In this second part, the concept of Circular Economy is developed in a general way to later analyze it within the paints and coatings industry.
by M.Sc. Ph.D. Julián A. Restrepo R.*
In the first part of the article, a chronological summary of environmental concern was presented, which influences the main concept of the article and should be considered in the formulation of coatings. Now it will be developed in concept of Circular Economy in a general scope.
The concept of Circular Economy: Without including in detail many other related environmental meetings and summits, the above chronology allowed us to show that between the 70s and 90s (30 years), we had 5 global meetings on Sustainability, while from 2000 to date (18 years), we have had the same number of meetings, indicating that the interest of world leaders and their respective countries has almost doubled sustainability issues.
Many have suggested that "waste is a resource in the wrong place" [14]. Also, from the point of view of Sustainable Chemistry, the best waste is the one that does not exist. In this sense, the term "Circular Economy" emerges as a globalizing term of many of the aspects related to Sustainable Development. The term "Circular Economy" was first used in Western literature in 1980 to describe in a closed system, the interactions between economy and environment [15].
There are many motivations that have led to the conclusion that the current production and consumption system of "extracting, manufacturing and discarding" needs a transformation towards another model, which allows limited resources to be used in a more sustainable and efficient way, leading to a more competitive and low-carbon economy. It is what is known as the transition from a linear economy, to a "Circular Economy" [16].
This is how the "Circular Economy" can be defined as a strategy that aims to reduce both the entry of materials and the production of virgin waste, closing the economic and ecological cycles or flows of resources. The analysis of physical flows of resources comes from the school of thought of industrial ecology in which material flows are of two types:
Biological nutrients: Designed to be reintroduced into the biosphere without incident
Technical nutrients: Which are designed to circulate with high quality in the production system, but do not return to the biosphere
An important result of this scheme is the idea of optimizing systems rather than components, or the idea of "bespoke design". As a generic idea, it frames a number of more concrete approaches that include the concepts of cradle to cradle, biomimicry, industrial ecology and the so-called "Blue Economy" (a holistic and innovative concept in the business approach, but which deserves another writing to deal with it in depth) [17]. The "Circular Economy" is most often described as a framework for thinking, where its followers claim that it is a more coherent model that has value as a response to the end of the era of cheap materials and fuels [18].
On the other hand, despite the proven importance of the "Circular Economy" approach, there are those who claim that it continues to go round and round, but no one knows exactly where we are. We know that the concept comes from a long time, and although it was finished coined a decade ago, more and more companies, consultants and even cities are subscribed to the idea that consists, essentially, in "curving" the linear economy with which we have worked so far: Produce, use and throw away. With the current system, we are living above the limits of the planet. Resources will run out, and that is a message that companies capture on the fly. The transition is underway and it is time to adapt, out of pure common sense and for the good of the planet [19].
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [20]
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, are a universal call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
These 17 Goals are based on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, quantified and chronological targets, which the world has set to fight extreme poverty in its different dimensions. Hence the concept of multidimensional poverty) [21], although they include new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities. The Goals are often interrelated to the key to one's success that will involve the issues most often linked to another.
The SDGs carry a spirit of collaboration and pragmatism to choose the best options in order to improve life, in a sustainable way, for future generations. They provide clear guidelines and targets for adoption by all countries in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large. The SDGs are an inclusive agenda. They address the root causes of poverty and unite us to bring about positive change for the benefit of people and the planet.
The issue is that, from the author's point of view, their adoption can be complicated if a misreading and interpretation of these is made (poverty reduction, education, search for equality, etc.), since many of them are the workhorse of political populism (both right and left), which often makes the public distort the benefits of their adoption, due to a handling of various political figures with an electoral spirit.
Small dictionary of environmental terms
Considering it of interest and to generate more clarity, below, I will present the definition of a series of terms associated with Sustainability:
- Life Cycle Analysis (LCA): Design tool that investigates and evaluates the environmental impacts of a product or service during all stages of its existence: extraction, production, distribution, use and end of life (reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal/disposal of waste/disposal). It makes it possible to clearly establish the environmental impacts of a product, process or service [22].
- Carrying capacity: The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size that the environment can support indefinitely in a given period, taking into account the food, water, habitat, and other necessary elements available in that environment [23].
- Earth Charter: International Declaration of Principles and Progressive Proposals. The Earth Charter affirms that environmental protection, human rights, equal development and peace are interdependent and indivisible [24].
- Green purchasing: Part of the sustainable consumption model that the UN has been promoting since the Rio summit in 1992, and whose central axis is the Marrakesh Declaration, which gave a decisive impulse to sustainable public procurement [25].
