FROM CIRCLE TO POINT

There is a metaphorical term which describes the link, in the field of the flux of materials and energies, between society and nature: social metabolism.

The social metabolic process has begun since the human race had appropriated nature’s materials and energies which, with “linear” methods, consists in raw materials’ exploitation, one by one, with the false assumption that those will not exhaust themselves, despite the ever-rising increase in of demand;the“circular” method, instead, as the metaphor explains, assumes a wholly self-sustaining organism.

Thus, circular economy is:

” An economic system conceived to regenerate endlessly by itself, granting in this fashion its sustainability“.

It is about employing as many biological resources as possible, following the principle whereby the waste of a factory becomes another one’s raw material and, concerning non-degradable materials, to employ them over and over again differently: in facts, according to the definition of circular economy given by Ellen MacArthur foundation, we can distinguish two kinds of resource flux:

-Biological resources, that can be reinstated in the biosphere

-Technical resources,that can be used otherwise, although they don’t enter the biosphere

The concept of “circular economy”

arose in contrast to the term “linear economy” which describes that type of production in which raw materials are continuously extracted to produce goods that quickly become waste, and then start over with a new extraction and a new purchase.

The idea of circularity in the field of economy was inspired by non-linear retroaction mechanisms that characterize all living beings, assuming that an economic system should work as an organism in which the nutrient compounds, processed and metabolized, return in nature (in this case, forming a closed cycle, indeed, or self-regenerating).

By now, circular economy has become a primal necessity to overcome the unmanagable quantity of waste produced by the production of disposable and non-degradable products;

alternative resources (first of all solar energy) can fight the release of greenhouse gases, which causes global warming.

Biological components are non-toxic and can be composted, promoting long-living products with a minimum energy waste: this -and their further reuse, would lead to no rubbish. In addition, as a closed circuit, it has to always reconsider its own chances, making the system’s evolution always an open and of high priority possibility.

But, to adopt a circular aproach, there is necessity for a radical change in perspective on the aims and applications of commercial products, to review “in toto” the entire supply chain functioning.

DIFFERENT EXPECTATIONS FOR DIFFERENT GENERATIONS

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