Reconomy Close the Gap campaign highlights need for circularity

Reconomy has launched Close the Gap, a campaign designed to highlight the need to transition from linear economic models to circular solutions.

Despite a growing focus in recent years on sustainability, the global economy remains overwhelmingly dependent on the extraction of virgin materials to satisfy demands for consumption, the London-based company says. Since 1970, global material extraction has tripled to reach more than 100 billion metric tons per year in 2020, according to the International Resource Panel’s “Global Resources Outlook 2024,” and could reach 160 billion metric tons by 2060. Additionally, as global material use has reached new heights, the Circularity Metric has declined from 9.1 percent to 7.2 percent within only six years and just 7.2 percent of materials make their way back into the economy.

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The 92.8 percent circularity gap is placing unsustainable pressure on the earth’s ecosystems, Reconomy says. Additionally, extracting and processing raw materials produce approximately half of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and results in more than 90 percent of biodiversity loss and water stress, according to the “Circularity Gap Report 2023” by Circle Economy, Amsterdam.

Reconomy’s Close the Gap campaign seeks to address this by making the circular economy more accessible for businesses and helping them decouple growth from resource use. It aims to show that keeping their materials in use for longer and making small operational or design changes can significantly reduce consumption, lowering their carbon footprints and yielding cost savings as well as improved efficiency and increased profitability and cash flows.

The campaign includes educational content and sector showcases for businesses across key sectors; a spotlight on Reconomy customer success stories demonstrating real-world impact and a video, available at https://youtu.be/jY4Xx4NDcVw, and campaign page at www.reconomy.com/close-the-gap.

Reconomy Head of Sustainability Diane Crowe says, “We are pleased to launch this campaign to shine a light on one of the biggest challenges of our time. Society is consuming resources faster than the world can regenerate them, and the exponential growth in material extraction is driving unsustainable levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Through this campaign, we want to show that embracing the circular economy is easier than many businesses realize,” she continues. “ By better managing resources, businesses can lower their environmental impact while boosting profits, cash flows and long-term resilience. This is all the more critical in light of the current volatile global economic backdrop, where businesses are under growing pressure to cut costs and operate more efficiently.”