Plastics News Europe - October 2019 - 48

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Q&A

Circularity
means business

The latest position paper from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, called 'Completing The Picture -
How The Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change', talks about the circular economy's potential to
achieve climate goals and the role of materials - including plastics - in carbon emissions. To find out
more about the impact on the plastics industry, Plastics News Europe talked to Sander Defruyt,
who leads the New Plastics Economy Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation - by Karen Laird

We've heard a lot about circularity and the EU's
ambitions to transition to a more circular approach
economy. First, what is the circular economy?
The circular economy offers an attractive alternative to today's wasteful, linear economy, where we take resources,
we make products - which often have just a short lifetime
- and then we dispose of them. It's one of the reasons for
current issues such as waste and climate change.
The circular economy is a fundamentally different system. It recognises that to solve these issues, we need to go
beyond adding better waste management at the end of
our linear process or making our linear system more efficient. We need to see a fundamental shift from a linear to
a circular model in which waste and pollution are eliminated by design. Every product, package, every system - our
food system, our cities, our mobility - must be designed in
such a way that waste and pollution are eliminated from
the very inception.
Secondly, in the circular economy, materials are kept in
circulation, to maintain their value, their quality and the
energy embodied in them - to make a link with climate
change - to keep these in our economy rather than disposing of them after use.
The third and final principle of the circular economy is
that instead of depleting our ecosystems, our natural capital, these should be regenerated.

"The solution
mainly lies in
the hands of
businesses and
policymakers to
create a circular
system in which
individuals and
households can
operate"

the supply chain will be designed out, products made to
be more durable, repairable, and reusable.
Secondly, by retaining the energy that is embodied in
those products and materials we also save a lot of emissions. If you think of all the energy that goes into producing a product or a component and if we simply dispose of
that material at the end of the use, all of that embodied
energy is lost. While if we repair, reuse or recycle these, we
actually keep that energy intact.
Finally, a third, important lever is to restore and regenerate our natural capital, enabling our ecosystems to sequester carbon, reducing emissions.
I think a final thing that's important to note is that,
beyond reducing emissions, the circular economy also offers resilience to certain changes in the climate that have
become unavoidable as well as delivering many other
benefits - economic, environmental, social - that can address some of the challenges resulting from today's linear
economy.

So would you agree that the EU was on the right
track?
Well, the journey to the circular economy is obviously a
long one that requires fundamental changes, so it's great
that it's high on the agenda of the Commission and that
they are working towards that. Of course, it's still a long
way to go. But the EU commission has put forward strategies, for example, their Circular Plastics Strategy, and obviously, we hope to see that implemented and realised in
practice over the coming years.
This latest report is about reducing the emissions
that can't be reduced by using cleaner energy
forms. Can the circular economy reduce greenhouse
gas emissions?
A lot of the focus in the climate change debate has been
on the energy transition. And that is absolutely crucial about 55% of all emissions are related to energy. But to
address climate change, there's the other 45% of emissions to deal with, as well. These emissions are linked to
the way we deal with materials in our economy, and the
way we produce and use the products we are in touch
with every day: our food, cars, houses, phones, our furniture, our clothing.
Transitioning from today's linear economy to a circular
economy will first of all help to reduce emissions; waste in

Plastics have become the 'bad guys' when it comes
to environmental pollution. Where do you stand on
the plastics debate?
Plastics are very versatile materials that have a lot of useful
properties. Our initiative is called the New Plastics Economy, not the No Plastics Economy.... we do see the value
that plastics have! But it is equally important to recognise that our current plastics economy is incredibly linear and wasteful and that we urgently need a fundamental shift in the way we produce, use and re-use plastics,
one that goes beyond better waste management or

OCTOBER 2019

Plastics News Europe - October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News Europe - October 2019