Circular Economies with Jennifer Russell

Music

Travis

When I was a kid, the phrase reduce, reuse, and recycle became pretty popular, and my most basic elementary understanding it simply meant that we should throw less stuff away and probably do more art projects out of trash. But as I've gotten older, I've realized that taking care of the environment is a little bit more complicated than just making cartoon ants out of toilet paper rolls. So when I heard about Jennifer Russell's work related to circular economies, I was extremely curious how this compared to, or maybe even expanded upon, that old phrase I'd learned as a child. And thankfully, Jennifer was kind enough to answer all of the questions that I had.

Jennifer is an assistant professor in the College of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, as well as a faculty affiliate of the Global Change Center in the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. We talked a little about what a circular economy is, how it's beneficial both from an environmental and an economic standpoint, and Jennifer shared some insights from a recent related UN report she helped co -author. We also talked about the challenges of transitioning to this type of economy both from a societal and individual standpoint, and she shared some ways many of us are already taking part in circular economies, perhaps without even knowing we're doing so. So if that's you, well done. I'm Travis Williams, and this is Virginia Tech's Curious Conversations.

Travis

curious right off the top. What is a circular economy?

Jennifer

Good question. This is a lot of the teaching that I do as well. So I would say circular economy, it's a relative term. A good starting point is to think that relatively and that the greatest contrast we can bring forward is the linear economy. And so thinking about the economy all around us and recognizing the linearity inherent in it already is really where you start to see those opportunities for circularity or circular economy. So linear economy at its most basic level is the idea of taking resources, materials, energy out of the environment, transforming it into something that we want, using it, and then discarding it. So take, make, dispose, or variations of those activities is really what that linear economy is all about. And the implications of a linear economy is that it assumes that resources are infinite, that all of those things that we need, water, energy, materials, are just out there for us to use infinitely and maybe thoughtlessly. And then at the other end of it, that disposition, that the environment, that the planet has infinite capacity to absorb what we are just trying to dispose of as well. So that could be landfill, that could be water effluent, that could be emissions into the air. We're just assuming that it can be handled. And so circular economy is challenging this idea of linearity by saying, well, it's not an infinite set of resources, doesn't have infinite capacity to absorb at end of life or the impacts of that life cycle that we're talking about. So circularity steps in to then say, okay, what we really are talking about here is how has the planet functioned and thrived over millions of years? And it's because of the systems that nature uses, natural systems are inherently circular, right? So water cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorus cycle. When we talk about natural systems, they are almost always going to be cycles or circular in nature. And so circular economy then takes us to this idea of, well, how could we reframe our way we've created this economy that human societies and cultures and countries depend on and turn that into something that is more like nature and inherently therefore more circular, more cyclical and built to work with the resources around and not just exploit. That's my long extended and probably and I apologize potentially overly academic explanation.

Travis

No, I think that's fascinating. So really, on one level, it's about looking at nature and saying, hey, what's out there and what's working? Yes. And what can we do to be more like that? Exactly. It reminds me of the saying, the reduce, reuse, recycle phrases that I use to hear. I think Jack Johnson may have even wrote a song about this. But is it similar to that type of mindset?

Jennifer

That's exactly what it is, to be perfectly honest. It's reduce, reuse, recycle is where it started. We can add other things in now. Reduce, reuse, revalue, remanufacture, refurbish, repurpose, recirculate. And recycle, I'd say, in a circular economy is critical as well. But the nice thing about circular economy and the way that we are starting to explore and understand it is that recycling is one activity. It's not the only option. It's a very particular, specific, technical act of breaking down things into their respective parts, components. You can do it mechanically or chemically. But there are many other activities that we can do before we ever need to break everything down to those little tiny pieces. And by keeping things in their inherent functional form, or longer, that's where we actually get a lot of gains. We retain value, the inherent functional form is designed. It's, you know, people have invested intellectual property and creativity and hours and maybe blood, sweat and tears if it's personal to you. So there are many ways that we can accomplish that by getting a little bit more specific and creative with how we cycle it and, and reduce reuse recycle or nuanced versions of that, a more clear understanding of what that means is where I spend all of my research time.

Travis

Well, I just read a story this week about this UN report that you helped co -author that was, I believe, related to heavy machinery and the remanufacturing of it and the impacts of it. And I was curious, I saw this term in there. Maybe I'm just going to ask you to define a lot of terms in this one. I'm not sure yet. I saw this term called value return processes. And I was curious, what are value return processes?

