Recycling - An Important CBM Link

Evolving into a Circular Economy for the sake of eco-sustainability a Small or Medium Enterprise (SME) will have many impediments to overcome allowing for the development of a successful Circular Business Model (CBM).  Businesses, governments, organizations, and even citizens need to corollate together for the development of a successful Circular Economy. Recycling and recovering of resources is a key component in all CBMs but it currently lacks the proper infrastructure for proper implementation. An opportunity exists for the advancement of recovery and recycling that can boost local economies, create employment, and preserve the environment.

Provincial, federal, and even civic governments have the ability to encourage the development of sustainable resource recovery by offering incentives for SMEs to produce the proper infrastructure required for CBMs success. We already have electronic, car batteries, and tires recycling/environmental fees, not to mention the carbon tax, to encourage minimal usage and wastage while funding material, resource, and energy recovery. Additional recycling fees for non-sustainable products, like single-use plastics, are needed to discourage use of and support the development of proper reprocessing.

Many companies, with the help of organizations like the Ellenma Carthur Foundation Organization, are developing successful CBMs tailored for their businesses conjoining with other business with great success.

They are the pioneers developing the infrastructure for positive growth of a Circular Economy developing innovative ways to a sustainable economy and environment. An enterprise would find ways to repurpose residue materials internally and liaison with other companies to recycle their residue waste.

Many SMEs working together contribute to different aspects of sustainability, with each doing their part in a closed-loop system. The main result of a CBM is to reduce or reverse the negative impact on the environment in a Zero-Waste economy. This lowers costs and improves revenues while also providing a boosted competitive advantage.

Developing the recovery of resources locally helps the local economy by creating local jobs which allow for the purchasing of local remanufactured products. Currently, most plastic beverage containers are shipped to Eastern Canada for recycling. If the government gave incentives to develop remanufacturing plants locally to reclaim materials, like plastic beverage containers, it would be a tremendous boost to the formation of a Circular Economy.

We would also create local employment and reduce the expense and pollution on shipping reclaimed materials by becoming a core player in most Circular Business Models. Additional benefits range from local merchants buying their remanufactured products locally at reduced costs to boosting the local economy threefold. 

  Join the M.A.D. Movement to a more sustainable way of living by joining the Circular Economy Crusade and look at how you can contribute. As a citizen look at ways to reduce your waste and follow the 5 Rs for sustainable living. As an employee, be innovative in improving efficiency. As a business, develop your own CBM. We all need to work together, government, businesses and citizens as stewards of Planet Earth.