Every Friday, Circulate closes out the week with a selection of some of our favourite circular economy-related news from the week that was. Read on for news of self-healing squid tech, the first circular economy MBA graduate, and how Jaguar Land Rover and Novelis are building new material loops. But what did we miss this week? Let us know in the comments.
Why we need systems thinking today
The growth of interest in the circular economy has been linked to our understanding of the world not as linear and predictable, but as complex and intertwined. As a result, we need up update our thinking to build a prosperous economy. That’s a view shared by Samuel Arbesmn in his new book, Overcomplicated. Arbesmn’s research primarily focuses on software and computing, but don’t think this is a book for the IT department – with more and more of our economy relying on or being disrupted by digital technology, as Arbesmn says, “it’s incumbent on us to have a better understanding of these systems”. The so-called ‘Age of Entanglement’ perhaps plays to the negative impacts of this complexity, but there’s an opportunity to harness digitally-enabled feedback to build a circular economy: check out Ken Webster’s Circulate feature for more on this topic.
Say hello to the world’s First circular economy MBA graduate
So there are signs that our understanding of the world is being updated, and education will be an enabling factor that will support the transition to a circular development path. Some pioneers are taking the lead, and this week Gin Tildridge of DIY retailer B&Q became the first person in the world to gain an MBA in Innovation, Enterprise and Circular Economy, via the University of Bradford. Following completion of the three-year course, Gin will apply her thinking to the real business context, and aims to evaluate and improve circularity across B&Q’s products and supply chain.
Squid’s teeth key to self-healing clothes
The idea of ‘make do and mend’ for clothing may bring up nostalgia, but it’s a sad truth that most of us can’t cut it with a needle and thread. What’s more, the take-make-dispose model has made buying cheap replacement clothes a common temptation. Repair is a crucial ‘inner loop’ of the circular economy, but what if clothing could repair itself? In ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces this week, researchers have identified a protein from squid’s teeth that can give ‘self-healing’ properties to fabric. By simply pressing together two scraps coated in the protein and adding water, clothing could be repaired in a matter of minutes. It’s currently in development and could be used in military equipment, so don’t expect to find this tech in your next pair of jeans – maybe for now you’re best off taking matters into your own hands after all.
Jaguar Land Rover and Novelis build high-quality aluminium loop
Traditional recycling practices often in low-grade materials, but the collaboration between Jaguar Land Rover and aluminium supplier Novelis is now helping the car manufacturer to move towards a more circular business model for their high-performance vehicles. Having increased the use of internally-produced scrap metal in the design of the XF and F-PACE models, the company are now looking outside their own supply chain to access new reserves of aluminium for high-quality recycling. This means sourcing alloy from scrap cars and sorting and reprocessing it in a way that avoids loss of quality, as Adrian Tautscher explained to Maxine Perella at a recent update event for the REALCAR project: “as long as you keep the aluminium stream clean and segregated, you can recycle it again and again.” As Maxine points out, the REALCAR project is an example of successful collaboration around scaling circular economy activities, and one that other ambitious businesses could learn from.
The post Circulate on Fridays: squid teeth enable self-healing clothes, first circular economy MBA and more… appeared first on Circulate.
Source: Circulate News RSS