The Sunday News
Mugove Emmanuel Hamadziripi
CIRCULAR Economy is defined as a regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimised by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops.
This can be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, re-manufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling. Today, the world economic system is well established, and in the process, goods are being produced, utilised and eventually discarded, exemplifying a linear economy, where the flow has both a clear beginning and end.
If an economy is circular, it functions differently, as both products and services are designed in a way that allows them to be reused, either in the biological or technical cycles. As Zimbabwe is awakening from slumber, it is expected that our products have to be manufactured in a way so they can be disassembled or stripped and nature will help break down the materials, or they can be simply returned to production.
Biological materials wholly consisting of non-toxic, clean feeds and technical materials should be designed to be a resource to be used industrially again. The goal is to throw nothing away and to reduce the need for purchasing new commodities, while production and transportation is best achieved with renewable energy.
Distinctly, the circular economy is a different way to do business in the 21st century, thereby Zimbabwean companies have to rethink everything from how to design and manufacture products to their relationships with customers.
In the whole web or process, the customer plays a pivotal role. The focus is no longer on consumption, but instead on the use of a function.
This places different demands on the business community to build long-term relationships in their business models. The advantage of a circular economy in this case is simple, industries or companies benefit from each other’s success in this cascade of different cycles.
In the circular economy, the goal is all about retaining value. As such, the better the integrity of the product is preserved, the more value is retained in the whole value chain or cascade of different cycles. Today, the world is experiencing a waste problem. It is estimated that in 2019, the world binned or discarded between 300 to 400 tonnes of plastic, nearly equivalent to the weight of the human population.
Scientists expect there could be more plastic than fish in our rivers, seas and oceans in the next two or three decades (UNEP 2021). One year’s electronic waste weighs in at more than 50 million tonnes. And while far too many people still go hungry, we waste a third of all the food produced.
The question, though rhetoric arises, how will Zimbabwe benefit by Building a Circular Economy?
Zimbabwean companies or industries need to shift their traditional way of thinking and build a circular economy — where waste and pollution are designed out in the first place; products and materials stay in use for much longer; and natural systems can regenerate.
Taken objectively, circular economy isn’t solely an environmental topic or rhetoric. The concept or model simply makes social and economic sense to make better use of our limited and scarce resources by designing a system to avoid waste and keep materials in use for longer periods of time. (A stubborn fact being that: there is 100 times more gold in a tonne of discarded mobile phones than there is in a tonne of gold ore. If we reduce food loss and waste by just a quarter, we could feed almost five million people in Zimbabwe.
We suggest at least three ways for Zimbabwe to sift towards a Circular Economy:
Consume Less: The circular economy focuses on better use of natural resources, and the simple fact is that many of us consume far too much. For most of our companies, the consumption issue is often the “elephant in the boardroom,” as the fundamental principle of most business models is selling more products to more people.
However, disrupting that mentality will require business innovation, policy support and consumer demand.
2. Consume Better: A circular economy is not only about consuming less; it’s also about consuming better. For consumers, this can mean choosing versions of products that have been produced in more sustainable ways or that can be recycled. There should be an extensive consumer awareness of sustainability in Zimbabwe, and in the process, brands are expected to do what is right.
3. Create Systemic Change: Consumers can only do so much when the entire economy is built on the take-make-waste model. What Zimbabwe needs is a systemic change, so that sustainability doesn’t only depend on consumer choices. The core principle of a circular economy is that products should be designed to last, with component parts or materials that can be used again.
Mugove Hamadziripi writes about/ consults on Development, Media, Urbanism, ERP, Communications, Community, Policy/ Politics, Sustainability and the Environment. He consults with the Centre for Impact Evaluation and Research Design and Erongo Consulting Group. He can be reached [email protected], Twitter: @mhamadziripi.
