Building a Circular Economy in Small Communities

We May Already Be Building a Circular Economy

When we talk about creating a circular economy, it can sound like something we need to start someday.

A new program. A new strategy. A new facility. Perhaps even an entirely new way of organizing our community.

But after spending considerable time looking more closely at circular-economy transition pathways, I’ve begun wondering whether we’re asking the wrong question.

What if the transition has already started?

Look around our community.

We have recycling. We have a bottle depot. We collect household organics. We have a makerspace. We hold Repair Cafés where residents fix things instead of throwing them away, alongside a Trade Table where useful items can find another home. We even have a vertical growing facility that demonstrates another way of thinking about local food production.

None of these things, by itself, creates a circular economy.

But building a circular economy in a small community may not begin with one large project or strategy. It may begin by recognizing the pathways that already exist.

But perhaps that’s not how transitions happen.

Perhaps they begin as projects.

Projects become pathways.

And, when those pathways begin connecting with one another, they can eventually become systems.

From Projects to Pathways

A project usually begins because somebody sees a problem that can be solved.

Something is being wasted.

Something costs too much.

A useful resource is being thrown away.

A skill is disappearing.

A community need isn’t being met.

So we build something, organize something or try something new.

That’s important—but the circular-economy question comes next:

Where can this lead?

Consider our Repair Café.

On the surface, it is a fairly simple project. Someone brings in a broken appliance, lamp, sewing machine or other household item and works with a volunteer to see whether it can be repaired.

But follow that activity a little farther.

The product stays in use longer. Waste is avoided. The owner may avoid the cost of replacing it. Repair knowledge is shared. Skills are maintained and developed. Tools are put to productive use.

The project has created a pathway.

And that pathway could eventually connect with others.

What if a future local maker could manufacture a replacement component?

What if recovered material could become the raw material used to make it?

What if repair skills eventually supported a small local business?

Now we’re beginning to talk about a system.

The Same Question Applies to Our Materials

We already separate many materials from our garbage.

But collecting something isn’t necessarily the end of its story.

For every material we recover, we can begin asking:

Where does it go?

What does it become?

Could some of that value remain closer to home?

Our organics collection is a good example. We put food scraps and other organic material into a separate stream. My next question is one I still need to investigate: where does that material go, how is it processed, and where does the resulting resource end up?

That’s not criticism of the existing program.

It’s simply the next circular-economy question.

The same thinking can eventually be applied to cardboard, glass, plastics and many other materials.

Instead of seeing them only as things we need to dispose of responsibly, we begin seeing them as potential resources looking for their next use.

A Circular Economy Is More Than Recycling

This is perhaps the most important distinction.

Recycling is one activity within a circular economy.

A circular economy is much larger.

It asks how we keep products useful longer, recover materials when products finally reach the end of their lives, regenerate natural systems, develop local skills, reduce unnecessary resource consumption and create new economic value from resources we already have.

That means a Repair Café belongs in the conversation.

So does a makerspace.

So does composting.

So does local food production.

So does reuse.

And so do businesses that repair, refurbish, manufacture or find productive uses for materials that might otherwise leave the community as waste.

Connecting What We Have Already Started

I don’t think we can say that Diamond Valley has built a circular economy.

We haven’t.

But I do think we can begin recognizing that some of the pieces already exist.

Perhaps the next step isn’t immediately creating another project.

Perhaps it is mapping the ones we already have.

What resources enter our community?

What resources leave?

What are we throwing away?

What are we already recovering?

What skills do we have locally?

Where could one existing project provide a resource, material or opportunity for another?

Those questions turn isolated projects into potential pathways.

And pathways are how systems begin to form.

The more I study this subject, the more convinced I become that building a circular economy in a small community doesn’t necessarily begin with some enormous new initiative.

Links

Circular Economy Series https://www.sustainablelife.biz/category/circular-economy-series/

It may begin by looking carefully at what we’ve already built—and then asking how the pieces could work together.

Perhaps the question isn’t, “How do we start a circular economy?”

Perhaps it’s, “How do we connect what we’ve already started?”

Sustainability grows when we share it.