Business case

Providing healthcare services, such as hospitals, medical facilities and patient care services, medical research and clinical trial services, pharmaceuticals and drug development, and genetic engineering services

Healthcare Services

Engaging in discussions with industry stakeholders to share circular economy best practices and push the industry towards greater circularity

Guidance, dialogue with industry stakeholders

Other

Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

Urban Opportunities

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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United States

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HPRC 

<p>HPRC has developed a guidance document that articulates product and packaging design considerations that enhance recycling potential and value. These guidelines are very specific for healthcare applications and are intended as a supplement to other plastics and packaging recycling and sustainability guidelines, which have broader applicability. The design guidelines are intended for product designers and users of disposable medical devices and will enable increased "design and use for recyclability." The guidelines may also be of use for waste haulers and recyclers interested in recycling this waste stream. Read more at:</p>

Guidance for industry for medical packaging design

HospiCycle was developed to help hospitals successfully integrate recycling
collection practices into a patient care setting, and better understand the
economic, regulatory, resourcing and infrastructure nuances that come with it.
Through a step-by-step approach, this guide is intended to help hospitals
navigate the process of activating a plastics collection program from initial
planning and business decisions through program implementation and improvement
considerations.



Collection of plastic in hospitals