‘Regenerative’ economy: the lesser-known part of the circular economy
The term, ‘circular economy’ is starting to be the centre of more and more environmental initiatives these days.
In a basic sense, it refers to an economy that doesn’t rely on our current model of extracting materials from the environment, using them, and then disposing of them in an unsustainable manner. How do we achieve this? According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, there are three core components:
- We decrease the amount of waste we make
- We keep more materials in use instead of throwing them away
- We transition to a ‘regenerative’ economy
Well, the first two are intuitive, but what does that last part really mean???
Think of the word ‘regenerate’. It’s about restoring something back, perhaps to a better form than it is right now. That’s the essence of a regenerative economy:
We shouldn’t just try to stop harming nature with our economy… We should try to actively restore it to a better form.
Now let’s make that more specific.
The Regenerative Economy in Agriculture
Now, that’s great in theory, but even better in implementation! One common example of creating a regenerative economy is found in agriculture. We’ve all seen the crowded images of current factory farming… anecdotally speaking, there’s a lot of potential to transition our current agricultural economy to a more regenerative one.
The evidence isn’t just anecdotal either. In both how we raise livestock and grow crops, current agriculture quantifiably degrades the quality of soils, leaks chemicals into the environment, and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at ENORMOUS scales (Source).
This is where innovators started to implement the vision of the regenerative economy. One example is the increasing use of a practice called rotational grazing to raise cattle and other grazing livestock. Farmers allow their livestock to move around across large natural environments as they would in natural herds.
This ensures that any one area of land doesn’t lose all its pasture and helps improve soil health. This doesn’t just stop harmful fertilisers and other chemicals from damaging the soil and contributing to desertification — it actively improves the health of the environment (ie. it regenerates it). Studies predict that this will save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few decades (Source).
The Regenerative Economy and Plastic Production
The same type of thinking can be applied to other areas of our economies — like how we produce and use plastic materials. Currently, about 50% of plastics are single-use, showing how our current system quite definitely could benefit from principles of the regenerative economy (Source).
So how to actively do good from our plastics usage instead of just not doing bad? One solution is to turn plastic waste into a monetisable currency. This idea stems from unlocking the inherent value in plastic material for a good cause.
Consider the following:
- there were over 7.82 trillion kilograms of plastic produced in total as of 2015 (Source).
- Prices for plastics fluctuate, but let’s just assume they were $0.01 USD per kg (several times lower than their average value — Source).
- That would mean we’ve created $78.2 BILLION of material value from these plastics (throughout time) in the absolute worst case.
In reality, this is a lot higher (due to higher average prices for plastic material) and unlocking value like this over time is the key to doing good with plastic.
The results of this can be seen with case studies of organisations like Plastic Bank. They enable new recycling infrastructure in developing countries and work with local community members (that often live in poverty) to collect recyclable plastics. This not only prevents plastics from entering open dumps that can leak them into the environment (Source), but ALSO does good from improving the livelihoods of these local waste collectors.
Again, plastic materials and agriculture aren’t the only aspects of the regenerative economy! A truly regenerative economy needs to incorporate this shift in vision to all industries — where every product manufactured, used, and reused goes towards not just minimising bad, but actively promoting good.
Overall, this is one of the largest visions to aim towards in all aspects of our economy, but it’s not just a theoretical utopia as we’ve seen in many cases. The regenerative economy will be a key part of our transition to the future of the ‘circular economy’ and it’s up to us to support that vision and unlock its benefits.
