The circular economy is a concept that integrates sourcing, production, and consumption within common systems in order to minimize waste. This is intended to extend the life cycle of products and drive innovation across the value chain to promote sustainability.
In Africa, although the circular economy concept appeals to many as a result of its comprehensive scope and applicability to a host of major sustainability problems, the scale and impact of the concept on the continent are being constrained by a number of factors which are highlighted below:
In the first instance, there is a lack of clarity about the circular economy concept in Africa, and many frameworks were not designed with the circular economy in mind (nor do they readily accommodate circular goals). This will expose companies to an increasingly complex and uncertain operating environment which may affect their ability to fulfill ambitious circular economy commitments or develop closed-loop business models.
Secondly, most of the conversations and actions within the circular economy on the continent tend to focus on recycling and neglect other aspects like research and development, design, sourcing, and other circular economy drivers. This is only passing a message that creative and impactful solutions that are designed to prevent waste are not a priority consideration, and this will hinder innovation as well as limit the scale of potential initiatives and results as waste streams continue to increase.
Thirdly, markets and public policies encourage the overconsumption of many natural resources and raw materials. In addition, the exploiters of these resources do not account for pollution and other negative externalities that arise from their activities.
Furthermore, many aspects of the circular economy are disjointed and have no business model yet. This is a result of inadequate infrastructure, lack of consistent pricing signals, and demand for a wide range of products.
Finally, the circular economy is riddled with ineffective governance from companies, especially across supply chains. What they give are the rhetorical aspects of sustainability while avoiding mandatory performance requirements for individual member companies.
Despite these factors presently overwhelming the impacts of the circular economy in Africa, we cannot deny the encouraging developments that the concept offers and the potential it has to gain momentum and reshape circular thinking and behavior over time.
The good thing is that there are emerging tools that are being developed to advance circularity and ensure it is effective across sectors. They include assessing which raw materials, business processes, and packaging are the higher emitters and users of natural resources; accessing circularity metrics for specific businesses; mapping value chains to identify the movement of raw materials, energy flows, and products across value chain boundaries; and applying digital technologies to identify the location of waste streams to better plan waste collection and management infrastructure.
No doubt, these great developments will gather steam and assume a wider reach as the years go by and cause more impactful applications of circularity to evolve. We just need to keep reinventing the circular economy and also be deliberate about messaging, not only to companies but also to consumers.
