Circularity – Why circular economy is important for Cornwall?

Prof. Peter HopkinsonDirector of the University Exeter Centre for Circular Economy

Circular Economy Summit 2019Grow Your Business Through Collaboration

The idea of a circular economy

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Beyond recycling

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• Design out waste and pollution

• Keep products and materials in use

• Regenerate natural systems

Economic Context: What we observe▪ Material prices increasing

▪ Material price volatility increased and high risk

▪ Critical materials with– Low recapture/recycling rates, few

substitutes

▪ Economic systems perspective with (too) narrow scope and skewed incentives

▪ Evidence of exceeding planetary boundaries

Price

Volatility

Scarcity

Economic context

Circular Economy as Local Industrial Policy• Circular Charlotte: Towards a Zero Waste

and Inclusive City, found the North Carolina city’s 900,000 tons of annual waste represent a residual value of roughly $111 million per year. By simply adopting a comprehensive waste diversion strategy, Charlotte could create more than 2,000 jobs by harnessing material instead of dumping it into ever-growing landfills &$2.3 billion in revenue by 2040.

•

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Circular Economy as Place based Local Industrial Policy

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Using regional assets, material flows and local pride and entrepreneurship towards policies

that drive a restorative and circular development model that empowers

organizations and communities to do well by doing good – to generate economic prosperity

through closed-loop and circular resource management, ecosystem restoration, and social

enrichment.

Challenges• Need for overarching vision, ambition, leadership

and funding • Disconnect between current assets, infrastructure,

material flows and other areas of policy e.g. social –education- health policies

• Huge amount of local and regional initiatives - needs joining up and integrating – show the business case

• But….

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-Herman Mulder, Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative