The circular economy needs integration and synergies to increase the circularity of products

New companies are born on the basis of new businesses in the field, above all, of textile waste and WEEE, strongly desired and promoted by the new generations, who they are in contrast with the traditional market.

But how did we get here?

In a few decades we have passed from the logic of the landfill , in which “we conferred”, noble words that cover the compulsive sense of throwing anything unused into a hole, in the era of recycling.

We have painstakingly built companies and machinery that could separate the various waste that was produced by the company, with the intention of reusing them in the form of new raw material.

We have learned to diversify the waste bin that is produced in homes, through separate collection that has significantly increased the quantity of reusable waste through mechanical recycling.

We have started to create a new environmental awareness , which has focused on saving natural raw materials and reducing CO2 in the air, trying to recycle as much waste as possible to create a virtuous circle of products.

Unfortunately, this is not enough, as the share of recycled waste still remains modest compared to what is thrown away, again, in landfills or directly into the environment.

The need to raise the share of products that are sent for recycling, today around 10% worldwide , is absolutely essential, and any action taken by consumers, politics and industry is of the utmost importance.

One of these concerns the policy of reuse of used products and that of the purchase of products, especially electronic, refurbished.

Regarding used products , the new generations have already cleared customs the impact of purchasing products already used by others, through private commerce, especially with regard to clothing or objects that do not contain components that are difficult to assess quality.

A parallel market is being created, where the cost of the product and the territorial offer, through dedicated Apps, facilitate its operation.

Another issue concerns the problem of WEEE waste, that is all those electrical or electronic products, which are eliminated, sometimes even if they work , for issues that often do not concern the quality of the object but fashion.

In this vein we can certainly insert smartphones a tool for work, fun, play, a status symbol and, perhaps, even a little communication.

A cult object that is often, if not very often, changed not due to product inefficiency, but to buy the latest models from the telephony marketing factories .

This disposable electronic , which is also seen in computers, game consoles, watches and other products continuously technological updating, they create a huge amount of electronic waste that is difficult to recycle.

Furthermore, we must consider the CO2 emissions that every year, only in the supply chain of the extraction of smartphone raw materials, is equal to 125 megatonnes, which corresponds to approximately 31.5 coal plants in operation for a year.

Here, companies like the Finnish come into play Swappie, which is responsible for reconditioning Apple smartphones, with the aim of returning to the market a tested and guaranteed product of safe residual value.

The company recovers the iPhones , submits them to a series of electronic tests to verify the efficiency of the systems, batteries and other parts that could be damaged but not visible to the human eye.

It also generally replaces the batteries, and attributes a selling price for each phone based on the external appearance of the product, the quality of the glass, case and of other visible parts, without prejudice to the quality of the internal machine.

Swappie has become to all intents and purposes a competitor of Apple , as it guarantees a used product, at a lower price, with the the right quality expected by the consumer, contributing substantially to the circularity of the products.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.