Industry and waste: toward the circular economy

2021
Photo © Ron Watts

Given the limits of the linear production and consumption model, the transition to a circular economy has become a necessity.

It requires significant behavioral changes from all actors (companies, communities, consumers/citizens), backed by ambitious public policies.

In particular, industrial players must change their practices right from the product design phase.   

The Veolia Institute is dedicating an issue of its review to this topic, resulting from work carried out with a team of researchers from Mines ParisTech Scientific Management Center (Franck Aggeri, Helen Micheaux and Joël Ntsondé).

 

Discover :

1. The need for a new waste management model

The amount of waste generated has risen ceaselessly since the dawn of the consumer society. This growth is expected to continue with the urbanization of developing countries. The environmental and social impacts are increasingly visible. There is a solution at hand: the circular economy, defined in opposition to the linear take-make-waste model.  A number of initiatives exist, but many challenges remain ahead if we are to make the circular transition.

> Read the introduction by Helen Micheaux

A new model
Joakim Krook
Université de Linköping
A new model
Jacques Vernier
French Extended Producer Responsibility Waste Schemes Commission
A new model
Katie Olley
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
A new model
Alexandre Lemille
ACEN, the African Circular
Economy Network

2. Shifting how the various actors behave

Helping our models transition toward a circular economy requires efforts by the private sector actors involved in producing goods and services, public sector actors regulating the economic and social spheres, and consumers, whose purchasing choices influence businesses’ current and future strategies. So, how can we nurture the emergence of new ways of consuming and producing?

> Read the introduction by Joël Ntsondé

Challenges
Valérie Guillard
Paris-Dauphine University
Challenges
Adèle Chasson, Laetitia Vasseur
HOP - Halte à l’Obsolescence Programmée (Stop Planned Obsolescence)
Challenges
Ashleigh McLennan, ICLEI (International Council for
Local Environmental Initiatives)
Birgitte Krebs Schleemann, DGE
Challenges
Xavier Verne
Shift Project
Challenges
Zhao Kai
China Association of Circular Economy
Challenges
Franck Aggeri
MINES ParisTech
Challenges
Irene Martinetti, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Jarkko Havas, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Challenges
Ingrid Tams, Jacques Tanquerel (Groupe SEB)
Françoise Weber, François Guéneron (Veolia)

3. Pathways to an innovative circular economy

Innovation has a crucial role to play in turning the circular economy’s promises into reality. The concept is currently generating countless innovative projects, but assessing their potential and long-term durability is not easy. What do circular innovations look like? What potential do they have to go beyond local experiments to create economic and ecological value as well as jobs? What partnerships and actors are emerging in relation to this topic? How are these innovative processes put in place and what are the obstacles to their success?

> Read the introduction by Franck Aggeri

Innovations
Pascal Muller, Romain Duboc, Emeric Malefant
Veolia
Innovations
Jean-Paul Raillard
Fédération Envie
Innovations
François Darsy
Signify France

This issue of The Veolia Institute Review - Facts Reports has been produced 
in partnership with the Scientific Management Center of Mines ParisTech.

The coordinators of the issue : Franck Aggeri, Helen Micheaux and Joël Ntsondé, during the colloquium "Imaginaires et pratiques de l'économie circulaire", in Cerisy, 2021.

Photo © Archives Pontigny-Cerisy