Circular Business Models

Did you know that a whopping 80% of a product’s environmental impact is locked in during the design phase? That’s why the circular economy is shaking things up in manufacturing. It’s not just about recycling, it’s about rethinking the way we make things in the first place.

So what does circular design in manufacturing look like?

CIRCULAR BUSINESS MODELS:

Circular Supplies: This is about making products with renewable or recovered materials or sourcing stuff that’s already been used (recovered resources). And importantly, no more making things out of stuff we can’t get back.

Example: Bowen and Gumlu vegetable, tomato and melon growers have been trialing biodegradable mulch film products instead of polyethylene mulch products that are difficult to recover.

Resource Recovery: This means using technology and systems that make it easy to recover valuable materials from products once they’ve outlived their original use.

Example: Raw Metal Corp in Mackay is a business whose focus is on reusing, repurposing and recycling metal. The business boasts a machine that can take an entire car and methodically strip it down.

Sharing Platforms: Why buy new when you can rent, share or reuse an existing product? These platforms promote “access over ownership” and help products have multiple lives and multiple users.

Example: Brisbane Tool Library is Queensland’s first library of things. Since 2017, the library encourages people to borrow hand and power tools and other equipment such as camping and sport gear.

Product as a Service: The product as a service business model is anchored on tangible, physical products that are durable and non-perishable, have a longer lifecycle and can be returned at the end of the subscription period to the vendor.

Example: StrollMe is a business that rents out baby strollers that can be reused, refurbished and eventually recycled into new strollers.

Product Life Extension: This is all about repair, reuse, repurposing and remanufacturing - designing things to last and offering new services that breathe new life into old products.

Example: It’s surprising how many tyres are abandoned before their time because operators don’t realise they can be repaired. TyreDoctor offers hot vulcanised tyre repair, which can extend the life of off the road tyres significantly.