Circular Economy- A sustainable option

What is a circular economy ?

A circular economy is an economic system that involves reusing, recycling and reimbursing natural resources in such a way that they are utilised in a renewable manner.

Everyday, resources are used in unprecedented amounts and in ways that make their reversal almost impossible. Additionally, not only they are used just once and get exhausted after that but also, they pose such unwanted and harmful impacts for the plane to face that it simply threatens to be an issue for us to handle further.

Technically, the circular economy is an economic model that comes under the category of production and consumption section of the discipline of economics. It focuses on studying and coping up with the causes, consequences and effects.

Then v/s Now

The whole concept of circular economy that revolves around the basic concept of promoting sustainability was not popular a few years back. But as people have started becoming more aware about the current situation of our environment and the concern regarding it has started to grow tremendously.

People have fortunately started realising that it’s now or never. Either we mend our ways to transform our actions now, or we will have to suffer badly later.

The word circular economy rightly points out the exact meaning and intention behind this term. Anything that is circular, has no end. Similarly, this specific concept of circular economy sees no end and is therefore continuous in nature.

Earlier, the only way of consumption that was followed by a lot of people was simply investing in some products and services, utilising them and then dropping them off.

The entire idea of reusing and reutilisation of items started to be followed extensively only when the threat posed by all our previous actions started to be felt and hinder our regular life processes.

If only the shallow pollution levels as well as waste generation data from the last few decades is to be taken into consideration along with the data of today’s time, we can clearly sort the changes between the differing scenarios.

The 360-degree approach- The four R’s to promote environmental sustainability

The four R’s to promote complete environmental sustainability are outwardly and actively taught to students starting from a very young age at school. According to me, this is one thing that everyone needs to realise and practise.

Let’s have a detailed look at what these four R’s are all about ?

• Reduce

This particular term, which occupies the first position in the list of four R’s points out to the importance of reducing excess and unnecessary consumption of resources beyond the much needed level.

Anything that is purchased without dire need of it’s consumption and utilisation, goes in vain most probably. Such products and services when go wasted, add up to the collective environmental loss.Therefore, reduction of unnecessary product consumption beyond a decently needed level is crucial.

• Reuse

The ultimate idea of this second R in the list is promotion of reusing the products more than once. If we try to understand the whole idea behind the concept of reutilisation, it links back to the idea of efficient waste management. Once reutilisation of items starts to get followed with serious concern, the environmental status begins to change.

• Recycle

Recycling the material that has been put to use is another way to promote effective waste reduction to a great extent. Recycling tetra packs, plastic bottles and containers along with paper not only promotes reduction in waste generation levels but also saves a lot of energy as well as resources that get used up in manufacturing new products, specifically keeping in mind the growing demands of the ever-increasing human population.

• Recover

Despite following the above mentioned three R’s quite strictly, the resources still get wasted,as keeping the usage under firm check at all times with such a huge population is a very tedious task to accomplish. Therefore, recovering and compensating for the loss incurred is as important as keeping a keen eye on unnecessary utilisation of various products and services.

To wrap up

At the end, I would just like to mention that this environment belongs to all of us collectively, and therefore, we all are incharge of whatever happens to it in the long run. There is no one else we can lean upon to bear the responsibility of maintaining a strong system of checks and balances on whatever is happening all around us.

All we have in our control is the way we act and behave when it comes to handling our mother nature.