Circular economy and the matter of integrated resources.

A circular economy offers solutions for global sustainability challenges through the transition from the linear take-make-use-dispose economy to a better organisation of resources. However, realising a circular economy has ran into various biophysical constraints. Circular economy implementation is shaped by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's butterfly diagram that depicts 'biological' and 'technical' flows as separate cycles, subsequently interpreted as organic materials circulating in open loop systems via the environment and inorganic materials circulating in closed loop systems within society.

Making the business case for resource recovery.

People altered the biophysical environment upon which they depend through the overexploitation of resources and growing waste generation. Action is urgently needed to return the resource economy within planetary boundaries and safeguard human well-being, by realising an increasingly closed-loop system that maintains values of materials and products within a sustainable circular economy. Innovative technologies and business models must be developed and implemented, requiring convincing "business cases" for industry and government; why should they be interested in adopting circular, resource recovery practices? Despite multi-dimensional challenges facing people and their environment, and the ability of resource recovery to contribute to restoring environment, society and economy, arguments for circular practices are often overly focused on economic aspects.

Quality of resources: A typology for supporting transitions towards resource efficiency using the single-use plastic bottle as an example.

The growing British waste management sector has consistently voiced the need to improve the quality of waste streams and thus the value of secondary resources produced, in order to achieve higher reprocessing rates. Mismanagement of wastes that may lead to contamination and degradation of the recyclate feedstock constitutes one of the main barriers in the pathway to a circular economy. The sector has also repeatedly called upon manufacturers to collaborate in designing materials, components and products (MCPs) with properties that aid recovery, refurbishing, repair and recycling (e.