As the strains of climate change intensify and global consumption accelerates, there is an urgent need to transition from the traditional linear economic model of ‘take, make, waste’ to a circular model that decouples economic growth from environmental destruction. The vision of a circular economy aims to shift away from the traditional linear economy based on a one-way flow of materials, instead promoting the reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling of products and materials. Enabling this transformation requires massive disruption across supply chains, business models and consumer adoption driven by technological breakthroughs in recycling.
Promising recycling technologies like chemical recycling break down post-consumer plastics into basic building blocks to produce high-value polymers, fuels, or chemicals for industrial use. Other advances can convert waste glass back into usable glass materials, recycle fiber-reinforced composites from vehicles and wind turbines back into strong lightweight materials, or use microwave assisted pyrolysis to decompose mixed electronics. Exploring decentralized recycling with AI-powered vision systems and robotic sorting allows more value recovery from waste. To close the loop, innovations in biodegradable materials, product and molecular design, connected packaging and digital watermarks are required.
With estimates that over $1 trillion in value is discarded yearly in easy-to-recycle plastic alone, the growth opportunities are monumental. But equally important are the environmental merits – reduced greenhouse gases, preservation of finite resources, avoided pollution and waste. By combining material science and sustainability expertise with digitally-driven transparency and accountability across complex value chains, the full circular economy model can reshape our world for the better. The time for urgent, ambitious action is now.
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