Five ways a circular economy can work for the poor –

Designer Richard Hutten will speak about design and the circular economy at Dezeen Day in London on 30 October.
The Dutch designer, who is an advocate of the circular economy, will discuss projects including the commission to replace all 27,000 seats at Schiphol Airport with new chairs designed according to circular principles.

From takeout food to online shopping, more people are leveraging the safety and convenience of ordering online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As unprecedented as this moment in time is, consumers’ shifting purchasing habits have a silver lining—people are paying more attention to the sustainability of product packaging. While the pandemic has compounded an environmental crisis, consumers are paying attention to issues of sustainability in a different way and prioritizing the need for greater packaging sustainability. As we navigate this “new normal,” our awareness of just how much we are consuming has sharpened our focus on the need to advance toward a circular economy for a more sustainable world.

Refining crude oil for industrial use relies on separation processes like centrifuging and distillation to remove impurities and separate small and large hydrocarbons for use in different applications. In order to turn used oil into desirable products, plants can use similar approaches to those applied to crude oil to remove unwanted particles and sort degraded hydrocarbons from usable ones. There are two broad approaches to motor oil recycling: re-refining and chemical recycling. Re-refining aims to extend the fluid’s utility for another generation and avoid releasing it as a pollutant into the environment, while chemical recycling starts with breaking down the hydrocarbons that gave the former oil its unique properties in order to create feedstock for a wide variety of new products. Both approaches start with removing contaminants like dirt and metal particles from the fluid.

I was born in the year 2000. Thus, for my entire life, human-caused climate change has been an ever-present, intensifying threat. Throughout my early education, I learned that we all just needed to “do our part” to combat climate change. “Do your part” lessons always culminated in the sentiment that you too could save the cute polar bears by following the motto “reduce, reuse, recycle,” and these were words I took to heart. As an introduction to sustainable practices, this formula isn’t entirely false, but as a greater climate crisis looms on the horizon, we need to rethink our blind faith in this three-step model, particularly recycling. The current practice of recycling (and the industry at large) reflects the flaws of contemporary climate strategy. Assessing the failures of the recycling process can guide us in the direction of a truly sustainable future.