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| It's a hard life! |
I recently spent 3 months travelling round South America
and, whilst on a pretty tight budget, there was always just enough in the kitty
for a beer at the end of the day. However, when we got to Argentina, it wasn't a lack of funds that was the problem – it was their bottle collection schemes
that put a spanner in the works. We first encountered this in Cafayate, a small
town just south of Salta – having found a hostel we went off in search of
groceries and, of course, some beer. However, for every beer you buy, you have
to bring back an empty beer bottle – slightly tricky if you've just arrived and
don’t have any empties. Frustrating on the one hand but very
advanced on the other…
Last Friday, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched its
second report Towards the Circular Economy Vol.2: opportunities for the consumer goods sector, at the World
Economic Forum in Davos. According to the report, “a cost reduction of 20 per
cent from USD 29 to USD 24 per hectolitre of beer consumed would be possible in
the U.K. by shifting from disposable to reusable glass beer bottles”. The
report points out that there would be an additional cost due to the additional
material required to create more durable bottles (“34% increase in the amount
of glass used per bottle); however, the cost savings from reusing bottles would
far outweigh this.
Reusing beer bottles is just one of a number of examples in
the report of how the consumer goods sector can benefit from making the shift
to a more circular business model. Through its research, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates “the full potential of the circular economy to be as much
as USD 700 billion in global consumer goods materials savings alone”.
Theoretically it makes perfect sense; however, the tricky
bit is getting businesses to make the shift and providing the right support and incentives to help them through the transition. To support this, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is launching the Circular Economy 100, a alliance of 100 pioneering businesses to accelerate the transition to a
circular economy. But it’s going to take a
lot more innovation and collaboration to make this fly.
The encouraging news is that we’re not starting from
scratch. Companies have already started to embrace the principles of the circular
economy. Just yesterday, CSR Wire, as part of its Noble Profit series, posted an
interview with Ford’s Global Director of Sustainability, John Viera, in which
he talks about how Ford is re-using waste materials –
from old carpet to unwanted jeans – in the production of its cars.
Now the challenge is to take these ideas to scale. Watch this space...
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