A good environment and more jobs will be born in the "recycling economy," the final means of making new things on the premise of reuse / recycling

In mass production society where everything is produced cheaply in large quantities, the tendency to value things is diminished, and mass consuming behavior that replaces one after another every time it becomes old becomes attached. However, the mass production and mass consumption society has a problem that it is far from ecology in order to generate a large amount of garbage using a large amount of resources. It is a major principle to refresh such mass production and mass consumption, to make full use of reuse and recycling and to "repair if broken", it is permitted to make new things only when reuse, recycling, repair is impossible It is pointed out that there is an advantage that not only the problem of exhaustion of resources and environmental destruction but also new employment is created, the ecological economic society of which is proposed.

The circular economy: Nature News & amp; Comment
http://www.nature.com/news/the-circular-economy-1.19594

In modern society, economic structure premised on mass production and mass consumption is assumed, and everything is made and thrown away. In mass production and mass consumption society problems of exhaustion of resources and massive generation of waste are inevitable and one third of the plastic waste which did not exist in nature is released without being collected and carbon dioxide Is discharged and global warming occurs and environment destruction is a big problem.


Instead of such economies of mass production and mass consumption, the concept "circular economy" has been created. As the name implies, this refers to a system that systematically conducts economic activities to circulate as a loop of industrial ecosystems in which things are made and consumed.

In the circulation economy, economic activities are carried out under the principle of "reusing what can be reused", "recycling items that can not be recycled", "repair if broken," "reproduce only things that can not be redeemed" . According to European studies, countries can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% and drastically reduce waste emissions, as the recycling economy consumes less resources as new resources are consumed. Along with that, employment is estimated to increase by 4%.


Why workers increase is that mass production is a result of mechanization, whereas in a recycling economy it is necessary to sort objects, clean them up and repair them, and these tasks require experience and skills Because it is work by "person" to be done. Not only consumer goods but also buildings are required to be reused and repaired in the same way, and employment is born again as people continue to need more hands than building new buildings.

This is a diagram showing the circulation economy loop. The process of "use (consumption)" for blue, "manufacture" for brown, and "circulation" for purple purple are shown, and these are connected as one loop. In particular, with blue consumption, there is a route "REUSE (reuse)", "REPAIR (repair)" and "REMANUFACTURE (regeneration)" in the loop, and it is a major feature that it consumes as much as possible without getting on the route of manufacture and distribution It is a secret that you can suppress the environmental burden by doing the activities.


The concept of circulating economy was born 40 years ago. Based on the energy price rise in the early 1970s, recession accompanying oil shocks and high unemployment rate, it is based on the idea of ​​introducing 'people' instead of resources for energy. Mr. Walter R. Stahel, who gave the idea, is an architect and he seems to have gotten inspired by the fact that old buildings in Europe are used for a long time so that much less energy is needed than when newly made.

In the world where the circulation economy is established, not only the method of manufacturing things changes but also the concept of "ownership" is considered to change drastically. In mass production and mass consumption society, it is important how cheaply it is to produce things with moderate performance, while in a circulating economy aiming for amortization over a much longer period the value of things will be relatively high. Moreover, since maintenance cost as maintenance and maintenance expense also matches when using things for a long time. Therefore, under the circulation economy, it can be expected that things will not change "ownership" but a big change to the form of "to share".

The essence of the circulation economy, which changes the usage of things and changes ownership / sharing form, has already been introduced experimentally. For example, in France and Paris, an urban car sharing project "Autolib" that can rent EV can be secured by securing a space for parking a small electric vehicle (EV) throughout the city, and NASA From a disposable rocketCo-developed a spacecraft venture SpaceX with a reusable launch vehicle that can be launched many timesdoing.


Although it is a circulatory economy that has merit in terms of environmental issues and job creation, it is considered that there are many problems to be solved when countries all over the world cooperate to introduce. Firstly, technologies and information that can be utilized for reuse and recycling are concentrated in some large companies, and how to penetrate small communities such as SMEs and shops in each region that plays a leading role in the circulation economy there is. Large enterprises that have expanded the scale of enterprises in mass production and mass consumption society can not expect to let go of a circulating economy that requires shift of activity base to rural and individual, and led by government including law and tax system It is indispensable to induce by policy of.

In addition, we need to create new indicators to measure economic activity. Instead of indicators that measure economic activity in the world of mass production and mass consumption such as GDP, it is requested to devise and utilize economic indicators suitable for circulating economies, such as value creation per weight and labor force per weight It is likely to be.

However, the biggest obstacle to the circulation economy is whether or not it is possible for consumers to gain understanding. Unlike mass production / mass consumption society, in recycling economy, moderation is required for the use of goods, so in the circulation economy consensus is asked to understand the magnitude of the role played by consumers and the magnitude of responsibility they play in education Efforts are required to obtain. Moreover, since economic activities are not completed in one country but are established in the connection with each country, it is necessary for all countries around the world to tackle the circulatory economy, but can also change the index of international competitiveness To make a big shift to the circulation economy, it seems to be the biggest difficulty to match opinions.