History of the circular economy. The historic development of circularity and the circular economy

Abstract

This chapter distinguishes four types of 'circularity', which exist in parallel in many parts of the world: (1) Circularity has been inherent in nature-water, CO2, matter and energy-and early humanity-reuse, barter and cascading. Sustainable consumption of natural capital-food, land and water-and the protection of the global commons is a necessity to conserve the carrying capacity of nature. (2) The early circular economy was driven by scarcity and poverty and based on the reuse and repurposing of objects and the skills of do-it-yourself and local craftsmen repairing individual objects-infrastructure, buildings and mobile goods-to maintain their value. (3) The circular industrial economy (CIE) focuses on managing stocks of natural, human, cultural and manufactured objects in a society of abundance. It started in the mid-twentieth century through research on the impact of extending the service life of objects on waste, jobs and energy and material resource. This research into an industrialisation of reuse, repair and remanufacturing showed the potential of the CIE as an alternative to the linear industrial economy. (4) The Performance Economy (PE) integrates the principles of the CIE and in addition retains the ownership of objects and as a consequence internalises the costs of liability, risks and waste. The PE sells the performance or function of objects by, for example, renting or leasing instead of selling them. Liability and control are redefined between owners and users (stewardship). Its fields of activities are broader and more competitive than those of the CIE because it embraces systems solutions and exploits prevention and sufficiency, in addition to efficiency and strategies.