It doesn’t take an expert to understand that our current system of mass producing goods that are destined to end up in landfills within mere months or years isn’t sustainable – but what would the alternative look like?
In 2020, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government issued a policy statement outlining the UK’s commitment to establishing a more circular economy within the country.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a circular economy is a system in which products are designed to be reused or repurposed in order to eliminate waste. This involves moving away from the traditional linear economy model, which uses raw materials to create new products that are designed to eventually be discarded.
According to the UN, solid waste is responsible for roughly five percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Poor waste management can lead to contaminated water and air and soil pollution, which has devastating effects on human health.
Economists Walter Stahel and Genevieve Reday came up with the idea of the circular economy in the 1970s. They argued would prevent waste and save resources while simultaneously creating jobs.
In a circular economy, the goal is not to find better ways to dispose of waste, but rather to remove the need to discard items at all.
That’s why, unlike environmental campaigns of decades past, the circular economy model does not place an emphasis on designing recyclable products; in fact, the aim, whenever possible, is to actually avoid recycling and instead opt for products that are durable and easily fixable, thus ensuring they can be used many times over. As Sustainable Brands points out, recycling “will be a last resort in a truly circular economy” – one in which people purchase only what they’ll actually use and reutilize, repair or repurpose items wherever possible.
As we noted in our recent blog post on our compostable bottles, even 100% recyclable items rarely make it to recycling centres in the UK. Even glass – supposedly an eco-friendly alternative to plastic – ends up in landfills half of the time.
While the burden of implementing a more circular economy rests largely on governments and corporations, it also relies on the willingness of consumers to make well-informed purchasing decisions and avoid over-consumption, especially of new items.
Thankfully, many companies have already joined the fight by making it easier for consumers to support a circular economy. Here at Meetini, for example, we sell all of our mixed cocktails in resuable glass bottles, for which we offer endless refills. For our new line of spirits, we’ve opted for innovative 98% biodegradable paper bottles by Paper Water Bottle, with the ultimate goal of 100% backyard compostability on the horizon.
Implementing a fully circular economy in a country so used to the linear economy model is a huge undetaking, but with the government and sustainability-focused companies and consumers driving lasting change, that future may not be as far away as we think.