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Resource Innovation and Solutions Network
The following material was provided by the Arizona State University Walton Global Solutions Services and the Resource Innovation and
Solutions Network. This is the final in a three-part series about resource management.
Managing waste is becoming an increasingly significant challenge for municipalities around the globe. As landfills fill up and resource extraction
becomes more costly both financially and environmentally, cities and regions are in need of alternative solutions to the existing waste system. Fortunately,
the waste challenge has also opened up new opportunities for innovation, economic development and creating positive impact through leading-edge resource
management strategies. Three concepts that are changing the way societies dispose their waste and reuse their materials are net positive, zero waste, and
the circular economy. Net positive and zero waste describe more general goals, defined as creating an overall positive impact in society and diverting at
least 95% of waste, respectively. The circular economy is a philosophy that prescribes a new approach to the creation and disposal of products by encouraging
a transition from linear production and waste processes to circular processes, mirroring the condition of nature that there is no waste.
In this three part blog series, these concepts are described in more detail and the opportunities for them to be integrated as complements to each
other as a sustainable and economically-sound resource management strategies are discussed. The Global Sustainability Solutions Services (GS3) of Arizona State
University's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability are currently at work to advance the potential of the circular economy in the Phoenix Metropolitan
Area. In a collaborative effort, the City of Phoenix and GS3 have developed the Resource Innovation and
Solutions Network (RISN) to transform the Phoenix Valley's waste stream into a circular system and provide shared value throughout the region.
Part 3: Zero Waste, Net Positive and Circular Economy as Complementary Approaches
It would seem that the concepts of zero waste, net positive and circular economy are cut from the same cloth, and indeed they can work together nicely. However,
the drive for zero waste does not necessarily lead to the greater good of circular systems. Many European countries are finding that out with respect to their
energy system. It seemed like a good idea a few decades ago to mass burn waste to heat a boiler to generate steam to generate electricity. A few countries built
extensive infrastructures based on this approach. Their diversion rates skyrocketed, as much less went to landfills. Now, however, as innovators find new valuable
uses for the waste stream, pressure is growing on their feedstocks. They already import waste into their countries to feed the infrastructure, and are on the verge
of paying ever more for these feedstocks. Moreover, this process burns both biological and technical materials, more or less indiscriminately, then landfills the
remainder. Technical nutrients, in particular, can be lost forever in the process. This existing infrastructure can either be an impediment to the circular economy,
or could come crashing down as innovators mine the value of circular systems.
In our role as a university-based solutions organization, and in our relationship with the City of Phoenix with whom we have partnered to create the Resource Innovation
and Solutions Network, we have had the great fortune to talk to many regions, cities, corporations, non-governmental organizations and universities around the world. In
the drive towards higher diversion rates, we see organizations on the verge of making the same mistake as those European countries. Those countries might not have been
able to foresee the unintended consequences of mass burn. We have the advantage of learning from their history.
One way to achieve zero waste is to recycle the best you can, then shove everything else into some burning process to turn the rest into energy products while landfilling
the ash, perhaps recovering some metals in pre- or post-processing. Due to the complexity and difficulty of increasing recycling rates and separating materials into usable
categories, this seems like an attractive option. Market development for these materials can be equally challenging.
Detractors call this approach "use plus one." Many increasingly scarce technical nutrients will be lost forever, unless the system is designed to be flexible and adaptable
to new mining, sorting and separating technologies that can get the technical nutrients out of the trash stream before it is burned. This infrastructure could become an
impediment to realizing the full benefit of the Circular Economy.
We challenge those entities considering this approach, as well as ourselves, to design the next generation of our resource management systems with the intention of achieving
a fully net positive, restorative circular system. And, to make sure that interim steps are designed to take us there, avoiding short cuts that might become technology lock
in.
Here's to a circular future!
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League of Arizona Cities and Towns
1820 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Phone: 602-258-5786
Fax: 602-253-3874
http://www.azleague.org
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