ABSTRACT
The idea at the heart of the circular economy is not a new one. Terms such as cradle to cradle have been used for a while to describe an industrial economy that sets out not just to reduce and minimise waste, but to use whatever waste is created to produce new products. The idea of the circular economy has been promoted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), which has demonstrated convincingly that such an approach would be much more efficient in terms of resource use, profitable for the companies involved, and beneficial for the consumer. A study by McKinsey, an international consultancy, argues that by adopting circular economy principles, the European economy would benefit by 1.8 trillion by 2030 50% more than by following a linear development path. A circular economy aims to maintain products, components and materials at their highest utility and value.
