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CIRCULARITY
Nov 14, 2025
THE ESSENCE
How can we fit an infinite line on the finite circumference of a circle, without retracing it?
The answer: We can’t … and, so can we not fit an infinite line of consumption and its corresponding waste on a finite globe … the Earth.
In fact, the ever-growing appetite of the human population for consuming new products, then disposing them, amounts to exploitation of the Earth, in two ways: (1) extracting the finite resources of the Earth to produce consumer goods; and (2) filling up the space of the Earth with those same consumer goods as no-longer-wanted trash.
This practice is akin to a family continuing to take in food, clothing, and other personal and household items, but never taking the trash out. Sooner or later, there will be no space left inside the house.
This is called the linear economy, or “take-make-waste” method. So far, we have been living our lives by providing for ourselves, using this method. But, the capacity of the Earth to continue to service this kind of economy is approaching its end.
Yet, there is another method that can continue to serve our needs indefinitely: The circular economy, or “made-to-be-remade-or-reused” method. More specifically …
The LINEAR METHOD: “Take-Make-Waste”
We extract raw materials from the Eath, then transform them into products, then throw them away, turning them into waste.
This is the current method that nearly all (~91%) of the global economy uses to cater to the needs and wants of the people, living on the Earth today.
“Only 9% of the 92.8 billion tons of minerals, fossil fuels, metals, and biomass that enter the economy is re-used annually.” (2019 Circularity Gap Report, EU)
The CIRCULAR METHOD: “Made-To-Be-Remade-or-Reused”
Cycling of Resources by producing goods that can be disassembled at the end of their first useful life, then using the returned resouces to either re-make the same product or make different products in order to give those resources another life … and so on, to repeat this cycle unlimited times. On a consumer level, goods can be repaired, repurposed, retrofitted, or refurbished.
Because the Earth’s resources are finite, the straight line method of “Take-Make-Waste” will—at some point in time—end the ability to produce goods for humans to support their lives. The answer to ensuring life for future generations is to use the circular method. As the 1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission declared, the goal is “… meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Circularity is not just a feel-good cliché … it’s a necessity for maintaining human life.
READ MORE
THE DETAILS
There is a common mistake of equating sustainability with circularity.
Sustainability
refers to a broad umbrealla of approaches and systems
to reduce the negative impacts
of the linear ‘take-make-waste’ economy. But, “reducing” really only means doing less bad. As Joel Makower (a strategist on sustainable business) said: “There is little honor in ravaging the planet incrementally less.”
Circularity
is a systems approach with a focus on cycling the resources in order
to lessen or eliminate both our excessive material and the corresponding waste
… and, with that, to prevent the complete exploitation of the Earth, so future generations can also live their lives.
In essence, circularity is a subset of sustainability.
Common Question
: But, what about growth if we just focus on materials recovery and waste management?
Anwer
: Circularity is
not just materials recovery and waste management
. Circularity, in fact, provides for flourishing business opportunities while ensuring that our Earth will be sustained for the long term.
Circularity has the opportunity to provide for a thriving and enriching economy.
On the other hand, growth provides only for satisfying material demand and desires … until it doesn’t, any longer.
EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL
RECYCLING vs. CIRCULATING
  • RECYCLING
    (Turning waste into new products)
    • For example, collecting plastic waste (e.g. plastic water bottles, etc.) ⟶ Shredding and processing it ⟶ Manufacturing new plastic good from it (e.g. new plastic bottles, plastic bags, etc.)
  • CIRCULATING
    (Cycling the waste back into the system to nourish the system, even multiple times)
    • IN THE BIOLOGICAL CYCLE (degradable materials): Agricultural waste is cycled back into the system by processing and using it as compost in order to grow new agricultural products
      This is similar to the natural cycle of the leaf of a tree: After the leaf falls off the tree, it decomposes, which in trun returns nutrients back to the soil, which nutrients then are used by other plants rooted in that soil. In essence, the fallen leaf feeds other plants, helping them to reproduce.
    • IN THE TECHNICAL CYCLE (non-degradable materials): Re-use, repair, and recycle allows the non-degradable materials to recirculate in the system, and be used for producing new goods without the need to extract more materials from the Earth.
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      • ⟸ as said before
    EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL
    • THE PRINCIPLES OF CIRCULARITY
  • ELIMINATE WASTE AND POLLUTION
    (No‑longer‑wanted goods are cycled back into the system ⟹ Eliminates waste and pollution)
    • Eliminates the need to extract more raw materials from the Earth
    • Eliminates the pollution that would arise from extracting more raw materials (e.g. fossil fuel and other types of energy use, transportation‑related pollution, etc.)
    • Also eliminates the pollution that would arise from the waste being thrown away. Examples:
      • Batteries leaking corrosive acids, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, then contaminating the soil, the air, and water sources
      • Rotting food in landfills generating methane gas (a greenhouse gas that’s more harmful than carbon‑dioxide)
      • Plastics that never degenerate (all plastic ever produced is still with us in some form), affecting global temperatures and the ocean
    • Eliminates the pollution that would arise from handling and transporting those masses of waste (e.g. to landfills)
  • CIRCULATE PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS
