Pairing circular economy principles with the information generated by intelligent devices could enable the transition away from a ‘linear’ economy and lead to broad social benefits, says a new Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) report.

‘Intelligent Assets: Unlocking the circular economy potential’, launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the (EMF) yesterday (8 February), creates a vision for how a digitally-enhanced circular economy could look.

The report was produced as part of Project MainStream, a cross-industry, global initiative that aims to accelerate business-driven innovations to help scale the circular economy. With up to 50 billion connected devices predicted by 2020, the EMF says that a pervasive digital transformation is reshaping the economy.

The report proposes that intelligent devices provide an abundance of information about the location, condition and availability of assets – all critical factors enabling the maximisation of use rates and the looping of materials back into the system, both of which are core principles of a circular economy.

‘Intelligent Assets’ provides insights collected through over 45 interviews with thinkers in the field, as well as the contributions of more than 30 different organisations that are presented as case studies.

The case studies look at various ways intelligent assets (also referred to as ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT) have been and could potentially be used to enhance different areas of the economy: manufacturing; energy and utilities; built environment and infrastructure; logistics and waste management; and agriculture and fishing.

Intelligent waste management

One of the case studies highlighted in the report is an intelligent waste management system – the bottom up selection, collection and management of urban waste (BURBA) prototype, which enables the real-time monitoring of the condition of waste containers.

The technology measures data such as temperature, humidity, weight and volume, and has a location tracker. The prototype uses an app that informs the user of the whereabouts of specific bins – making it easier for citizens to correctly dispose of their waste, and allows for more tailored waste disposal activity.

Unfortunately, due to the expensive costs of the intelligent waste containers (up to 10 times the price of a regular bin) and the high level of maintenance required, a pilot that took place across three municipalities in Italy, Spain and Poland ended in 2014 and no further plans have been made to scale the project.

Pay-as-you-go solar energy

The report also highlights the potential for access to a distributed, grid-free energy infrastructure, such as Aganza’s pay-as-you-go (PAYG) platform facilities for the sale of solar-powered devices. The business is marketed to users in the developing world with the goal of creating grid-free societies without the vast investments and resources associated with traditional power infrastructure.

The technology monitors the PAYG-ready products, such as a solar-powered reading light, which users can obtain without having to pay the retail price but are charged on a weekly basis for usage.

Aganza is developing the PAYG software further to create other products that have a ‘measurable flow’ such as a solar water pump.

A new era ‘decoupled from resource constraints’

Ellen MacArthur, Founder of the EMF, said: “Digital technologies are driving a profound transformation of our economy. Guiding this wave of change by applying circular economy principles could create value, and generate wider benefits for society, as this report shows.

“Intelligent assets are a key building block of a system capable of ushering in a new era of growth and development, increasingly decoupled from resource constraints.”

Dominic Waughray, Head of the WEF, added: “This report presents a full picture of the myriad technologies, business models and disruption at the intersection of the IoT and circular economy.

“When viewed as a whole, it is clear that this will usher in a new transformational paradigm of economic growth. If the public and private sector can come together to skilfully navigate this new era, the benefits will be immense.”

The New Plastics Economy

Project MainStream also released a report last month (January) about applying circular economy principles to global plastic packaging flows.

The 118-page report demonstrates the size of the plastics waste challenge we face, estimating that by 2050, using projected growth in consumption in a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, the world’s oceans will contain more plastics than fish by weight. Additionally, by the same year, the global plastics industry will consume 20 per cent of total oil production and 15 per cent of the annual carbon budget.

The report creates a vision of a closed-loop global plastics economy and suggests steps that could be taken to bring about the systemic shift needed to make the vision a reality. It criticises current measures to address plastic waste, where only two per cent of plastics are from closed-loop recycling and 98 per cent of production uses virgin feedstock, and aims to tackle issues ‘at their root cause’.

The full report, infographics and selected case studies can be downloaded from the EMF website.