Week 4: Circular economy : Lecture

Question 1

What is the primary issue with a linear production system?

Answer 1

1. generates significant waste at every step of the value chain +
   **2. Rely on finite raw materials **

—> leading to unsustainable environmental and economic consequences.

Question 2

How much municipal waste is recycled in Europe?

Answer 2

Close to 50% of municipal waste is recycled, with the rest incinerated or sent to landfills.

Question 3

What are the challenges associated with exporting plastic waste from Europe? (only allowed if promised to be recycled)

Answer 3

• Results in mismanagement (not recycled) as recipient countries like Turkey may lack the facilities to recycle the waste properly, leading to incineration and environmental damage.

Question 4

What is the “critical raw material” list in Europe?

Answer 4

A list of 34 materials essential for the European economy, highlighting those with high supply risks due to dependence on specific countries for extraction and processing.

This is relevant because it shows how our resources are finite, and we need to find ways in order to make better use of them

Question 5

Why can’t recycling alone achieve a circular economy?

Answer 5

• technical barriers (e.g., composite materials can’t be recycled)
• contamination
• and inefficiency (impossible to recover all extracted materials)

Question 6

What is an example of extending the lifetime of products?

Answer 6

Companies like Apple have developed tools such as “Liam” to dismantle products and recover materials; however, critiques highlight the preference for repair over dismantling.

Question 7

What is “circular design” in the context of a circular economy?

Answer 7

Circular design involves creating products that are easy to:
- recycle
- repair, and reuse, such as designing smartphones with modular components and recyclable materials.

Question 8

What are the components of a circular ecosystem?

Answer 8

A circular ecosystem require:
- circular products
- circular business models (e.g., leasing or take-back systems),
- -circular policiessupportive policies (e.g., extended producer responsibility, or laws prohibiting planned obsolesence.).

Question 9

What is the “circular hierarchy” framework?

Answer 9

A guideline that prioritizes
1. prevention
2. reuse
3. repair over recycling and recovery to minimize waste and resource use.

> however, Brusselars warns that such a classification might be too simple, for example glass is incredibly easy to recycle, easier to recylle that to repair even.

Question 10

What behavioral and systemic challenges possibly hinder the circular economy?

Answer 10

-Rebound effect (increased consumption due to efficiency)
-Technical barriers (also cyclical systems produce waste)
-Path dependancy (reliance on existing systems)
-the need for significant behavioral changes and inter-organizational cooperation (comapanies not always willing to exchange information with eachother.)

Question 11

According to Jouni Korhonen et al., which country pioneered the circular economy (CE) legislation and when?

Answer 11

China, in 2008, became the first country to adopt a law for the circular economy.

Question 12

How does Jouni Korhonen et al. define the circular economy in their paper?

Answer 12

A societal production-consumption system that maximizes service from **the linear flow of materials **and energy between nature and society, achieved through cyclical material flows, renewable energy sources, and cascading energy flows.

A system that maximes the linear flow of materials and energy between nature and society through cyclical material flows. renewable energy sources and cascading energy flows

Question 13

What are the **environmental objectives **of the circular economy according to Jouni Korhonen et al.?

Answer 13

To reduce
- virgin material inputs
- energy inputs
- waste outputs, and emissions outputs
by applying material cycles and using renewables-based energy cascades.

Question 14

What challenges do Korhonen et al. identify regarding the thermodynamic limits of the circular economy?

Answer 14

Complete recycling is impossible due to the second law of thermodynamics (entropy), as recycling requires energy and cannot be entirely efficient.

Question 15

What is the “Cradle-to-Cradle” concept as discussed by Jouni Korhonen et al.?

Answer 15

A way of designing products so that their materials and components can be repurposed or recycled indefinitely, creating a closed-loop system.

Question 16

What social objectives of the circular economy are highlighted by Korhonen et al.?

Answer 16

• Promoting sharing economy practices,
• Increasing employment, and
• Encouraging participative democratic decision-making

Question 17

What are the spatial and temporal limits of the circular economy identified in the article?

Answer 17

Spatial limits: shifting problems along the product lifecycle or product value chain. For example extracting minerals causing pollution, for the production of renewable energies.
Temporal limits: using non-renewable resources in the short term to build long-term renewable infrastructure

Question 18

How does Korhonen et al. critique the governance and management of the circular economy?

Answer 18

• existing structures are not designed for collaborative approaches
• > causes difficulties in managing inter-organizational and inter-sectoral resource flows