Jennifer

Yeah, value retention processes, VRPs.

Travis

See, I may need you to just help me even with the words themselves.

Jennifer

Often we spend a lot of time just coming up with acronyms. But yeah, that work that I did with the United Nations International Resource Panel, they are very much focused on the idea of decoupling economic growth and value from the need to degrade the environment at the same time. How can we get those two apart? And so value retention processes became a critical part of what we were looking at. And that was really, we looked at three different sectors. A lot of them that we studied, heavy equipment, so heavy duty off -road equipment, also automotive, and another sector that we explored and that we worked with were industrial digital printers, just industrial digital printing activities. And they all tended to be industrial because at the time the study was taking place, those were three sectors that had figured out how to be circular. Whereas many industries that have emerged in the past five, 10 years are definitely in that circular space. But they're emerging, they're innovating, it's evolving, it's a see where this could go, explore the opportunities. And so those were the sectors that we really dug into. And the work that I did on that was mapping what the processes are in different countries. The study was really exploring, like I said, these three sectors, how are these activities performed? for remanufacturing, refurbishment, reuse, repair, as alternatives, things that could happen before we recycle anything at all. And doing it in a quantitative way where we could look at different types of environmental impacts, but also the cost, the cost to the manufacturer, the material investments that were needed, the labor requirements, the skilled labor that was needed. And...And so looking at it from a variety of different metrics and measures as we went through. And so we quantified and compared the United States, these three industries in the United States, in Brazil, in Germany, and in China, because the other part of this whole circularity initiative is that linear systems are problematic for different reasons, depending on where they're happening. And so if you are in a very resource abundant place, or if your infrastructure and technology is highly efficient and latest and most up to date, then you're going to get different outputs. You're going to have different concerns. So we looked at these systems across all these geographies and really quantified and explored what was happening, what were the barriers to scaling these activities up, these circular activities up. And if we had a magic wand and could just like wave it, what were the possibilities? How much, you know, what could we accomplish? Could we actually make meaningful progress to mitigate climate change? Could we tackle issues of labor shortages or our employment? So how could we really leverage circular economy meaningfully before we rearrange the entire economy to do? this idea, what would it mean and could we quantify it and what would we need to do along that path?

Travis

Yeah. And so what are, what were you, what did you find that were some of the hurdles? I'm sure they're different depending on the geography and different countries and stuff, but were there any commonalities in the hurdles that you found?

Jennifer

Absolutely. So I guess one of the biggest challenges to shifting towards more circular systems is that We have created economies that really like to manufacture new things a lot, like lots and lots and lots and lots and the revenue models that go with that necessitate production. And it actually disincentivizes making things that do last longer or encouraging people to keep them longer or repair them. And so we have a lot of existing economic infrastructure and language and practices that really have driven why we now face a lot of big environmental problems that are out there. So those pre -existing models and our understanding of how economies work are some of the barriers. Some of the other barriers that came out and in particular in the United States that are emerging, we have the technology, we have the interest, we have the industries that want to jump on board. We are constrained in some cases because we may not have the labor force, the workforce and the skill sets and the training that's needed to scale up as quickly as we might want to. So there's a lot of work that's being done to say what workforce investments and skills are needed for that future that is circular, where remanufacturing and advanced manufacturing and technologies are in play. Other barriers that come into play are market barriers. And so that could be related to the economics of the whole scenario. So it could be what people, the consumer, the user, the buyer might be concerned about. They might be concerned about cost. They might be concerned about risk because they don't necessarily have the full understanding of what's involved or what it means to them. But it may also, so not just perceived risk, but it might actually cost more in some cases to make this transition. So in order to establish it fully functional, efficient remanufacturing operation that's going to require upfront investment by many companies. And so that can be a barrier or a friction point. Will it save money in the long run? Is that the idea? Yes. So there's a lot of barriers, but the real reason why we're starting to see so much transition, voluntary transition and movement by some of the biggest industry members and companies that are out there is because when we do these activities appropriately, and so some of the data we collected, the benefits that you do get is the categories we studied specifically, you can see a minimum of a 90 % reduction versus manufacturing a brand new one. When you remanufacture it, you can have a 90 % reduction in the materials that have to be extracted to make it. So material requirements drop way down, the embodied energy and embodied emissions go down accordingly, because you don't need to go back and mine it and process it and send it through that whole value chain again every single time. We're also able to chop off a lot of the processing that needs to happen. So process emissions, process energy can be reduced. Again, because when you are recovering something that's already been manufactured and it's been manufactured with the intention of bringing it back and using it again and again, you don't have to invest so much industrial activity to get it back into high performance condition. So you can really reduce the processing energy and emissions to go with it. And so if we reduce materials, we reduce emissions, we reduce energy requirements and all of these things, then it also leads to some really great cost benefits for companies. So cost of materials comes way, way down, cost of dealing with waste and the environmental burden can come down. One thing that people often say is, well, if you're doing all of these extra activities, doesn't that, and you're increasing labor, doesn't that drive your labor costs up? And that's true. And many of these activities, the cost share and the portion of operating costs for labor does go up. But because of a reduction in all of those other operating categories, it often leaves many of the big manufacturers, re -manufacturers that we work with, they're able to generate a greater profit margin than their competing manufacturing components. So it's all about that balance. But if we start by reducing the raw material inputs, the energy inputs that are needed to make a new one every single time, then the cost benefits and opportunities come along with it.

