We’re Wasting the Wrong Stuff
Although the linear economic model of take-make-waste depends on resources that are scarce in order to produce products that are poorly designed, it also creates a pile of potentially valuable resources that instead go to waste.
It all comes at a big cost
Americans generate an average of 4.6 pounds of trash daily per person. Modern landfills have evolved into elaborate material-recovery facilities, where they sort through the waste stream and pull out valuable resources that were thrown away by mistake. Despite these advancements, the environmental and economic impact of landfills is immense.
We’re running out of room
According to a report by the Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Protocol (SWEEP), most of the more than 2,000 active landfills in the United States are nearing their capacity. The earth is expected to run out of landfill space by 2040. This looming environmental disaster will require people to start looking to landfills as a source of new materials.
Flip to Chapter 9 to read about some amazing ways people have been converting trash to treasure.
It’s expensive to throw things away
Waste is a luxury we can’t afford. It’s expensive to simply throw things away and replace them with new items all the time. Whether it’s a simple plastic water bottle or a complex new laptop, all waste comes with a hidden cost.
In the US construction industry, demolition and construction waste accounts for nearly 65 million tons a year, making up almost a quarter of all landfills. Contractors must pay to dump all that waste, but could instead make money by recycling it into new building materials.
In the US restaurant industry, about a third of the food is wasted. The US Department of Agriculture estimates the total annual cost of the wasted food at $1,866 per household. Those food scraps could feed the hungry, of course, but could also be made into a form of energy called biogas — a mixture of gases released when food decomposes.
The debt collector is knocking at the door
The total costs of producing this never-ending stream of waste are finally becoming clear. The climate crisis is causing stronger hurricanes, more intense heat waves, and faster wildfires, costing the federal government around $250 billion every year.
www.nrdc.org/), by 2100 the four big climate impacts — hurricanes, real estate losses, energy costs, and flooding — will cost 1.8 percent of US GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually.
Change Is Really Hard, We Know
Despite all these logical arguments around the need to rethink the linear economy, transforming your industry is still a scary proposition. Change is hard even when you know you have to change. So how do you begin to have a conversation about radically rethinking and changing the design of everything?
The answer is simple: Confirm that the results these changes will bring will be so attractive that you’ll want to do it immediately.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
One of the most common arguments against changing is that “it’s working perfectly fine now, so there's no need to change it.” But in reality, the linear system doesn’t work perfectly, given all the diminished resources, overflowing waste, and soaring environmental impacts resulting from it.
A great way to start the conversation around making change is to start to map out some of the assumptions of the linear economy and highlight how they’re not working.
Table 2-2 contrasts the linear economy with the circular one.
TABLE 2-2: Comparing Circular and Linear Economies
| Linear | Circular |
|---|---|
| Runs on fossil fuels | Runs on sunlight |
| Produces waste | Creates surplus resources |
| Pollutes the soil | Feeds the soil |
| Is efficient | Is effective |
| Make | Remake |
By recognizing that the linear economy is flawed at its core, you open up the possibility of embracing a circular alternative approach. By playing with these contrasting models, you start to see how the circular economic approach just makes so much more sense.
Taking risks
For most companies, the desire to switch from a linear economy to a circular one isn’t so much about saving the planet. Ultimately, every company is a business, and a business must be economically successful and profitable. So, in order to entice companies to take a risk and transform how they do business, they need to know that, by going circular, they increase their profits.
To quote architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983):
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
Companies generally see four types of value in switching from linear to circular. These benefits will encourage them to change their business models:
Sourcing: These are the direct financial gains that come from switching to a closed-loop system — where materials are looped back to be recovered or reused — including savings from reducing risk, reducing waste, and using less commoditized materials.
Environmental: These are the gains to your brand from sharing your sustainable approach with your customers.
Customer: These gains come from the product