Circular Economy and Mining

As world population and per capita income grows at an unprecedented rate, it has created stress on the availability of resources and the environment of the earth (UN, 2022, Kharas & Seidel, 2018). Growing population and income require ever larger amounts of goods and services that necessitate larger amounts of resources. This process has created concerns about the adverse impacts on the environment, climate, and availability of resources that have been growing in tandem with population and income. Properly addressing these concerns requires a different way of looking at how society produces and use products. The traditional market view by society is a linear one. (UNITAD, 2018) We extract the resources we need, produce goods with them, use the goods, and then discard the waste from extraction and the products that are no longer wanted. Recycling of waste and used products only occurs when its direct monetary costs are less than those from using new resources. This approach ignores the limitations that exists within the production system and assumes that this process can go on forever at an increasing rate. In reality, there are limits to our ability to produce and discard products based on the availability of resources and the impact on the environment. Another way of approaching this cycle of production and use is needed to better address the increasing negative impacts caused by the linear approach. One such approach is known as the circular economy. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2022). This approach incorporates three basic principles in production and consumption: eliminate waste and negative environmental impacts as much as possible in products, keep products and their materials in use as long as possible, and give nature the opportunity to regenerate.