{"id":383509,"date":"2022-06-29T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T08:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=383509"},"modified":"2022-06-29T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T08:32:00","slug":"research-lack-of-consensus-on-what-circularity-means-causes-a-slower-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/research-lack-of-consensus-on-what-circularity-means-causes-a-slower-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Research: Lack of consensus on what circularity means causes a slower transition\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is no consensus on what circularity means, which can slow down the transition to a circular economy, PhD research by Rachel Greer<\/a> shows. Also, the focus is often on \u2018flashy\u2019 innovations whereas phasing out waste gets less attention. “To me, a truly circular economy means above all that you have to extract fewer virgin materials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you live in Rotterdam, you probably have tried the highly popular bitterballen from Rotterzwam<\/a>. They are made from oyster mushrooms that grow on used coffee grounds. For researcher Rachel Greer, this is a good example of what kind of innovation could fit within a truly circular economy. \u201cPeople will always drink coffee, and coffee grounds are not likely to be phased out so we might as well do something with them. Plus, these vegetarian bitterballen are a more sustainable alternative to the traditional meat version.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is circular?<\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n
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<\/div><\/div>
Austrian community creates circular energy from regenerative agriculture<\/div>
In Austria, every citizen can become part of the energy transition. This was decided in July 2021 with the Renewable Energy Expansion Act (EAG). It … Continued<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Greer did her PhD on the transition from a linear to a circular economy at DRIFT<\/a> and was supervised by transition expert Derk Loorbach. She sees that this transition is still in an early stage, despite the promising signs of circular experimentation, entrepreneurship, and research emerging in the past years. A recent report showed that the world is still only 8.6 percent circular<\/a>. The Netherlands has set a goal to become completely circular by 2050. But what is circular? \u201cThere is not a common understanding or agreement in science and practice on what exactly that is. People need more clear navigation steps to get to that end goal\u201d, she believes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her research, she conducted interviews with Ministry civil servants, managers, and entrepreneurs. To clarify that circular can be perceived in many ways, she gives the example of the Dutch construction industry which claims to be 99 percent circular. \u201cThis would imply very little room for improvement, but in practice, they mainly use rubble of demolished buildings as road foundation\u201d, says Greer. Recovering and reusing rare metals and other materials from buildings and infrastructure (also known as urban mining), for example, has the potential to create a much more meaningful contribution to a circular economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3D-printed couches<\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Her research points out that attention and funding, are often drawn to the most \u2018flashy\u2019 innovations. \u201cIf a startup fishes out plastic that floats in the canals and turns this into 3D-printed couches, people find it very interesting\u201d. Greer rather sees that the emphasis shifts to designing out the production of waste in the first place.  Innovations can even work counter-productively. This is a dilemma resulting from what she calls that Waste-Resource Paradox, as sometimes waste production gets incentivized as it becomes an asset: \u201cIf you recycle, you just slow down the production of waste. A truly circular economy to me means not just turning waste into resources, but to reduce the virgin material extraction of the earth in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transition from a linear to a circular economy to the PhD-researcher is a space where we see signs of destabilization of the current dominant linear practices, resulting from increasing pressures, which leads to difficulties and uncertainties because of a lack of clear rules, which can have even dangerous implications. Many scrapped electronics now get shipped to Africa and India where the metals and parts of these electronics are often separated by hand, without proper protection or laws for workers\u2019 rights, leading to workers risking their health. Clearer laws would help prevent this. On the other hand, laws can slow down innovations as often it takes a long time to change them. In her eyes, there should be much more experimentation space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rachel
Rachel Greer \u00a9 Erasmus University<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are still a lot of misconceptions and dilemmas related to the circular economy. To reach the 2050 goal, it is important to get people on the same page. To bring more clarity Greer developed a \u2018Circular Decision-Making Tree\u2019. This supports decision-makers in navigating circular decisions and considering their options and helps them understand how they can achieve the highest-quality contribution potential to circularity from an innovation.  \u201cThere is a gap between science and practice. This decision tree helps practitioners through a decision step-by-step and goes beyond existing frameworks like the R-frameworks of thinking: reduce, reuse, recycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold transport<\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And to get back to Rotterdam where garbage trucks are driving around with golden paint and \u2018Gold transport\u2019 written on them. \u201cOf course, that is an oversimplification but is a good sentiment to see waste as a resource. I would call it transport of bronze. Real gold would be phasing out waste.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD-Defense <\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday 23 June 2022, Rachel Greer defended her PhD dissertation \u2018Governing the Transition to a Circular Economy<\/a>\u2019 at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Jacqueline Cramer: ‘Circular economy calls for network governance’<\/div>
If anyone knows a thing or two about circular economy and the raw materials transition, it is Jacqueline Cramer, the (former) Dutch Minister of Housing, … Continued<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no consensus on what circularity means, which can slow down the transition to a circular economy, PhD research by Rachel Greer shows. Also, the focus is often on \u2018flashy\u2019 innovations whereas phasing out waste gets less attention. “To me, a truly circular economy means above all that you have to extract fewer virgin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2502,"featured_media":512313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[71744,71746,6278],"location":[6763],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-383509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-circular-economy-7","tag-erasmus-university-2","tag-sustainability","location-netherlands","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"\u201cIf you recycle, you just slow down the production of waste. A truly circular economy means not just turning waste into resources, but to reduce the virgin material extraction of the earth.\u201d","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Karst Oosterhuis","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/karst-oosterhuis\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/DSC_7221-20-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["circular economy<\/a>","Erasmus University<\/a>","Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["circular economy<\/span>","Erasmus University<\/span>","Sustainability<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 29, 2022","modified":"Updated on June 29, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 29, 2022 10:32 am","modified":"Updated on June 29, 2022 10:32 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=383509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}