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Circular Economy

What is a circular economy?

The demand for resources is increasing globally. This leads to growing scarcity and increasing pressure on the environment. Therefore, the government collaborates with businesses and civil society to manage resources more efficiently and intelligently. The goal: a fully circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050. But what exactly is a circular economy?

From a linear to a circular economy

In a circular economy, there is hardly any waste, and products and resources are continually reused. In a linear economy, resources are extracted to produce products that, after use, are burned or disposed of as waste. In a circular economy, the focus is on preserving resources by maintaining the value of products, discarded product parts, and materials. The image below from PBL illustrates the difference between the current linear economy and the future circular economy.

In a circular economy, we are less dependent on extracting new resources. Instead, products and materials we already have are reused continuously. When a product is broken, it is repaired. And if that’s no longer possible, new products are made from it. If we really can’t use it anymore, the resource exits the economy as waste. However, we should try to prevent this as much as possible.

Six circular strategies

A circular economy is about preserving resources by maintaining the value of products, discarded product parts, and materials. You can preserve the value of resources by applying the circular strategies from the R-ladder. These are also called the R-strategies, usually consisting of 6 to 9 ‘steps.’ We use the same R-ladder as in the National Circular Economy Program.

The R-ladder indicates the degree of circularity. This R-ladder has 6 steps (R1 to R6) representing different circularity strategies. Strategies higher on the ladder save more resources. The higher a strategy is on the R-Ladder, the more circular it is, with R1 being the highest step.

R1. Refuse and Rethink

  • Make the product unnecessary by refraining from its function or delivering a radically different product immediately.
  • Intensify product use (e.g., by sharing products or using multifunctional products).

R2. Reduce

  • Use resources more efficiently by reducing resource consumption during production and product use.

R3. Re-use

  • Reuse of discarded but still good products in the same function by a different user.

R4. Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, and Repurpose

  • Repair and maintain a broken product for use in its old function.
  • Refurbish and/or modernize an old product.
  • Use parts of a discarded product in a new product with the same or a different function.

R5. Recycling

  • Process materials into resources with the same (high grade) or lesser (low grade) quality than the original raw material.

R6. Recover

  • Burning materials with energy recovery.

Source: PBL

 

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