Circular Economy - Virtuous Circle Tour

The circular economy is hailed as a driver for Europe’s future competitiveness, and globally it is seen as the response to an impending resource crisis. But what does that mean in your neighbourhood? or for your company? Is it really my problem as long as I put my waste out for recycling?
We do have to recycle more waste, but once you throw it away that product, food or  packaging has already lost so much value and potential. The circular economy is about getting maximum value from what we use at all stages in the cycle. It is about designing products that last longer, about reducing waste, about sharing, about repairing, about remanufacturing.
In fact the benefits from circularity come from keeping the value of resources in our economies, from maximising returns from each kilo of material, and where possible avoiding waste altogether. And when we really need to throw away, it is about getting extracting as much value from those materials again by injecting them back into the economy.
Getting this value means potential revenues, profits and jobs, and of course more utility for citizens. But it also requires systemic approaches and that means bringing together those working at different parts of the cycle, both public and private.

"Virtuous Circle"

A “virtuous circle” is a complex chain of events that reinforce themselves through a feedback loop leading to favourable results. On the contrary, a “vicious circle” is a loop with detrimental results.

Circular economy solutions are complex, but their beauty is that often a few key changes or “nudges” can lead to a “virtuous circle”. For example separate collection of glass, paper, biowaste and plastic in a city makes it pointless to put those materials in landfill or burn them. Somebody can process them and make them valuable. Separate collection makes it viable to recycle, creating value and jobs.
The Virtuous Circle events are designed to identify the ideas and the actions that can set circularity in motion.