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Circular thinking across our society

Circular Economy in Lake Macquarie

In a recent webinar hosted by Dantia, a business unit of Lake Mac Council, Debbie O’Byrne, Circular Economy Lead, spoke about:

  • a recently completed City Scan, using a tool that enables local governments to discover and prioritise circular opportunities for their city or region, based on proprietary and publicly available socioeconomic and material flow data, relevant circular case studies, and users’ input as to which sectors, materials, and impact areas are a priority in local agendas. – see below
  • the development of a dynamic dashboard, a tool to illustrate the cycling of materials – see graphic below.
  • Cradle to Cradle accredited materials – see book of same name.

Examples with opportunities to practice CE principles:

  • Ash dam waste is a hazardous by product material with multiple uses
  • Food waste also has huge potential for applying CE principles
  • Leasing of products for the services they provide, rather than buying
  • Carbon border taxes to reflect actual costs, with pricing of goods and services reflecting this reality.

COOL — Courageous / Open minded include indigenous ways of knowing / Observations / Light hearted – keeping things in perspective.

It was noted that in New Zealand there’s a Maori saying – that decision making on behalf of grandchildren helps to refocus from the short to the long term, and that indigenous communities practiced more circular ways of living.

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Circular economy puts the onus on manufacturers to take more responsibility for the lifecycle of products and do away with the deliberate design strategy of built-in obsolescence.

As William McDonough co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, has written. “Nature doesn’t mortgage the future nor mine the past but rather it operates from current income – solar rays.”

So at its heart, the circular economy is founded on following nature’s flawless blueprint of no-waste.  In shaping this new economy we need to curb the notion of unlimited growth.  All resources are finite and our ultimate goal should be to produce safe ecological and intelligent products with no poisons that leak into the biosphere. Dealing with plastics and e-waste is a key step to implementing a global circular economy.  (Ref: Organic Gardener, Issue 127, 2021 page 72)

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This Christmas would you humans please end your relationship with waste, and pass the message on >>>
A panel of sustainability experts break down some of the biggest problems in waste and discuss simple, everyday actions to change attitudes and habits. Dr Anita Vandyke, qualified rocket scientist, medical doctor, author, blogger and advocate for zero waste living, hosts

  • Heidi Tait, Founder and CEO of Tangaroa Blue Foundation
  • Jenni Downes, Research Fellow at BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash University
  • Sara Rickards, regenerative designer, environmental engineer and biomedical scientist
  • Tom Szaky, Founder and CEO of TerraCycle and Loop

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Think twice – three times if need be – before buying more clothes this festive season

When it comes to textile waste, Australia is one of the worlds worst offenders.
In a report published in CHOICE magazine: A material issue, Andy Kollmorgen (CHOICE, October 2021), looks at the most recent initiatives to reverse the cycle.  Here’s a few points as a summary …

  • We need to wake up to the crisis
  • We need to reform our throwaway fashion culture
  • Keep clothes in circulation
  • We need to catch-up with what’s taking place overseas
  • Consumers can play a big part in turning the tide from waste to reuse, repurpose, etc
  • Repair more, buy less

In 2018-19 Australians generated 780,000 tonnes of textile waste, of which only 7% was recycled.  To put that per person terms: Every year Australians buy an average of 27kg of new clothes and throw 23kg away. What this means, is our yearly consumption of textiles is second only to that of the US.

Charitable Recycling Australia envisions a ‘circular economy’ for textiles in which nothing ends up in landfill. 
The best form of recycling is repair or reuse, says Adrian Jones from BlockTexx, a Sydney firm that specialises in “textile recovery technology.’  “Everybody’s wardrobe can bear two less items,” says Jones. 

MMM … Issue 25, November 2021