From waste to resource: Embracing circular production

Recently we explored upstream processes and how we go about decarbonizing the building blocks of the modern world. But what happens during the production and use of the final product?

We live in an age of planned obsolescence, where focus is typically on the next big thing rather than extending the life of an existing product. Take smartphones, for instance. The quest to rapidly manufacture ever quicker, sleeker, and more powerful devices, means that the design and production process has become increasingly sophisticated. The result are products that are not designed to be dismantled but sealed units to be replaced rather than repaired – when the screen breaks or the battery wears out, for instance. Indeed, according to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum, around 5.3 billion phones were thrown away in 2022 alone - this amounts to 169 phones dumped every second?!

This is costing both consumers and the environment – according to the European Commission - ECHO , the premature disposal of consumer goods produces 261 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions, generates 35 million tonnes of waste in the EU?, and costs European consumers about €12 billion each year. We can only imagine what these figures would look like when extrapolated worldwide.

Things are changing, however. Regulations such as the European Union’s “Right to repair” look to address this issue, encouraging a move away from the cycle of continuous replacement. The new rules require manufacturers to provide timely and cost-effective repair services, while giving consumers more support to extend their product’s lifecycle, such as through vouchers to make repair affordable and better access to spare parts, tools and repair information.

There is also a growing adoption of modular approaches to manufacturing across multiple sectors, from personal electronics to building construction. The benefits of moving to a more modular world, where products are made of integrated components that can be replaced, are threefold:

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1.???? Modular technology extends product life – what if you could switch out a part of your device, rather than buy a whole new one when hardware standards change? When you scale this up to an industry such as construction, it can be game-changing.

2.???? Repairability and reusability cuts waste – what if all our products (and not only smartphones) were designed with circularity in mind? It’s estimated that 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined during the design stage. And given that the world generates around 2 billion tonnes of garbage annually, as notes @The World Bank, this change couldn’t come soon enough!

3.???? Key materials can be recovered – what happens when a product designed for circularity reaches its end of life? It can start a new one afresh. It is easily broken apart; enabling recyclers to recover key materials and ingredients.

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Circling back

Fittingly, this brings us full circle. Because of course recyclability and repairability aren’t just good for customers: they help us tackle head-on some of the biggest and most intractable problems in today’s most polluting upstream industries.

Take copper, for example. As I noted previously, it is one of the most important materials in the world, playing an indispensable role in our electricity and power infrastructure.

To meet demand, more copper may be needed from extraction, but a huge amount can be sourced from recycling. Indeed, of the 26.7 million tonnes of copper used globally between 2009 and 2018, 32% was sourced through recycling. Scrap copper retains 95% of its value compared with the original material, and 80% of all the copper ever mined remains in use today. It’s not just copper either; more than two thirds of the USA’s steel is produced using recycled scrap steel.

And thanks to innovative new business models, this is increasingly becoming the case for other critical materials too. Take Swedish venture @Northvolt, which is turning to scrapyards to recover black mass (a compound containing nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium) from discarded batteries. It’s a great example of the rise in urban mining as we increasingly realize the potential value in our waste.

Imagine the power of this becoming commonplace for other products as well. For instance, some estimates suggest that a single tonne of discarded smartphones can deliver 300 times more gold than a tonne of gold ore and 6.5 times more silver than a tonne of silver ore!

Visibility from source to sale to second use

If we really want to transition from our linear take-make-waste world, we need a radically deepened understanding of our value networks. How a product is combined with others at every step of the production process provides clarity as to what the end-product is and what its potential after first-use may be. This is crucial for product circularity: recyclers can only be effective if they actually know what it is that they are recycling and how to best do it.

Legislation like the EU’s digital battery passport is responding to this challenge, obligating battery makers to provide virtual documentation, accessible via a scanned code, showing future recyclers exactly what materials, in what quantities, a given battery contains. But policy alone won’t truly move the needle. For that, we need stakeholders across the value chain to see for themselves and demonstrate this clarity and traceability to reimagine and realize a more circular product lifecycle.

This is where digital tools can be the enabler. For a truly circular, sustainable supply chain, we need visibility embedded at every step of the way?. Only then will we ensure that every decision made is the one made with the greatest possible impact.

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