We must put an end to our throwaway culture and incorporate circular economy in our way of thinking. This is the view of Tim McAloone—Professor at DTU—who works with sustainability.
In his career spanning 28 years, he has never been as busy as he is now. He often receives enquiries from companies, students, special interest groups, consultants, and researchers from all over the world. What they have in common is that they want to know how they can do something for the climate.
Tim McAloone helps many of them think along circular lines through large Nordic projects, where tools and strategies give them an impetus to change business models and avoid waste of resources. Most recently, DTU has received a grant of DKK 9 million from the Danish Industry Foundation. Here, DTU helps companies become better at developing their business together with selected partners. The project is called ready2LOOP and builds on the Making the Transition to Circular Economy (MATChE) project, in which DTU has worked with approx. 400 manufacturing companies in Denmark to measure how ready they are to adopt a circular approach in their activities.
One of them is Bang &Olufsen, which has developed and designed a wireless Wi-Fi speaker based on modular principles. Here, it is possible to dismantle the product and reuse the components. The company is thus one of the few in the consumer electronics industry to have found a solution for how to recycle electronic products. Today, electronic waste—or so-called e-waste—is the fastest growing waste flow in the EU, and less than 40 per cent is recycled.
“Our increasing expectations for electronic products means that we dispose of them more quickly. Electronic goods like computers, printers, and mobile phones often end up as waste because the buyers no longer can or will use them. Today, e-waste is the fastest growing type of waste and thus poses a global environmental problem. We therefore need to rethink the way we create, supply, and consume goods,” says Tim McAloone.
Closing the circular loop
Today, many Danish companies have adopted circular thinking, developed new innovative products, and seen that there is a potential. They can thus not only prolong the service life of their products. They can also halve their carbon emissions.
According to the organization Ellen MacArthur Foundation , only 55 per cent of the CO2 reduction that Denmark must realize can be achieved through renewable energy, new technologies, and carbon capture. The remaining 45 per cent comes from materials that companies can reduce by entering into strategic collaborations with their partners and reorganizing their production and consumption.
“If companies are really to achieve a circular economy, they need to do more than just develop recyclable products. They need to look at the entire value chain ranging from producers of raw materials to suppliers of components, manufacturers, distributors, dealers, consumers, and waste management companies. Only in this way can we close the entire circular loop,” says Tim McAloone.
Avoid wastage and waste
He points out that there are several ways of working circularly. Some companies develop business models for recycling materials or returning products for repair or upgrades. Other companies lease out products instead of selling them. This may be done through service offers or take-back schemes under which products are collected and reused.
One of the most commonly used ways is to prolong the service life of the products—or components—and save resources when producing new goods. This can be seen both at US printing company Xerox and UK aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, which take responsibility for their products throughout their life cycle, thereby achieving longer product life.
Xerox thus installs copiers with their customers, which only pay per copy instead of paying for the entire copier. Xerox maintains and repairs the copier, and when the customer wants to terminate the agreement, Xerox takes the machine back and recycles it in other products. Rolls-Royce sells ‘Power-by-the-Hour’, where—for example—the customer pays for each flight hour or every month rather than paying for the aircraft engine itself. Here, the principle is that Roll-Royce takes responsibility for the whole service life of the product such as maintenance, upgrading, and delivery of spare parts.
Another business model is seen at US tech company Apple, which is trying out a take-back scheme under which the customers get a voucher for their old iPhone or computer if it does not work. Apple then has the materials recycled through its recycling robot Daisy, which ensures an automated and scalable process of reuse.
Many projects are about avoiding wastage and waste. One example is Jespers Torvekøkken, where they constantly work to reduce food waste. The catering company also develops circular food packaging. The same trend is seen at Carlsberg, which has been working with circular economy principles for many years. One result of this work is new types of packaging such as their bio-degradable Green Fibre Bottle, which DTU has helped develop together with the start-up Paboco.
Designed for the landfill
The philosophy of reuse and the principles of frugality are very similar to the way our grandparents lived. But if the circular mindset is to succeed today, the notion of frugality must be replaced with ‘convenience’ and ‘what’s in it for me', according to Tim McAloone:
“Previously, materials were reused out of personal and financial need. Today we are in the opposite situation. We have great economic leeway—our wealth and welfare have increased significantly, and it’s easy to use and throw away products. I don’t believe that we can go back to a frugality mindset without being forced to do so out of personal necessity. Therefore, we must all assume responsibility in society. This applies to both inviduals and companies.”
He sees signs that we are moving away from a period known as ‘design for the dump’, in which many electronic products are designed directly for the landfill. This means that products like flat screen TVs are designed to have a short service life and be expensive to repair. This gives consumers an incentive to buy a new flat screen TV instead of having the old one repaired.
Today, Tim McAloone sees several global movements going in another direction and showing that citizens want to reuse products and invest in sustainable solutions. One of them is the ‘Right to Repair’ lobby association, which has brought together over 40 organizations from 16 EU countries. They work to ensure that consumers have a right and an opportunity to have the products they have bought and paid for repaired. Especially when it comes to consumer electronics. This opens up for a huge opportunity to upgrade and maintain electronic products.
Another kind of initiative is seen in Sweden, where the State has introduced lower VAT and a tax deduction for repairs of white goods in the household. These initiatives could make more companies work circularly, Tim McAloone hopes:
“The trend tells me that many companies have woken up to reality and the necessity of taking responsibility for their products. Presumably also after pressure from their customers who have a sustainable conscience. We can thus hopelly contribute our joint compliance with the CO2 targets that the world has set itself under the UN climate conference COP26 and the Paris Agreement.”
