Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Principle No. 1 for Building a Circular Economy

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / March 19, 2024 / Eastman

Eastman takes a principled approach to developing solutions for the circular economy.

In our previous article, "Six principles for the circular economy," we introduced our approach to evaluating circular technologies. Now, let's delve into our first principle: Reduce, reuse, recycle. This principle forms the foundation of our waste hierarchy strategy. Throughout this series, we'll explore each principle in detail one article at a time.

Principle 1: Reduce, reuse, recycle

Most people are familiar with the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. And while this phrase may be most familiar as a consumer mantra, it's more important now than ever that companies also adopt the sentiment. We believe in the philosophy that we should reduce, reuse and recycle materials to the fullest extent possible to reduce plastic waste, and we think industries everywhere should start with this familiar "three Rs" concept, aiming for the most resource-efficient solutions for any given material or product.

Reduce

To reduce, in its simplest form, means to use less of. For consumers, that usually means buying fewer brand-new items. But for companies, it's a little different. To reduce entails using less material per item when possible and designing for recycling.

Ultimately, we need companies to use fewer unrecyclable materials. Fortunately, with advances in recycling, the range of materials that can be recycled has vastly increased, widening the variety of truly recyclable options. Companies should lean into these materials, especially for packaging and single-use items.

We also aim to reduce the production of raw petroleum plastics. When companies commit to materials that are produced from waste plastic through molecular recycling, we can greatly reduce our dependency on fossil-based feedstocks for new plastic production and create a collection process that assigns value to what was otherwise considered ‘waste,' keeping it out of landfills or the environment.

In addition, companies should consider the growing consumer desire to consume less by investing in quality products that last longer. Companies need to design for durability and longevity and communicate these benefits.

But we won't move quick enough if these efforts are exclusively voluntary. We've proven that already. We'll move a lot faster when we put policies in place that commit to reducing production of new fossil-based plastics. The technology to move away from raw petroleum-based materials is here now and will only improve in efficiency and financial feasibility as demand grows and policy supports it. We need to make it a baseline through policy and regulation and remove restrictions around sustainable molecular recycling.