- Eco-efficiency: it is defined as providing goods and services at a competitive price, satisfying human needs and quality of life, while progressively reducing the environmental impact and intensity of resource utilization throughout the life cycle, to a level compatible with the estimated capacity that the Planet can support [26].
- Eco-innovation: Development of products and processes that contribute to sustainable development, applying knowledge and commercial strategies to generate ecological improvements directly and indirectly. The above includes a number of ideas related to ecologically friendly technological advances to build a beneficial path to sustainability [27].
- Ecointelligence: It is the ability to develop products and services designed so that from their creation to the end of their useful life they are beneficial for the Environment [28].
- Ecoproduct, green product, organic product: Product made from a plant material, excluding those derived from organic chemistry. Its manufacturing process is not harmful to the environment or its users [29].
- Ecological Footprint: Indicator of the environmental impact generated by the human demand that is made of the existing resources in the ecosystems of the planet, relating it to the ecological capacity of the Earth to regenerate its resources [30].
- Ecological Intelligence: Ability to live trying to harm nature as little as possible. It consists of understanding what consequences the decisions we make in our day to day have on the environment and trying, as far as possible, to choose the most beneficial for the health of the planet [31].
- Green Marketing: Marketing of products that are shown to be environmentally preferable over others. In this way, green marketing incorporates a wide range of activities, including modification of products, changes to sustainable packaging production processes, as well as the modification of advertising [32].
- Environmentally friendly product: One that produces minimal damage to the natural environment in each and every one of the phases of its existence [33].
- Green Chemistry, Ecological, Sustainable or Sustainable Chemistry: Chemical philosophy directed towards the design of chemical products and processes that involves the reduction or elimination of chemicals (for materials, people and the environment) [34].
- Carbon footprint reduction: Measures that can be taken to reduce emissions related to transport, food, domestic energy consumption, water consumption and waste management [35].
- Corporate social responsibility: Active and voluntary contribution to social, economic and environmental improvement by companies, generally with the aim of improving their competitive, valuable situation and their added value. The organization's joint performance appraisal system in these areas is known as the triple bottom line [36].
- Social Sustainability: Adopting values that generate behaviors such as the value of nature, mainly maintaining harmonious and satisfactory levels of education, training and awareness since this way you support the population of a country to improve themselves, refers to maintaining a good standard of living in the population of a country, in the social aspects or the enrolment of the same people to create something new in the society where they are part [37].
- Triple result: Term related to sustainable business, which refers to the performance of a company expressed in three dimensions: social, economic and environmental. The evidence of performance in relation to the triple result is manifested in the sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports. Until 2009, the development and publication of these were still voluntary and evolutionary throughout the world [38].
Note: In the third and last part of this article, the concept of Circular Economy applied to the paints and coatings industry will be developed.
References
[14] http://www.comunicarseweb.com.ar/noticia/como-hacer-dinero-con-la-basura-5-casos-de-exito-de-la-economia-circular
[15] https://www.oecd.org/china/44293445.pdf
[16] http://www.foretica.org/tematicas/economia-circular-3/
[17] https://www.ecointeligencia.com/2012/05/economia-azul-gunter-pauli/
[18] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Econom%C3%ADa_circular#Or%C3%ADgenes
[19] http://www.elcorreodelsol.com/articulo/el-mapeo-global-de-la-economia-circular
[20] http://www.undp.org/content/undp/es/home/sustainable-development-goals.html
[21] http://portal.onu.org.do/republica-dominicana/objetivos-desarrollo-milenio/7
[22] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/An%C3%A1lisis_de_ciclo_de_vida
[23] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacidad_de_carga
[24] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta_de_la_Tierra
[25] http://www.ambientebogota.gov.co/web/publicaciones-sda/guia-de-compras-verdes
[26] https://www.ecointeligencia.com/2015/11/ecoeficiencia/
[27] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-innovaci%C3%B3n
[28] https://www.ecointeligencia.com/2013/02/10-definiciones-sostenibilidad/
[29] http://www.ecocert.com/es/ecoproductos
[30] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huella_ecol%C3%B3gica
[31] https://www.elblogalternativo.com/2009/05/31/inteligencia-ecologica-de-daniel-goleman/
[32] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_verde
[33] http://www.ambientum.com/revista/2002_27/USOS4.asp
[34] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu%C3%ADmica_sostenible
[35] http://www.who.int/world-health-day/toolkit/annexe%201-S.pdf
[36] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsabilidad_social_corporativa
[37] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sostenibilidad#Sostenibilidad_Pol.C3.ADtica
[38] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_resultado
* M.Sc. Ph.D. Julián A. Restrepo R. Advisor and Technical Consultant in Coatings President STAR (Association of Andean Technicians in Coatings). Mail: [email protected] - Medellín, Colombia.
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