Travis

Just from what I know about companies in general, if they can save money increased profit margins, that generally is a good thing.

Jennifer

It definitely is. And they're among the first to say, the companies that are engaging in circular practices right now, they're doing it as much for the economic opportunity as they are for the opportunity to reduce environmental harm and be more sustainable and be more resource efficient and material efficient.

Travis

You mentioned that some of this was about labor and do we have the skills to do this work? What type of new jobs might a circular economy start to produce or maybe is producing?

Jennifer

Yes, absolutely. So one of the first opportunities that comes about is thinking, OK, if we were going to repair, remanufacture, refurbish all of these things, we need to have companies that know how to get it back from the consumer and the customer. So repair industry by itself is where I do a lot of research. Repair as a practice, as a specialty, as a profession is alive and well. It requires a lot of advanced skills and technologies and tools to go along with it. So that's a sector that's often not invested in or considered, but it is a critical part of a viable circular economy. It's incredibly valuable for communities as well. And so there's a lot of work being done on repair, but other jobs and opportunities and labor market that comes out of this is the simple act of taking an end of use product say we're talking about a vehicle, to get it into these systems for remanufacturing or refurbishment, they need to be disassembled, they need to be tested, they need to have additional activities that are taking place. The people that are doing them have to have advanced skills and training. These are not jobs that can be replaced by robots. And so inherently there's a...technical component, a human component that's needed because of the skill set that's needed, that ability to diagnose, interpret, understand what's going on at a product level. And so that does increase, as I mentioned before, that increases the investment in labor, the skills that are needed. But at the same time, that is one of the big outcomes that we got from the work that we did with the UN report was recognizing that if we do this well, this becomes an employment strategy as well. So this is a way of improving employment opportunities and skilled labor opportunities if you invest in it and develop the workforce appropriately.

Travis

What are some tangible things that the average person might see as something that could possibly one day be a part of a circular economy model?

Jennifer

There are so, so many examples. So if we start with the average consumer, already you go to the grocery store even just down the road and you can see that there are products that are becoming available. You can buy toothbrushes with replaceable brush heads. So you can keep a big chunk of that product and all you're replacing is a part of it. So that's part of a circular economy because it's product life extension, it's durability, and it's reuse with only the toothbrush head. There are consignment platforms all over the place, user to user exchanges that are emerging. It could be fashion, it could be furniture, a lot of students.

There are many, many examples that come up in our classrooms that are related to circular economy for fashion, whether it's recycling, reuse, repair, sharing models. If we're thinking about circular economy for vehicles, it's a great example, right? If you lease your vehicle, you're participating in a circular economy. If you use Uber, you're participating in a circular economy because it's an example of shared resources, right? You don't need to own that car to get the benefit of being able to get from point A to point B. And you're willing to pay in different ways. We can create different revenue models and business models to facilitate that. Now, if we're talking, if you step back from just that everyday consumer experience, the products, there's many things all around us that are actively part of remanufacturing systems that are alive and well. So there's the sectors that I had mentioned before. So you know, your Xerox photocopier in many of the offices at Virginia Tech  are operated through remanufacturing systems. ZRX is one of the biggest industrial digital printers or printing manufacturers in the world. We have automotive, we also have transit systems, so aerospace, locomotive, remanufacturing sectors are critical. Caterpillar and John Deere are a big part of the agricultural communities that are around us tractors and farming equipment are a big part of this. And even the US military, US military is actually the biggest remanufacturer in the world in terms of how they recover replenish and basically keep their vehicles functional and operational and as good as new on roads. There's examples of circular economy everywhere. And I think the big thing is we're using a word for it, but fundamentally, repair, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, these activities have been around as long as humans have been living in communities. So the activities themselves are not new. What we're doing is looking at it a little bit differently. Instead of it being a thing that we do because we have to, it could be a way of mobilizing economies using resources more efficiently and creating innovation and opportunity instead of it just being, you know, that, that inconvenient thing that we do maybe because we have to repair our vehicle or the button popped off our shirt. So it's thinking differently about practices and activities that we've actually been doing as humans for a really long time.

