[Economics] 25 opportunities to undertake in the new circular economy

[#Wittels-]

1. Recovery of resources or interconnected value chains
Within the circular economy, they are activities focused on recycling waste, materials or resources. It's a bit of a "cradle to cradle" concept. What he pursues is to defend a manufacturing that takes into account not only the elaboration but also the end of the product's life.

plastic and glass. They are two of the most developed sectors with the entire recycling process and where more output is being given to waste. In plastic, here are two examples: on the one hand, Ecoalf, a company that uses recycled materials to create sustainable fashion.

As for glass, it was one of the first products to be collected and recycled in our country. In this sector, anything that involves implementing glass separation systems can be very useful.

Paper. As Gala Freixa, co-founder and COO of Sheedo, explains, “the key lies in the use of the raw material. We have replaced disposable paper with disposable paper. Our paper is handcrafted with recycled cotton fibers from the textile industry. The result is a 100% sustainable paper. In addition, it has seeds in its composition, which allows it to be planted after use.

Urban waste. There is a great opportunity to take advantage of the city's plans, explains Guillaume Teyssie, who was the co-founder and CEO of Aquapioneers. "To be successful in these business models, you have to identify an urban waste and give it another value," he said.

In Bioibérica, for example, they take advantage of organic raw materials in pharmaceuticals, veterinary products and solutions for plant health or Neiker that tested biomass ashes as a fertilizer.

sustainable crops. One of the farming models that best represents the circular economy is aquaponic farming: it combines traditional aquaculture (fish care) with hydroponics (soilless crops). They are based on the use of the waste generated in the houses for orchards and fish farms and vice versa. Other residues that are used in agriculture are coffee grounds or beer residues.

circular farms. There are more and more proposals of this type that what they pursue, as the name suggests, is to close the circle within the facilities themselves: produce the feed with which they feed their animals, produce products from the raw material obtained in their facilities -whether from the land or from animals-, reuse the waste to generate fertilizer, composting and others and sell it to the final customer.

This is what they carried out, for example, in Dehesa El Milagro, where they take into account both energy, soil, crops, waste recycling, reuse... on a small scale.

2. Lasting Resources
They are those that regenerate and can be forever, of the type renewable energies or biochemical products, which represent 40% of the total value chain of the circular economy, according to Accenture, which also calls it circular supply. Here we can see examples of very different opportunities:

Smart constructions. In this sector, for example, it is necessary to promote the construction and demolition waste market so that it can be treated and reused. We find a good example in the Spanish cement industry, which has undergone a major transformation with sustainability as its axis. Practically all the factories in Spain have undertaken an energy recovery: using substitutes for raw materials and fossil fuels in their production processes.

Biorefineries. José García, a management technician at AINIA, is committed to the prevalence of this concept: "Years ago work began on this idea to produce energy using waste and now they are becoming integral in line with the oil refinery: they are looking for how to take advantage of the maximum one product in different circular activities. For example, from an agricultural by-product, I obtain the solid part as fertilizer and I use the liquid part as biogas”. These facilities may require high capital investments, but there are many secondary services that SMEs can take advantage of (software development, data processing, sensors...)

biotechnologies. At the biotechnological level, several projects are being developed to obtain energy from waste. From Asebio some pointed out: Clambler Project (agri-food products to convert them into biomass); Leitat (transforms wastewater into biogas); Gaiker IK4 (transforms domestic oil into biodiesel); NekerTecnalia and Cemitec, (converts rapeseed into biofuels).

3. Extend product life
We are talking here about repair, reuse and reuse activities. it is about working with the life cycle of the product to extend its life time or, as José García, from AINIA, clarifies, "to go for savings, the best management is to make better use of what I already have because it is the most economical and has an immediate return. If I have a building that wastes resources, any solution that corrects that waste will be welcome”.

Reuse of objects. An interesting idea in this area can be found in Patagonia, a textile firm that became famous in 2011 for its Don't buy this jacket campaign, which criticized mass consumerism. They manufacture their products from organic and recycled materials with the aim of maximizing their durability and give advice so that their customers can keep their garments for as long as possible and in the best condition.

Repair. Old trades come to light such as sewing. Why throw your clothes in the trash when you have a defect? This can not be fixed? Also the repair of household appliances or cars.

Modular products. “It is the economy of functionality: offering the consumer the opportunity to modify their product to extend its useful life”, points out Freixa. An example is Fairphone, which at the time dropped the world's first modular mobile phone designed to last as long as possible simply by adding features or modules.

Second hand. Anything that involves reintroducing objects into the economy is integrated into the circular economy and is increasingly seen by the consumer, hence the boom in proposals such as Wallapop or Percentil.

4. Training and preparation of the consumer

Opportunities within this area:

Communication and 'branding' agencies, which help value the new products of the circular economy among consumers and create awareness. “You have to sell it as a great experience for the consumer, generate happiness with your product and relate the circular economy to everything that has to do with eco-cool”, explains Freixa.

Preparation of guides and user manuals. Specialize in blogs and tutorials on environmental training, home use of waste or energy efficiency, training and awareness, user guides...

Specialized consultancies to help SMEs and communities to be more efficient in terms of resources and to better recycle waste. It can also include personalized and specialized advice on self-production and storage for self-supply of energy.

5. Development of technology for the sector
There is a lot of support economy via technological support that can be taken advantage of by entrepreneurs. Here are some examples:

Classification software. Of plastics, there is a lot of plastic produced and it must be prevented from degrading. Making a bioplastic can be complex, but you can make software or technologies that allow for a classification system. It is also a valid option for glass.

Custom solutions. It designs efficiency indicators adapted to the different products that an industry requires, as the CEOE pointed out because at the time, "the solutions for each material must be made to measure".

Technology 4.0. Robotics, IoT, augmented reality, artificial intelligence... The latest technologies can contribute to improving waste management: sensors for containers, tools that facilitate transport, simulators, big data...

‘Software’ that increases efficiency. In addition to developing direct software for the circular economy, there are also many opportunities to develop software that improves cost and process efficiencies.

6. Platforms for sharing and products for services
The collaborative economy allows the use and reuse of an underused resource. In essence, it consists of replacing the philosophy of buying and owning with that of using. The key identifies underused objects/services.

Use of spaces. There are a multitude of offices, garages, premises, floors that are being underused most of the time.

Exchange platforms for machinery and tools. Floow2 is a B2B platform for sharing unused equipment (machinery, technology, tools…).

Loans of objects between individuals. There are different applications that allow the loan of objects between individuals. This was, for example, the proposal with which Lendi tried to position himself.

Mobility. In mobility there is enormous potential growth: everyone needs to move and it is estimated that the car is stationary 92% of the time. “When a person buys a car, they have expenses of 4,000 euros a year and with carsharing they can recover part of that money. An environmental level, a shared car means a reduction in emissions of up to 20 cars owned.

Products as a service. It consists of offering customers payment services for a product while maintaining ownership of it. In technology, a clear example is known as Software as a Service. On a physical level, there are models like Car2Go, eCooltra...

Shared talent. There are more and more projects that are committed to sharing talent or knowledge, as is the case with Colabora.

 

Link: https://www.emprendedores.es/ideas-de-negocio/oportunidades-negocio-economia-circular/