New consumption and production models for a circular economy

摘要

Economists have long attempted to understand the dichotomy between the finite quantity of natural resources and the seemingly unlimited human needs and wants. This contrast normally would resolve throughout free market actions and related materials pricing. However, modern societies and their embedded economic systems have proved to be unable to address natural resources scarcity in a satisfactory way. The tension between scarcity and human wants is expected to intensify as we anticipate the significant changes, which are bound to occur in the near future. Most notably, the world population, which in mid-2014 stands at 7.2 billion, is projected to increase by almost one billion people by 2025, and to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2015. At the same time, large and fast-growing economies such as China and India, in spite of the recession declines in recent years, are still growing at high rates of 6.8% and 7.4%, respectively. This will surely lead to increasing wealth. A major effect of these two trends will be a higher demand and consumption of food, manufactured goods and energy sources, adding pressure to the world economic system and the environment. Overarching these issues are the threat of climate change and the mounting concern to manage sustainably the increasing amounts of waste produced worldwide.