Re-balancing the system

I was struck by the CEO of Circular Communities Scotland, Michael Cook’s description of the strategy required to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

He was giving evidence at the recent Scottish Parliament’s, Net Zero, Environment and Transport (NZET) Committee who are overseeing the scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s proposed Circular Economy Bill.

His plea was for a more ‘top down’ approach to the traditional waste hierarchy recognising that moving up the waste hierarchy from the bottom, one rung at a time, although felt pragmatic, was out of kilter with the climate emergency both in terms of pace but also in terms of impact if the objective is about reducing carbon emissions. He also argued that a greater focus on action at the top in respect to reuse, repair and reducing consumption would establish greater synergies with local economic and social ambitions thus aiding a more inclusive and fairer society both at home and abroad.

He was perhaps, inadvertently pointing out that the traditional waste hierarchy approach is, in itself, outdated or even irrelevant when we are discussing the shift to a circular economy. ?Rather than a ladder to be climbed, sustainable resource management and the circular economy are more like two disparate paradigms uncomfortably cast together as answers to the same riddle. Viewed differently we can see that the lower half of the ladder is very much about treating the symptoms whilst the top rungs embrace upstream actions to prevent the malaise in the first place.

Seeing our waste and recycling conundrum through these two distinct lenses will help us plan more strategically for the shift to a more sustainable, fairer future. Similar thinking is at the heart of discussions on health where there is universal acceptance of the need to have a whole system view of the issues and opportunities that prevention provides rather than simply focusing on the costs and state of the NHS as the necessary provider of treatment services.

Recent local authority events I have attended have been full of passionate articulation of the role local authorities play in the preventative end of the health and care system – not just on the provision of care at home services but the maintenance and support of wider community assets supporting the life chances of citizens including education, leisure, diet, and local jobs all of which support citizens to live healthier lives thus negating downstream demand on more recognisable health services.

A similar preventative approach to waste needs to be at the heart of the debate on the circular economy transition. With budgets and policy focused so much on the downstream impacts of waste whether it is collection or disposal it is no wonder the debate is too often centred around the treatment of the problem and its affordability rather than its prevention in the first place.

I’ve long championed local authorities as the bridge to a more circular future – not just because they run waste and recycling services; although these could power more local opportunities for circular businesses to take root and prosper. But councils possess a wider role to promote, enable and facilitate bespoke actions on the ground through partnership working, developing local circular economy strategies, supporting capacity building with stakeholders, alignment of procurement in favour of circular approaches to service and product delivery, developing the infrastructure for reuse and repair, supporting business innovation as well as shaping planning and other regulatory obligations to strengthen the case for circularity and achieve wider positive environmental and social impacts. There is also the opportunity for local authorities to work proactively together to influence national and international producers and supply chains to adopt more sustainable material strategies to the benefit of the citizens they represent. ???

The circular economy transition requires local authorities to be empowered to shift their focus to the prevention end of the system – to develop local and regional strategies for infrastructure and partnerships for more circular and sustainable approaches to thrive. Broadening the scope of investment will unleash ambition and innovation and allow more alignment with wider local government ambitions around tackling poverty, addressing inequalities as well as realising more place-based well-being opportunities.

Our current ambitions for a circular economy often feel hamstrung by the lack of a whole system approach. In many ways we seem to be looking for a miracle cure to our waste issues by re-defining the treatment options at the end of pipe. Surely there is a more compelling case for greater investment upstream to reduce demand on our waste services, not just funding the collecting and disposing and being reactive to the trends and challenges of material and product consumption. Rather than a ladder we have to climb, the journey to a circular economy is about rebalancing a system which strengthens the power of prevention over the treatment of the problem.