Travis

Yeah, well, that was one of the things that I was going to ask you about. So thank you for this great segue. I was going to ask you, what do you think the greatest hurdle is to shifting an individual mindset towards and to into a circular company?

Jennifer

Some of the work I do is about the consumer barriers. And there's actually this, an area that I'm very curious to explore is the perceived risk. The biggest barrier to the average person engaging in circular economy opportunities is the risk that they might perceive, that risk that it might go wrong, the risk that the refurbished or remanufactured product might break sooner, might not work as well.

The risk of trying something different. So I think that that's the biggest barrier is getting people to try something that the remanufactured or refurbished Apple option. Often it gives us a slightly better price point. It's discounted in price, but it's also refurbished. So what does that mean? Is it going to do the same thing that my other one's going to do? Am I going to have to get it repaired more frequently? Is it going to die on me at that moment that I most need it. Being able to get past those hurdles is one of the biggest barriers for consumers to participate. But if you were to, and then I challenge my students in my classroom to do this, I teach two circular economy classes, I challenge them to actually just use the internet, search for companies that are doing and engaging in circular business practices, because they're often hidden kind of in plain sight. Even...Apple has an actual refurbished, renewed website back end that most people don't even think about. You're going online to buy something off of Amazon. The fact that there's reused refurbished options that are also available, there's just something that's not front and center. It's not something people think of, but being a little bit more creative in how we look for. We need to replace a product. What are the different ways that we can do that?

Travis

That sounds very realistic to me. Being somebody that has previously purchased a refurbished laptop and it was fine. It was fine. It did everything I needed it to. It got me through grad school. So I guess the last thing that I'll ask you is what do you think the potential is for the impact that circular economies, if we embrace them appropriately, could have on us, on the environment, just on our world?

Jennifer

So countries around the world have already implemented this as a central part of their environmental policy. And in many cases, part of their economic policy, the European Union has embraced circular economy as a central piece of what they're doing and are rolling out requirements for all the companies that wish to participate in the European marketplace.

Our neighbors to the north, Canada, have integrated circular economy as a critical part of their economic strategy, their public procurement, but also where their research and investments are going as well. So in the research that I do, we've quantified, you know, if you are using a remanufactured product, the emissions, the material requirements, the environmental damage that's done is dramatically reduced compared to if you bought a new one.

And so we know that there's an environmental benefit to moving down this road. Countries all around are doing this through their regulatory and policy approaches and companies themselves, industry is seeing the major benefits of transitioning to this. Even just a few years ago, Unilever announced that they were going to switch away from all primary plastics in their packaging.

So even just these small changes that are being made voluntarily, they're everywhere. And I don't think that circular economy is going to be the thing that's going to save us from all of the sustainability challenges that are out there. But it is, I see it as a critical stepping stone where we can actually imagine alternatives to this linear economic system that we all feel very confound by in many cases. People feel like they don't have the opportunity to change anything.

But this is our critical way of critical moment. We can rethink what business means. We can rethink what we want our economies to do for us. So it's not the perfect sustainable future, but it's this critical moment where we can actually get excited about innovating for sustainability.

Travis

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for talking to me. I feel better and like I should be spending more time now at consignment shops and thrift stores. So I'm gonna start going there a little bit more.

Jennifer

At the very least that's where you can, you know, where when you have something that you no longer want that's one place you can put them instead of a land shell.

Travis

And thanks to Jennifer for sharing her insights related to circular economies. If you or someone you know would make for a great curious conversation, email me at traviskw at vt .edu. I'm Travis Williams and this has been Virginia Tech's Curious Conversations.