This week, World Circular Economy Forum takes place in Brussels with over 2,000 business leaders, policymakers, and experts participating from around the world. It’s an outstanding initiative that aims to further the development of circular solutions in all industries and services. The WCEF is not the only forum for the enhancement of the circular economy – next week we have the LOOP Forum in Copenhagen, there is the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance and most of us have heard of Ellen McArthur Foundation for Circular Economy.
And yes, we see progress in how much we talk about “circular economy”. According to Circle Economy Foundation “…over the past five years, the number of discussions, debates, and articles related to the circular economy has almost tripled…”.
But are we walking the talk?
Apparently not! And especially not in the Nordics!
According to the Circularity Gap Report 2024 the Global Circularity Rate is falling steadily. Now down to 7.2% from 9.2% five years ago. That’s a 21% drop. And during the same five years, we have consumed 28% of all the materials that we have consumed since 1900.
In the Nordic region, Denmark grapples with a circularity rate of just 4%, significantly below the global average of 7.2%. Norway faces an even more daunting challenge with a circularity rate of only 2.4%. Meanwhile, Sweden struggles to recycle only a mere 3.4% of its resources, indicating that over 96% of Sweden’s resources originate from virgin sources. These figures underscore significant hurdles in transitioning towards more sustainable resource management models across the Nordic countries.
Worldwide less than 1% of all textiles are recycled into new products. And 4-9% of all textiles are thrown away even before being sold.
At the WCEF, Peter Tom Jones, director at the KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals exposed some of the myths of Circular Economy, pointing out that:
- there will always be losses in the circularity process.
- that recycling can be both expensive and polluting.
- that end-of-life streams from obsolete products are not necessarily providing the materials we need now.
Add to this that many materials will never be circulated, simply because they are being consumed: fuel, food, feed, fertiliser, to name few.
So even if we at Nordic Insights really love the concept of circularity, we trust in data. And the data shows that we have a very big problem and circular economy doesn’t have the solutions. (Yet!)
While we continue the discussions and the development of new, innovative, circular approaches, we CAN embrace the proven solution, which is simply… to use less!
Our forthcoming, “Nordic Insights”, will delve further into the circular economy, providing more of the data we cherish so much.
đź‘€ Stay tuned!
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