New report values the benefits of a Circular Economy for the EU at €1.8trn

A new report released last week by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, McKinsey and the Endowment Fund for Environmental Economics and Sustainability (SUN) provides new evidence that the EU can produce an annual net benefit of €1.8 trillion by 2030 if it applies circular economy principles.

This sum is reasoned by a predicted increase of resource productivity through technology revolution by 3.0 percent annually, generating €0.6 trillion per year by 2030. In addition, even more benefit would be generated through non-resource and externality gains through circularity: they are valued at €1.2 trillion.

The report claims today’s European economy for being “surprisingly wasteful in its model of value creation” because it largely still follows a take-make-dispose-model. It points out that in 2012, the region lost 95 percent of its primary material and energy value because of one-time usage of products. Even materials with a high recycling rate like steel, PET, and paper would lose 30-75 percent of the material value in the first use cycle.
Optimizing resource yields towards a circulation of products, components, and materials at the highest utility at all times in both technical and biological cycles is therefore stated to be a main principle to be followed in order to achieve the promised benefits.

The Reverse Logistics Group (RLG) actively participates and contributes to the concept of circular economy. RLG supports its customers to achieve own circularity scenarios by closing the loop through return, reuse, repair and recycling management solutions on a global scale. Along with repair and recycling services, the company’s solutions all strive to optimize the use and  recovery of valuable materials.
In addition, RLG acts as a bridge in multilateral and multinational material loops through connecting the providers of used materials with the demanders for refurbished products and secondary raw material.  

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/books-and-reports >

Learn more on RLG's solutions portfolio: http://www.rev-log.com/solutions >