By Gautam Mehra, Director, Paripatram Solutions
The circular economy is widely discussed in various sectors, such as Government, private and public sectors, private equity investors, and non-government organisations. Information technology has been the driving force for the world economy over the last three decades. The IT revolution captured the imagination of the masses, like the Industrial Revolution, which occurred more than two centuries ago.
Human capacity has been enhanced with AI and is evident in its use across sectors. Electronics and IT are two of the most rapidly expanding industries globally. Currently, the top three companies in the world in terms of stock exchange valuation are involved in producing IT or electronic products. The sector’s growth has advanced the world in terms of ease of living through economic progress, effective and fast communication, and infrastructure
enhancements. Nevertheless, the costs we incur to reach this goal include electronic waste, the exhaustion of resources, and environmental degradation.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals aim to promote fair growth and development globally by 2030. Several vital goals point towards the importance of implementing a Circular Economy when looking through the lens of materials and their use to power the IT revolution. Enhancing livelihoods through the value chain of waste to implement a circular economy increases stakeholders income. This helps implement SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The development of infrastructure and behaviour change helps implement SDGs 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 and impacts SDGs 13, 14, and 15. The electronics sector must move towards a circular economy to ensure sustainability. The general principles which will help to implement a circular economy are:
● Design better products that can be used for a more extended period
● Reduce process waste through the use of technology
● Increase the life of the product through repair and refurbishment
● Improve collection systems so that the waste can be channelled for recycling
● Encourage recycling through investment in infrastructure and technology
● Develop a market for secondary raw materials extracted during recycling processes through proper policy prescriptions and incentives for stakeholders
A circular economy does not set in when an electronic product becomes e-waste. The tenets of circular economy are embedded in the design of the product. As the demand for materials has increased, resource efficiency has led to the development of composite designs. This has made recycling costlier and inefficient and inhibits the implementation of the circular economy. Furthermore, while manufacturing and production have made significant advances in the
development of products, the end-of-life stage technology development to extract resources needs to catch up. The pace of development of such technology has to increase, and investments need to be channelised to ensure the flow of secondary raw materials into production processes.
Earth is the only inhabitable planet in the solar system where humanity thrives and survives. Resources from the earth are finite and have been extracted to power the demand for growth and development. The world has been extracting more than the planet can replenish in the last seven decades. The loss of natural resources through their use to power growth has tipped the scales towards greed more than the generation’s need.
However, the circular economy is not limited to electronics. In daily life, all products we use have embedded circular economy principles. Plastics, vehicles, food, metals, etc., become waste beyond their obsolescence. These can be converted into resources that can power manufacturing of products. To ensure this becomes a reality, one needs to follow the principles of the circular economy, as stated above.
The IT and electronics sector has fuelled growth over the last three decades and is resource-intensive. A mobile phone that fits into the palm has scores of metals that go into its manufacturing. Similarly, modern-day electronic devices are manufactured using precious metals and rare earths. These are found in finite quantities and cannot be replenished. To ensure their continued use in manufacturing, recycling of e-waste is paramount. The inherent capability of metals to maintain their molecular structure and properties will ensure that the performance of products is always maintained.
The circular economy implementation creates a triple-bottom-line impact. Integrating stakeholders from the last mile collector to the recycler helps the social upgradation of those at the bottom of the pyramid. Sustainable livelihood creation across the waste value chain ensures economic prosperity. Waste reduction through its channelisation into recycling and extraction of secondary raw materials powers production and manufacturing and mitigates environmental impact through reduced mining and carbon emissions from waste.
Implementing a circular economy depends on a wide array of factors. Integration of stakeholders, development of policy frameworks and prescriptions, behaviour change, and development of infrastructure and technology are a few key aspects that need to come together so that circular economy business models can be successfully implemented.
India today stands at the cusp of implementing a circular economy. Focusing on different missions, including Make in India, Skill India, and Clean India, ensures livelihood creation and stakeholder integration. Schemes and incentives ensure informal actors' formalisation, leading to infrastructure development and access to technology. The EPR framework provides a policy-level incentive for formalisation to access enhanced income for the informal sector, which has access to material.
Monitoring and evaluation will be vital to implementing a circular economy. This will ensure data-driven policy-making and feedback action loops for strategic and tactical decision-making. It will also create logical pathways for products and services that lead to the sustainability of life and business while preserving nature and its resources.
