The 'Circular Economy' is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. The circular economy tackles climate change and other global challenges, like biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution, by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources.
In our current economy, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste – the process is linear. In a circular economy, by contrast, we stop waste being produced in the first place.
The Fundamental Rs of Sustainability
The five Rs of sustainability are various methods utilized by businesses that build the foundation of their sustainability strategy. They refer to a process used by businesses to make the outcome of their recycling programs better through reducing the amount of waste the company produces. It’s important for any company that’s a producer of consumer products to have a robust sustainability strategy to reduce the impact of CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions on their environment. A significant part of developing and implementing a strong sustainability strategy is utilize the five Rs methodology at the core of their process. The five Rs include refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle. Each of these steps must be followed to every last detail in order for the plan to work to its full potential.
REFUSE
You'll have to Minimize the waste production by refusing to use materials such as single-use plastics and non-recyclable products. the logistics of it can look intimidating at first, but there are better and far-less wasteful materials that you can switch over to. Some examples of applying the refuse method are:
Eliminate use of PVC
Eliminate single use plastics in sampling programs
Eliminate use of petrochemical inks
Switch from plastic based to paper based packaging
REDUCE
You'll have to Minimize the waste production by refusing to use materials such as single-use plastics and non-recyclable products. the logistics of it can look intimidating at first, but there are better and far-less wasteful materials that you can switch over to. Some examples of applying the reduce method are:
Reduce the structure, size, and gram weight of packaging (i.e. light-weighting)
Reduce the use of fossil fuel version resins and replace with PCR resins
REUSE
The reuse step refers to the diligent reuse of any materials. As a new effort to reduce the high amount of waste throughout the world, businesses are following practices that involve refusing materials within the work place rather than ordering more replacements.
Some examples of applying the reuse method are:
Design packaging to be refillable
REPURPOSE
The idea of repurposing involves taking items that were meant for one purpose but can be used for other ones. This is also known as up-cycling. It often requires thinking outside of the box. Some examples of applying the repurpose method are:
Design the packaging to be used in an alternative way once the product is consumed by the customer
RECYCLE
The final step in the process is recycle, which means exactly what it sounds like. After you've made every effort to go through all the previous steps from the five Rs, recycling is a great final stop. Some examples of applying the recycle method are:
Use mono-material packaging so it can be easily recycled
Design packaging for cycleability