Plastic Pollution and Circular Economy

Plastic pollution and Circular
economy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Define and discuss circular economy referring to the theories from which it emerged.........3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
State an example how circular economy is developing in the commonwealth city New Delhi,
India........................................................................................................................................5
Analyse the progress of the circular economy in the city New Delhi, India focusing on the
barriers enabling factors and opportunities for its growth......................................................7
Task 3 ..............................................................................................................................................8
Propose what companies (local and international) and local government can do to support the
development of circular economy in New Delhi, India.........................................................8
Task 4 ............................................................................................................................................10
Report for commonwealth Local government Ministers meeting on key and recommendations
for action...............................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years growing use of plastic and pollution caused by it has captured the
attention of people, environmentalist, business and government at all levels. Environmentalists
are moving shifting from linear economy to the circular economy which is based on regenerative
and restorative design. The concept of circular economy is based on the concept of increasing the
value of materials as long as possible so to make a flow materials in a closed loop rather than
being used once and then discarded (Robaina and et. al., 2020). Circular economy increases the
life cycle of a product and here in the context of plastic, circular economy aims to make increase
the value of plastic so that they do not end up in landfills, incinerations or in sea area. The prime
purpose of the report is to briefly explain the term circular economy, principles which gave rise
to circular economy in India, what were the challenges faced by India in adopting a circular
economy, what measured did it opted and what local government and companies are doing to
support the cause.
Task 1
Define and discuss circular economy referring to the theories from which it emerged
Circular economy is a modern method of linear economy which was ineffective and was
based on the method of take, make and dispose. Due to the inefficiency of this model, heavy
amount of plastic is occupying a space in oceans which is leading to the destruction of soils,
marine mammals, and creating a water pollution which is deteriorating to human health. Circular
economy is based on a concept of making an efficient use of products and materials as long as
possible, extracting the value until their end life and then in the last aims to recover and
regenerate so as to make a input those materials and products for further production. In order to
address and preserve the environment governments and businesses are taking necessary
measures to reduce the hazardous waste from the environment and contributing towards healthy
and sustainable environment (Luttenberger, 2020). Few measures are producing plastic from
plants rather than a fossil fuels, promoting recycling and reuse of products and materials,
adopting a regenerative method to eliminate the waste and increase their life cycle, encouraging
the use of plastic material which is compostable and using plastic as a input for another process.
There are few principles which gave rise to the circular economy and reducing plastic waste
from a community :

 Principle of Input : One of the significant principle of circular economy is the efficient
use of natural resources. Due to rapid increase in population the resources in the state of
depletion, circular economy aims to preserve and extend the life cycle of natural
resources by means of keeping resources under control and balance the material flow of
renewable energy sources (Adebiyi-Abiola and et. al., 2019). The prime purpose of
circular economy is to ensure that renewable materials, resource and non renewable raw
materials are available to each and every citizen with the continuous flow of materials
instead of accumulating them and which is achieved by efficient flow of resource
management. Principle of sustainable cycles : Principle of sustainable cycle aims to work towards the
proper and continuous functioning of production process by making a adequate amount
of resources available at each step. Circular economy focus on designing the production
process in such a way that initial stage of production makes an efficient use of resources,
reduce energy consumption, or reduce waste so that further process is not disturbed due
to the non availability of resources (Tessnow-von Wysocki and Le Billon, 2019). Reduce : Another principle of circular economy is to reduce the waste generation and
produce more from a finite resource materials. In order to achieve this goal, business are
moving towards the creative and innovative approach which served the needs and wants
of a community in a better way while having minimal impact over environment.
Adopting a use of biodegradable packaging materials, such as business are moving
towards the use of paper bags instead of plastic, or shifting towards technology so as to
produce better results. Reuse : Circular economy is designed with the purpose of reducing ecological impact
business have with their operational activities and amount of waste generation through
producing good and services in an efficient manner with the help of recyclable and
sustainable resources. In order to attain the objective of zero waste, reducing carbon
footprints or pollution it is necessary to go beyond the concept of linear economy which
is based on the concept of single use products that generates a huge amount of waste and
that too with a poor management of wastage (Abbott and Sumaila, 2019). Circular
economy work well with management of wastage by the concept of make-remake, use-
reuse. With the help of this, the life cycle of each material and products are extended with