Question

What do you mean by the concept of Circular Economy and Mechanisms of Protection to the Environment, and Renewable Energy Generation? Explain I detail with relevant examples.        

Answer 1

The basic economic problem is one of unlimited desires which have to met with the limited resources available This situation more tricky when the resources are used up or depleted yet the wants ( or our desires to buy various goods and services ) are flowing continuously.

Production, a basic act of meeting the wants generated, is the creation of a good or a service in order to give maximum satisfaction to its user—the consumer. In this mechanism, the resources are used up to produce various goods and services . In a circular economy goods are either produced in a way that they are long lasting or can be recycled or used again to produce more goods . The flow chart below shows the working of a circular economy where resources are used to produce various goods which are ‘used again’, and hence they become resources for future goods and services.

Traditional societies have evolved with the concept of ‘reuse and recycle’ though the modern day fast paced life styles essentially necessitate the use of ‘single use ‘ products to ease the pace yet the ‘trade off’, between the production of goods and the need to conserve resources and use them in a sustaining manner is of extreme  importance.

One of the important ways to conserve the environment is to ‘use’ the existing environment conservationist ideas into essentially structural or basic ideas and formulate policies on them. A circular economy is very ideal and appropriate especially in today’s times for the concept of environment protection and renewable energy generation since its focus is on ‘using the available resources’, which are limited in quantity in manner that is showcasing the maximum productive and allocative efficiency, satisfies the consumers who consume the goods and yet aims for lower levels of ‘wastage’ of both goods (in the form of elimination of excessive consumption) and resources (in the form of excess production).

For example, the circular economy seeks to efficiently utilise the available renewable resources like the solar energy , wind energy, the tidal energy and so on, in a manner that they are utilised to the best of their capability and most efficiently in a manner that their innate nutrients are fully tapped in the process.

Deforestation which is one of the serious causes of concern for environmentalists , today, all over the world, is essentially leading to the development of ‘smart cities’ and’ smoother roads’ at the cost of soil erosion and depletion in soil quality , circular economy seeks to solve such issues by insisting the principle of ‘optimality’, where the resources, forests , in this case are used but in a manner that the ‘long term ‘ needs are ‘kept in mind’. This would reduce the unnecessary ‘wastage’ of the resource and would ensure that it is sustainable for the long term also.

Circular flow of economy model highlights the importance of assessing a project as being viable or not in terms of ‘an efficient cost-benefit ‘ analysis. This is especially needed in case of large scale projects that have far reaching impact on the economy, for example, a major road building project –a longest highway which connects to remote cities of the country—such projects involve a lot of resources and hence the economic costs and the social costs have to be calculated in the backdrop of the benefits accruing to the society due the project—the decision to construct the highway should essentially be taken keeping the future in view, if the benefits out weigh the costs then it is a viable project but if the costs are more , not just financial costs but , lets say, the cost of clearing large tracts of forests and their impact on the future generation in terms of lesser amount of rainfall, low availability of water , soil erosion and so on should also be calculated and a suitable decision should be taken.

Minimisation of wastage of resources is an essential part of the circular economy. Whatever is the resource wastage is sought to be reused so that more goods can be produced. Waste conservation policies like composting, energy efficiency and conservation and so on aim to seek the reduction of wastage as well as recycle the available resources into newer goods.

Reducing garbage disposal—segregation of wastes into ‘wet wastes’ and ‘dry wastes’, rain water harvesting techniques, increasing the awareness to use water conserving appliances and so on are other relevant examples that form the backdrop of a circular economy.On the agricultural front, it is important to prevent activities like ’stubble’ burning, over grazing of the cattle, excessive mining activities that deplete the spoil of its essential nutrients.   

However , the various environmental and energy conservation methods require a continuous monitoring by a legal authority (government ) with the penalties of defaulting parties to be very high so that the erring parties are punished immediately which could act as a deterrent to other to follow suit.