The 9 Rs of Circular Economy Explained

Here’s a number that should make you uncomfortable: the global economy is only 7.2% circular. That means that for every 100 pounds of steel, plastic, cotton, concrete, and food the world consumes, less than 8 pounds come from recycled or reused sources.

The other 92-plus pounds? Freshly extracted from the earth, processed, used once or twice, and very often thrown away. That’s the linear economy in a nutshell: take, make, dispose. It’s the model that built the modern world, and it’s also the model pushing us toward resource depletion...