Explain What is the Circular and Its Importance. How a circular economy can make India resilient. Although the circular economy in India is at a nascent stage but it has enormous Potential in the area of Circular Economy.
- Centre has formed 11 committees, each led by a ministry, to prepare action plans for transitioning from a linear to a circular economy in their respective focus areas
What is the Circular Economy?
It is an economy where products are designed for durability, reuse and recyclability and thus almost everything gets reused, remanufactured and recycled into a raw material or used as a source of energy.
A circular economy is a systemic approach to economic development designed to benefit businesses, society, and the environment
A circular economy reveals and designs out the negative impacts of economic activity that cause damage to human health and natural systems. This includes the release of greenhouse gases and hazardous substances, the pollution of air, land, and water, as well as structural waste such as traffic congestion.
It includes 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), Refurbishment, Recover, and Repairing of materials. Hence, Circular Economy focuses on increasing productivity in terms of more efficient utilization of resources.
For Example: If a person is planning to discard his/her car, it can be given to someone else (i.e. giving the car second life-Reuse), rather than parking it somewhere just like that. Once the car reaches its end of life, it can be ensured that everything embedded in it, steel, aluminum, copper, plastic, Iron etc. should be brought back to production cycle so that the circle of the economy gets completed.
Currently, most of the countries follow a linear process in which raw materials are taken from the environment, turn in to new products which are then disposed of after use.
Fig. 1.1 Circular Flow of Economy
Why Circular Economy ?
To understand why do we need Circular Economy we will have to understand Circular Economy vs Linear Economy first i.e. Difference between Circular and Linear Economy.
By and large, today’s manufacturing takes raw materials from the environment and turns them into new products, which are then discarded into the environment.
It’s a linear process with a beginning and an end. In this system, limited raw materials eventually run out. Waste accumulates, either incurring expenses related to disposal or else pollution. Additionally, manufacturing processes are often themselves inefficient, leading to further waste of natural resources.
In a circular economy, however, materials for new products come from old products. As much as possible, everything is reused, re-manufactured or, as a last resort, recycled back into a raw material or used as a source of energy.
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| Fig. 1.2 Linear Economy Vs Circular Economy |
Circular Economy Promotes Sustainability
Circular systems employ reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed system, minimizing the use of resource input and the creation of waste, pollution and emissions.
The circular economy aims to keep products, equipment and infrastructure in use for longer, thus improving the productivity of resources.
All ‘waste’ should become ‘food’ for another process: either a by-product or recovered resource for another industrial process, or as regenerative resources for nature, eg compost.
This regenerative approach is in contrast to the traditional linear economy, which has a ‘take, make, dispose’ model of production.
Benefits of Circular Economy
For Environment:
- Millions of Tonnes of Waste gets generated in countries. Circular Economy solves the problem of disposal of waste by converting waste into raw materials.
- Besides the problem of solid waste management, the circular economy also solves the problem of air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution.
For Consumers:
- The products in the circular economy are more cost effective for consumers as they tend to be more efficient, besides having a longer shelf life.
- Increased Efficiency leads to a reduction in the cost of maintenance as well as that of disposal, which otherwise a consumer has to incur in a huge amount.
India is already on its path to the circular economy. Initiatives of NPC and government show that. ‘Digital India’ Program contains a significant component of the recycling of electronic wastes.
Way Forward for Circular Economy in India
India has a huge potential for reuse and recycling as less than 10-15% of the total waste generated goes into the recycling process. Circular Economy will boost the reuse and recycling of materials.
To start with, sectors like construction, agriculture and vehicle and mobility can be considered as they are going to get the largest growth in coming years and thus India will be able to save more than Rs. 40 lakh Crore by 2050.
To further provide a boost to a circular economy in India, a policy framework on the same is need of the hour.
Also, Manufacturing Sector, especially MSMEs can help a lot in transformation towards a circular economy. The sector should ‘DECIDE’ i.e.
- Designing processes for refurbishment and easy cycling.
- Educating masses on Circular Economy and its benefits.
- Preparation of Collaborative Models for smooth implementation of Circular Economy.
- Innovating Products for circularity.
- Digitization for transparency, virtualization, dematerialization, and feedback driven intelligence for saving resources.
- Energy-Efficient for environmental sustainability.
Building vehicles that rely on zero-emission propulsion technology could reduce GHG emission, pollution, and dependence on imported fossil fuels.
Indian businesses can foster innovation to address challenges more rapidly by collaborating with research institutions.
Collaboration among stakeholders to address key issues to achieve systemic change. For example, inroads to addressing India’s solid waste management challenge could be made by connecting all kinds of actors along the value chain.
Tapping activities of the informal economy (e.g existing repair and recycling activities for vehicles), in cooperation with the public sector or other organizations.
Conclusion
Though the circular economy in India is at a nascent stage yet but we need Mindset at the grassroot level for implementation of Circular Economy. We need to ensure that the material gets recycled or reused before it turns into waste. There is a need for a coherent roadmap that ushers mutually complementary and boosting transition towards a circular economy. This is an opportunity which India should harness, to take the lead in a circular model of development—sans sacrificing economic growth.
