Understanding the world · Environment & the future

The circular economy: what if waste no longer existed?

What if waste simply did not exist? That is the bet of an economic model copied from nature.

Beyond the throwaway world4 min read5 partsQuiz of 8 questions
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Qillqauta · Niños aymaras aprendiendo la biodiversidad · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction

Since the industrial revolution, our economy has run in one direction: we extract resources, we make objects, then we throw them away. The model assumes that resources are infinite. They are not.

The circular economy offers another logic, borrowed from nature, where nothing is truly lost. It aims to keep the value of products and materials in circulation as long as possible instead of turning them into waste.

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  1. 2The linear model hits its limits
  2. 3Repair before recycling
  3. 4Why it is still hard today
  4. 5Toward a society of resources
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary14 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.