Business case

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Producing indoor products for the home and office, such as furniture, including upholstery, carpets and wall-coverings, as well as cutlery, cookware, glassware, crystal, silverware, utensils, kitchenware and household specialties

Home and Office Furnishings

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within the same industry

Using closed loop recycled materials

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impacts

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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

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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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 In Catalonia there are 378.000 registered people with disabilities, 10.6% of which are of the intellectual type. Almost 55% of them are of working age, but only 78.000 actively work. At L'estoc we offer a wide range of possibilities for labour integration. The worker gets involved from the beginning in the whole process with a piece: Fixing, treating, polishing, painting, and varnishing. The activity is stimulating, fosters creativity, and gives visibility to the skills of people with disabilities. That is why we have the carpentry shop and the store in the same place, in downtown Barcelona. For promoting a different way of consuming, giving each piece the quality and attractiveness of new furniture. L'estoc has been awarded the programs for Social Entrepreneurship of Momentum Project by BBVA and Esade (2015), La Caixa Foundation (2012) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2011). 

Catalonia

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L'Estoc designs, produces and sells furniture made from recycled materials and disused objects. Their mission is to improve and dignify the life of people with intellectual disabilities and to foster development through work. 

L'Estoc

<p>"L’Estoc designs, produces, and sells furniture made from recycled materials and disused objects. Its goal is to improve and dignify the life of people with intellectual disabilities, fostering development through work. The combination of materials is the house trademark: From wooden blinds the company makes benches or screens, a door can become a table, and a crib is turned into a child desk." [1]</p>