@ green | January-February , 2022

Corporations are turning towards collaborative partnerships to develop and implement strategies

BY KAVICKUMAR MURUGANATHAN

The Circular Economy Model

The transition towards a circular economy offers a platform for multi-level stakeholder collaboration to deal with the challenges of resource constrain and waste generation . Accenture ’ s book on “ Waste to Wealth ” indicates that shifting towards a circular economy could release about US $ 4.5 trillion in new economic potential by 2030 . Increasingly , corporations are turning towards collaborative partnerships to develop and implement circular economy strategies .

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was established in 2010 with the aim of accelerating the transition towards a circular economy . The charity works with businesses , governments and academia to build a framework for an economy that is regenerative and restorative by design .

The shift to a circular economy has seen companies seize untapped opportunities to develop innovative business models . Here are some examples of how companies have collaborated to drive a circular economy in various sectors .

Aramark : Reducing food waste

Foodservice provider Aramark , headquartered in the United States and with operations in 19 countries , has partnered with food waste reduction experts Lean- Path to improve food waste prevention and minimisation .

By integrating LeanPath ’ s food tracking and analytics technology platform across 500 of its largest accounts , Aramark can accurately track food production by monitoring orders received and preparing required quantities of servings .

Having rolled out LeanPath ’ s technology platform across 161 of its operating sites since 2016 , Aramark has reduced food waste by about 44 per cent and the amount of food sent to landfills by 479 tonnes .

In cases of food overproduction , unserved food is donated to local relief agencies or sent for composting . These implementations will assist Aramark in meeting its food waste reduction target of 50 per cent by 2030 from its 2015 baseline .

H & M : Regenerating value in clothes

In early 2013 , H & M launched a global in-store clothing collection program to encourage customers to return their used clothes in exchange for vouchers . To manage the downstream processing of the collected clothes , H & M partnered with the reverse logistics service provider I : CO . I : CO assists in the manual sorting of collected clothes for re-wear , reuse , recycling or energy generation .

It is estimated that about 40-60 per cent of the clothes collected by H & M are suitable for re-wear and made available for second-hand sales worldwide . I : CO ’ s primary revenue stream is generated from these sales , especially the high-value vintage garments .

At the next level , about 5-10 per cent of collected clothes are reused as cleaning clothes or cascaded into other products as they are not suitable for re-wear . About 30-40 per cent of collected garments cannot be reused .

They are either recycled to textile fibres or used to manufacture damping and insulating materials in the automotive industry . The rest of the clothes are burnt to produce energy for thermal utilisation .

H & M also partners with a supplier in Pakistan to recover fibres from jeans . Collected end-of-use jeans are shipped to partner facilities . They are then crushed and respun into fibres to be used as input to manufacture new jeans .

The respun fibres replace about 20 to 25 per cent of virgin materials needed for manufacturing a new pair of new jeans . H & M ’ s long-term aim is to find solutions for reusing and recycling all textile fibres for new uses and to use yarns made from collected textiles in their products .

To meet its vision , surplus funds from the clothing collection program are donated to the H & M Conscious Foundation , which supports research and innovation in reverse logistics capabilities and closed-loop textile production .

DSM-Niaga : Innovative flooring solutions

Established in 2014 , DSM-Niaga is a joint venture between DSM , the global life and material sciences company , and Niaga , a Dutch-based sustainable carpet solutions provider . The collaboration resulted in the development of Niaga ® technology , used to produce the world ’ s first and only fully recyclable carpet .

The technology is based on a simple set of processes that do not use latex as an adhesive in the manufacturing process . The combination of Niaga ’ s fibre binding technology and DSM ’ s engineered adhesive resin technology allows the manufacture of mono-material and duo-material carpets that have easy-toseparate layers , enabling the re-creation of raw materials at the end of the product lifecycle .

In the United States , more than four billion pounds of carpets are landfilled annually , making it one of the most common products in landfills today . Niaga ® provides the carpet industry with the possibility of making carpet waste obsolete and diverting waste from landfills .

Besides closing the material loop for carpet production , Niaga ® fibre binding technology allows for as much as 95 per cent energy reduction during carpet production compared to traditional manufacturing processes . Product Life Cycle Assessments ( LCAs ) comparing Niaga ® technology to conventional solutions reduces environmental impact by 40- 65 per cent throughout the product lifecycle .

Despite being 100 per cent recyclable , Niaga ® technology-based carpets do not compromise on product safety and are intrinsically flame retardant without the need for any additives . After using the carpets , customers are encouraged to sell them back to the manufacturers .

To ensure continuous collaborative research and innovation , DSM and Niaga have jointly established a technical centre and production facility in the Netherlands . Interestingly , when spelt backwards , the name “ Niaga ” reads “ Again ” in a true circular fashion . — @ Green

Kavickumar Muruganathan is a sustainability professional .