Very important work has been done over the last decade to take industrial ecology and the circular economy into the mainstream. Daniel Wahl, writing in Circular Asia, says: ‘A lot of credit has to be given to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. At the same time, it needs to be highlighted that the cascading of material and energy flows in small and fast and large and slow cycles is a core pattern of ecosystems and the biosphere.’

For most of our history as a species we managed our household (economy) based on understanding these patterns of nature (ecology). Bioregionally adapted ‘circular economies’ are nothing new. They are the only long term viable economies!

Our current linear and globalised system is the aberration!