So, ewe've sprinkled EcoWool over your garden (or you’ve considered it!) and you're absolutely wool-derful for making the most of this amazing waste resource: discarded wool.
You may not have realized that you’ve joined a bustling community of reusers, repurposers, and recyclers in an important and emerging culture, the circular economy! It's an economy where waste isn't woolly-headed; it's a valuable asset used efficiently by the companies that produce it or by others, often teaming up with complimentary waste resources.
Being part of this scene is a wooly great way to make a difference. It reduces our consumption of virgin resources, reduces waste generation, and combats climate change. Four of Twenti’s “Ten Changes for the Biggest Impact” and at least 5 of the items on Buzzworthy’s list of ‘Easy Actions to Make a Real Impact’ are directly related to the circular economy.
Congrats! You're now part of this fantastic wool-ture!!
So, here’s the ‘circular’ run down…and why we are so proud and grateful that you’ve joined in!
Circular Economy 101 - Let’s Go!
The traditional "take-make-waste" model approach has dominated our consumer-driven world for far too long. Thankfully, the circular economy provides a fresh and exciting alternative.
Picture this: rather than producing, using, and discarding items like there's no tomorrow, the circular economy flips the script. It's a system where products and their materials are in constant circulation, maximizing their value and minimizing waste. Waste isn't necessarily trash anymore; it's seen as a treasure trove of resources waiting to be tapped.
So, how does the circular economy work?
For any ‘waste’ item, It starts at the top of the "Zero Waste Hierarchy" with rethinking and redesigning. If there aren’t opportunities at that level, we move on and assess each item at each of the next levels: reduce, reuse, compost, chemical recycling, and finally, landfill.
There's a lot of ground to cover and opportunities for magic to happen before anything ends up in the trash and so much room for innovation!
The Five Pillars of Circular Success
- Product design: It all begins with creating smarter designs during manufacturing to ensure products last longer and can be easily repaired. For example, Fairphone supports customers in easily repairing their phones, providing the equipment and instructions needed.☎️
- Circular materials: Embracing safe and sustainable materials, including byproducts from processing natural sources, is a game-changer. Beck’s Broth uses bones from pasture-raised cattle to make nutritious and tasty broth.🐮
- Circular processes: Products are crafted with the intention of minimizing resource consumption and waste generation during their manufacturing process, with the ultimate goal of achieving a zero-waste outcome. Noki considers waste minimalization at every step of their process to create delicious mushrooms that are sold steps from where they are grown.🍄
- End-of-use recovery: Imagine a system that recovers component parts, giving materials a second, third, or even fourth life through reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and/or recycling. Saponetti keeps your soap supply stocked without producing more plastic packaging by refilling containers at their refillary.🧼
- Circular Business model: Instead of owning everything, we're moving towards sharing, renting, paying for access, or subscribing to shared equipment, reducing the need for excessive consumption. Car share programs like Communauto allow members the freedom to drive cars when they need to without owning a car, so fewer cars are used by more people! 🚗
The circular system gets more value out of less, helping us to reduce our consumption, and put less pressure on our environment.
Everything not used for the production of one thing should be a useful input for another industrial process or be food for nature (compost).
The Circular Economy: A Sustainable Game Changer
Why should you be excited about the circular economy?
It's a system that champions efficiency, reducing strain on our environment from resource extraction, growing landfills, pollution, and excessive carbon emissions.
It's a win-win for the planet and our future.
In the circular economy, nothing goes to waste. Everything not used in one process becomes a valuable input for another or nourishment for the natural world, like compost.
How Does EcoWool Measure Up to the Circular Economy?
✅ The design of wool pellets is incredibly simple: they are literally just clumps of wool squeezed into small pellets! No other materials are needed in their production!
✅ As long as sheep are farmed, there will be wool produced. And with so little wool getting put to the typically wooly uses and so much of it ending up in landfills or piles in back fields, we are proud to be putting it to a much higher use as a soil amendment!
✅ Wool pellets are used in pots, gardens or fields, their nutrients returning to the soil and being used by plants to grow healthy vegetables or other plants.
✅ Sheep farmers who previously sheered their sheep at cost finally have a destination for their wool that provides some revenue.
Did you have any idea that using these fuzzy pellets was so rad?
Conclusion
By using EcoWool in your garden, you've joined a vibrant community that sees waste as a treasure trove waiting to get new life.
The circular, eco-friendly approach combats climate change, cuts down on waste, and preserves precious resources - nothing's pulling the wool over our eyes when it comes to waste!
Say goodbye to the old "take-make-waste" routine and hello to a world where everything has a purpose. It's all about getting more from less and having a baa-rilliant time doing it!
Hey, waste is only a baaaaad thing if it’s wasted!
So, strap in, because you're now part of a global crew reshaping our future in a fun, sustainable way. Let's shepherd change together!
Get Circular with EcoWool - Get your EcoWool on! ...No, not on you, on your garden! 🤣
🐑♻️🐑🧶🐑♻️🐑🧶🐑♻️🐑🧶🐑♻️🐑
References:
Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) (2021) Circular economy presents significant opportunities and unique challenges for Canada: New report. https://www.cca-reports.ca/circular-economy-presents-significant-opportunities-and-unique-challenges-for-canada-new-report/
Government of Canada (2022) Circular Economy https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/conservation/sustainability/circular-economy.html
Rethink Global (2019) Episode 1 What is the circular economy? https://www.rethinkglobal.info/episode-1-what-is-the-circular-economy/