Making Circular Economy Possible

By Ainul Huda Mohamed Saaid KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- When an eco-warrior turns to entrepreneurship to make a living, what does he become? An 'ecopreneur' – that's how S. Sri Umeswara describes himself. A strong supporter of sustainable living and advocate of the circular economy concept, he formed Era Suria Ecopreneurs Sdn Bhd (ES ECO) a year ago to provide consultancy services to help companies to develop circular economy initiatives. "Circular economy is the way forward," said Sri Umeswara. "It's about putting your own product wastes or materials back into your production or manufacturing line." This reduces the amount of waste products generated, thus relieving the pressure on landfill sites. In developed countries, businesses and consumers are actively making the transition to a circular economy, which can also be loosely described as maximising the use of resources or materials by channelling waste back into the production cycle to be used as a raw material source, thus closing the loop of product manufacturing and waste management. On the other hand, the conventional linear economic system practised by most countries involves the use of natural resources to make products which are then sold to consumers who use and dispose of them. "If the (waste) product is recyclable, it will be collected by someone who will then sell it to a recycling company, otherwise it will just end up in the landfill," said Sri Umeswara, who holds a Master of Science in Energy and Environment and has been championing environmental causes for the last 11 years. DATA ON WASTE PRODUCTS His company essentially provides technical research and development services to companies to help them to determine how their potential waste can be used as resources. Once this is done, the companies concerned will be provided with the business support they would need to enable them to conform to the circular economy system. According to Sri Umeswara, his company has developed an Internet of Things (IoT) system to enable them to collect data such as types of waste products generated, amount of waste products recycled, amount of waste sent to landfills, and amount of waste turned into resources and returned to the production line. By capturing the movement of waste products, the companies concerned would be able to obtain the Recovery and Recycling Index (RRI), he said. The RRI refers to data on waste products that are recovered and recycled or reprocessed into useful new materials. “So far in Malaysia, such data is not available. So that's where we are working towards and our company is providing the system to find out the recovery and recycling rate in detail. “When there is no data and no report, there is no room for improvement for waste management,” he told Bernama. INDUSTRY EFFORT Sri Umeswara also stressed that the shift towards the circular economy, which is already a global movement, should be initiated by the various industries. He believed that industry-driven action, and not a regulated one, would make the move to circular economy possible and a success. “The government can play the role of supporting and facilitating (the transition),” he said, adding that incentives from the government in supporting the circular economy will surely encourage the industry to move towards it. However, he added, the challenge now was to educate all the stakeholders on the circular economy. “Currently, there's no engagement among the stakeholders, namely the producers, retailers and consumers and they fail to understand how everyone is interconnected," he said. BENEFITS As the circular economy calls for waste products to be turned into raw materials, industries that adhere to this system will not only see a reduction in costs but can also be transparent in terms of their carbon footprint and their products' life-cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA assesses the environmental impact associated with a product's life-cycle, that is, from the time its raw material is extracted until it has gone through the processing, manufacturing, distribution, usage, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling stages. “An eco-friendly product is a selling point in the international market, so if a Malaysian brand wishes to go global they should consider this point," said Sri Umeswara. The circular economy system will also enable an industry’s research and development section to design more sustainable products and encourage producers to be accountable for their own supply chains and waste. It will also encourage industries to practice segregation of waste at source, thus enabling the recyclers to have access to cleaner resources that they can recycle. “As for consumers, hopefully, it will lead to a change in mindsets and inculcate in them the recycling habit, thus reducing waste ending up at the landfills,” he added. Sri Umeswara added that his company is developing a mobile application to facilitate the recycling process for both consumers and recyclers. The application, which also functions as a data collector, will include a reward system for consumers who recycle. Edited by Rema Nambiar -- BERNAMA