In the circular economy, products are designed and made to be more durable, reusable, repairable, and recyclable. It is the opposite of our Western throwaway, use-once approach.
Currently, we extract resources from the Earth, turn them into products and eventually throw them away as waste. This ‘take, make, waste’ manufacturing and usage process is called ‘linear’.
Companies are now looking at how to adopt more environmentally sustainable ways of operating to conserve natural resources, minimise waste and reduce harmful emissions – enter the circular economy.
The circular economy requires design innovations to keep products and their component parts in circulation for as long as possible, as well as changing the way we make and use goods. It also requires a cultural step-change away from wasteful consumerism. We need to value every material we use and recognising that the natural resources that went into creating something should be used and reused indefinitely – never thrown away as waste.
A system to tackle global challenges like climate change
Following her retirement from sailing, Ellen MacArthur, the record-breaking solo yachtswoman, launched the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity that works with businesses and education to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. The Foundation explains: “The circular economy is based on three principles, driven by design:
- eliminate waste and pollution
- circulate products and materials (at their highest value)
- regenerate nature.
It is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and materials. A circular economy decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It is a resilient system that is good for business, people and the environment.
We must transform every element of our take-make-waste system: how we manage resources, how we make and use products, and what we do with the materials afterwards. Only then can we create a thriving circular economy that can benefit everyone within the limits of our planet. The circular economy is a systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution2.”
Learning from the laws of nature
Julia Giannini, Head of Environment and Climate Action at Bupa, says: “The circular economy is about the way we think of the active life of materials, so materials used within our economy never become waste and their end-of-life use is incorporated into their design. We’re aiming to mimic the law of nature in which there is no waste, only regeneration. In the UK 100% of food waste from our care homes and Bupa’s Cromwell Hospital is recycled into energy.”
Julia says that one of the ways companies can implement circular economies is by building up collaborative partnerships and initiatives with other businesses in different fields. “We’re aiming to identify circular solutions for non-hazardous waste across all our markets by 2025. One tangible example is using hospital waste to make uniforms made from recycled plastic. As one circular solution we’re working with the winner of our eco-Disruptive programme, Circoolar, to pilot their ethical and sustainable uniforms for healthcare professionals made from recycled materials.”
In addition to investing £200,000 in Spanish start-up Circoolar, Bupa is investing in another eco-Disruptive finalist and circular solution start-up. Upcycled Medical is a UK start-up that produces clinical aprons made from plastic and used personal protective equipment (PPE).
Plastics and the circular economy – what does this mean for healthcare?
We’ve relied on plastics to keep products safely sealed and transportable, and they are widely used in healthcare settings for a variety of purposes. But not only is plastic production largely dependent on the use of fossil fuels – non-renewable and polluting energy sources like natural gas and coal, but plastic can take centuries to break down. If we don’t act now to change how we design, use, and reuse plastics – not simply recycling and reducing – by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish by weight in the oceans1.
What we learnt about waste from the pandemic
The tens of thousands of tonnes of health waste connected to containing COVID-19 has exposed the need to improve waste management systems, integrating better, safer, and more environmentally sustainable waste practices now and in future pandemic preparedness efforts. As the world grappled with the immediate task of securing and quality-assuring supplies of PPE, less attention and resources were devoted to the safe and sustainable management of COVID-19 related health care waste.
The World Health Organisation gave a shocking indication of the scale of the COVID-19 waste problem in a recent report. Focusing on a joint UN emergency initiative to support countries, they discovered the following:
- Approximately 87,000 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) procured between March 2020 and November 2021 was shipped to countries.
- Over 140 million test kits, with a potential to generate 2,600 tonnes of non-infectious waste (mainly plastic) and 731,000 litres of chemical waste (equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool) have been shipped.
- Over 8 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally, producing 144,000 tonnes of additional waste in the form of syringes, needles, and safety boxes2.
Most of this equipment is expected to have ended up as waste. And it does not take into account any of the COVID-19 commodities procured outside of the initiative, nor waste generated by the public like disposable medical masks.
“COVID-19 has forced the world to reckon with the gaps and neglected aspects of the waste stream and how we produce, use and discard of our health care resources, from cradle to grave,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO.
Giannini says: ‘We can create a circular economy for plastic by eliminating all problematic and unnecessary plastic items, and when plastic is used, ensuring it is reusable and, if no longer needed, circulated into new plastic items to keep them within the economy and out of the environment.”
With 85,000 employees worldwide, Bupa has the opportunity to encourage new behaviours amongst its employees to design out waste and promote the re-use of every item and material through every stage in our healthcare delivery.
