The Roots of the Circular Economy

Responsibility and long-term thinking is all the rage. Individuals, companies, governments — everyone is focused on leaving a lighter footprint on the planet and treating nature’s resources with more respect to make sure we can use them to live a good life long into the future. But it wasn’t always like this. From a historical perspective — say, a few hundred years — resource stewardship has only been in vogue for a short time. Four or five decades ago, manufacturers in developed economies were dumping waste into rivers and lakes, and in many cases this is still happening in emerging and developing economies. And the concept of household recycling was as foreign to consumers as the thought of putting a man on the moon.