    (Optimizing resource yields by sharing, reusing, refurbishing, re‑manufacturing)
    • PRODUCTS:
      • Extending the lifespan of products: Repair, remodel, or refurbish used products for the owners continued use
      • No‑longer‑wanted products are given or sold (at a lower price) to family members, friends, people in need
    • MATERIALS:
      • No‑longer‑wanted products are sent back to the manufacturer or merchant ⟶ They recover the parts or materials used in the product ⟶ Refurbish or re-manufacture into the original form of the product or into other products
      • Sellers or Manufacturers provide instructions, shipping labels, and postage to end-users to ship back or to drop off no‑longer‑wanted products
      • Products are 'made‑to‑be‑remade': Products are designed and constructed in ways that will make it easy (after its useful life) to disassemble (conserving resources), and to use its parts or raw materials to manufacture other products
  • REGENERATE NATURE
    • Controlling the finite natural resources, and balancing the flow of renewable resources
    • Manufacturers using sustainable practices, such as renewable energy or responsible sourcing
    • The sum of the circular economy activities will allow nature to not only cease to decay, but even to regenerate
    • The circle has the ability to keep circling indefinitely (once the linear ‘take‑make‑waste’ is abandoned)
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      • ⟹ consequently
      • ⟸ as said before
    EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL
    • ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY, AND ITS SOCIAL IMPACT
  • GDP vs. THRIVING
    • GDP‑BASED ECONOMIC OBJECTIVE
      • The ultimate goal of growth is measured only in monetary form (i.e. in Gross Domestic Product)
      • So far, GDP is what countries have used as a measure of economic and societal well-being ⟹ We are now seeing its flawed outcome
      • The GDP‑based gauging of economic well‑being ignores the $2.6 trillion worth of material in fast‑moving consumer goods being thrown away annually, and never recovered … and its environmental and human impact
      • Uses the linear ‘take‑make‑waste’ approach ⟹ Resources will be exhausted at some point (reaching an ecological ceiling) ⟹ Pollution, biodiversity loss, freshwater shortage, and climate change will become unbearable for humans ⟹ Life as we know it will not be able to continue
    • THRIVING
      • Besides economic well‑being, people’s physical and emotional well‑being needs are satisfied through having a ‘global green built environment’**
      • Innovation and the subsequent production of new consumer goods provides for new varieties in the everyday life
      • The Earth’s resources (raw materials, the seas, the air) are not exploited ⟹ Provides for healthier life ⟹ Ensures a future for the next generations with opportunities to thrive
  • ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
    • Creates local job opportunities in asset maintenance, on‑site recovery, material sorting, refurbishment, etc.
    • Sources of materials by companies become easier and more cost‑effective, as local disassembled stocks become available
    • Designing for disassembly and modularity ensures that buildings as well as consumer products can be easily updated
    • Designing products with increased durability ⟹ Longer useful life of product ⟹ Enjoying higher quality product ⟹ Lesser need to discard or circulate
    • The ‘built environment’* (i.e. all human‑made surroundings) is one of the largest global industries ($14 trillion, and 13% of global GDP, 12% of global employment); and therefore, will provide for massive employment opportunities in a circular economy
    • The ‘global green built environment’** (a collective effort to transform the ‘built environment’ to be minimally impactful), therefore, offers enormous opportunity in employment
    • Circular economy fosters innovation in product design, resource recovery, reverse logistics ⟹ Creates new products, new markets, more jobs, more efficiency (designers, architects, contractors, engineers, workers)
    • By using cycled parts and materials from ‘made‑to‑be‑remade’ or modular products and buildings, manufacturing new products can be accomplished in shorter timeframes
    • Circular approaches lower cost, and provide for greater resilience as buildings and products can be easily rebuilt for future use
  • SOCIAL IMPACT
    • Food, energy, and water resources are plentiful for humans
    • Housing, education, and income opportunities are within the comfort zone for the general population
    • Social harmony prevails on a large scale
    • Peace and justice prevail on a large scale
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      • ⟹ consequently
      • ⟸ as said before
    EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL
SEE MORE
WHAT CAN
YOU
DO ABOUT IT?
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
Send messages to companies and influential people that you want to buy more products that were produced as part of a circular system.

Ask companies about their production processes and waste generation, and ask what happens to the waste that’s produced during those processes.

Tell your friends and family about circularity; then, encourage them to make their voices heard, just as well.

Tell your representatives and politicians that you want
Surely, most everybody in today’s world disposes goods that could be either re-used, repaired, or refurbished, or retrofitted, or repurposed—instead of throwing them away.

Start with your household goods and practices; and certainly look at the no-longer-wanted items in your closet.
LOOK AT YOUR OWN HOUSEHOLD AND LIFESTYLE:

Which of your personal & household habits can be changed to support a circular process?
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ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

“Meet[ing] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
– Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Norwegian Prime Minister

“Reduction in manufacturing and packaging and the corresponding waste is possible only through consumers' reduction of their unreasonable consumption … Don't grow. Thrive.”
– GlobeMentum

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