A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business by Catherine Weetman

PART ONE
An overview of the circular economy.
1
The circular economy

Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs
a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades,
society – its world view, its basic values, its social and
political structure, its arts, its key institutions –
rearranges itself. Fifty years later there is a new world.
Peter F Drucker1
Whatis it?
Writing the words quoted above in 1992, respected author and
business consultant Peter Drucker continued: ‘And the people
born then cannot even imagine the world in which their
grandparents lived and into which their own parents were
born.’
In recent decades, we have transformed the way we live,
work and communicate. Society, business and governments are
realizing that the ‘linear economy’ (take, make and discard),
which emerged from the early industrial revolutions, is not
sustainable – financially, socially or ecologically.
Instead, a new approach, the circular economy, is emerging.
Companies will rethink how they design laptops, furniture,
sneakers, cars, mobile phones, cleaning products and even
jeans. Rather than focusing on how to maximize sales and
encourage customers to buy the latest model, companies will

A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business by Catherine Weetman