recovered in the process of cleansing the waters and soils around
us. We are often told that we could not clean the bays not unless we clean the
rivers, that we could not clean the lakes not unless we clean the lands and the
mountains that feed it. While that massive supply chain might seem too
impossible to cover, that is not really impossible to do now, because
technologies such as Super Critical Water (SCW) and enzymes are now available.
All told, all we need to do now is to enforce the already existing laws to make
the circular economy happen.
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