Month: March 2017

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Sweden to become a ‘circular economy’

The Swedish government is investigating how it can promote a ‘circular economy’.  Now, what is a circular economy? While it is not so well defined, I’d say it’s an ambition to keep materials in a loop. Nature tends to work with cycles (the carbon cycle for example). Businesses, the circular economy proponents say, should mimic such systems. In a circular economy,  waste should become input to new production. In addition, there’s the idea that sharing and renting is better than owning things (I’d like to see some evidence for this).

The Swedish government’s investigation into the circular economy resulted in a 400 pages report, released last week. The report suggests tax deductions for rental, second hand and repair services, which sounds like more of what the Swedish government has already done. Other suggestions are for example to increase access to carpools and to facilitate prevention of waste (the latter is always a good idea).

When I encountered the ‘circular economy’ concept, I was initially a sceptic. It might be an academic instinct to question terms the industry has invented. ‘Isn’t this just a new fancy concept for recycling?’. Lately, however, I have slightly changed my mind. The more I learn about the waste issue the more it seems necessary that companies ‘design out waste’ (as the circular economy proponents put it). We need to have a plan for what happens to the materials and products when they are discarded. We need to make sure that our products are safely recyclable and can potentially be recycled more than once. If the circular economy concept is helpful for businesses (or states!) in order to work on these issues, then that’s more important than the lack of definition.

I also find the circular economy system diagram useful. The ways in which materials circulate are put into a hierarchy where maintaining products (such as mending) is more desirable than recycling. This seems very reasonable.

Now my research area is really the measurement of such initiatives. And, as it happens regularly, I got a really good question from a student some week ago: “How can we measure whether a business is circular?”  While businesses are quite different from nation states, the Swedish government’s report has in fact suggested some indicators for whether a country is ‘circular’. The proposed indicators measure the amount of recycled materials, the use of raw materials and the amount of waste produced. These are standard indicators that companies disclose in their sustainability reports. In a business setting, such indicators are nothing new. However, they might be more difficult to calculate on a national level. The government report suggests no indicators for the sharing, renting or repairing ideas of the circular economy.

Clearly, this is an area that needs some more work. Now if the Swedish government would want some help with measuring their circular economy ambitions, I am here to help 😉

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When pollution comes back to haunt us

You might remember the cadmium in imported rice scandal or lead in imported rice scandal. These are examples of heavy metal contamination of imported foods. ‘We import foods from countries with too low environmental standards’, you might think. And that’s true.

But how did the heavy metals end up in the foods? How did a fifth of China’s farmland become contaminated? Countries like China and India have for quite some time been producing for our consumption. It has been attractive because of price, but it has also been done under lower environmental standards. One example is the dyeing of clothes. Another example is the production of pharmaceuticals. We know that these industries pollute the water and soils (and there are of course further industries in this category). We also know that residuals of the toxic waste may remain in what we import.

So, ironically,  when these countries produce for our consumption, the resulting pollution comes back to haunt us in the foods we import.

Even more ironically, while contamination of soils in India and China is spreading, we are in Scandinavia placing buildings on uncontaminated good soils that used to be farmland. The national strategy is to rely on imports, both of foods and other kinds of manufacturing. When this is the strategy, we have an interest in the countries that we are now dependent on. It is in our interest that their farmland and water supply remains uncontaminated so that they can continue to produce for us. There is only so much farmland in the world. If our strategy is to rely on imports, then we need to be concerned with the pollution in the countries we import from. Because it is not only the local population’s food supply that is contaminated, it’s ours too.

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Is more recycling the answer?

We’ve learned that recycling is desirable. It’s the way to a more sustainable society. And in some ways it is. Compared to accumulating trash in landfills, then yes, recycling might be a good idea. Keeping materials in the loop means that we don’t have to produce new resource intensive materials, such as cotton, from scratch. However there are also issues with recycling.

First, toxic materials might result in toxic recycled products. In a recent case, artificial football turf, from recycled car tires, seems to be carcinogenic. Recycling is not desirable if football kids develop cancer as a result.

Second, although something can be recycled once, it does not necessarily mean that it can be recycled twice. So although we produce something by recycled materials, it may not be recyclable a second time. When it is worn out, it still ends up in the landfill or to be burned. Taking one more turn and having a second life is of course better than going directly to trash but it is not a final solution.

Third, recycling requires resources. Recycling processes require energy, the items to be recycled are moved around and transported, there might be environmentally unfriendly chemicals involved (for example in the case of textiles) and it requires money. These resources may be well spent money compared to things ending up in a landfill. However, if we instead reuse what we have and produce less waste, these resources can be saved and spent on other things.

Bea Johnson, of zero waste home, asks the thought provoking question: “What if our municipalities could shift the resources they spend on waste handling to other activities, such as schools and hospitals instead?” She has many relevant points.

Overall, the zero waste movement is doing a pretty good job in educating us on how to reduce our waste. It means fewer things going into our homes, particularly disposables, and fewer items being thrown out. Everyday. If we all did it, it would make a big difference.

Personally, I’m a bit of a late adopter in this area. I’m at this point trying to reduce everyday plastic disposables. I’m also pretty good at the DIY skincare and home cleaning supplies that Lauren Singer suggests. In terms of food packaging, although I’m recycling, I’ve got a long way to go in terms of reducing what comes into my home. On my wish list for this year is to start composting food waste. Many cities have composting schemes that you can subscribe to and in Bergen even certain houses/areas (as in my friend Turid’s case).

On the picture: buying milk directly from the farmer (Lovö Prästgård) using old Kockum milk jars. Buying directly from the farmer, also at farmers market, is a good way to reduce waste.

Are you making effort to reduce your waste? Please share your experiences.

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A month without shopping

It’s been a month since my no-shopping commitment. Abstaining from shopping has been easy. Possibly because I had already quit habits such as reading fashion magazines and window shopping.

What’s more challenging is to wear what I own. All of it. They say women only use 20 per cent of our wardrobes (some say 30 and others 44 per cent). Supposedly, men are even worse and only wear 13 per cent of their wardrobe. The minimalist and decluttering initiatives tell us that’s a good reason to get rid of the unused 80/70/56 per cent. What they fail to mention is that throwing things out contributes to more textile waste. The longer we wear something, the better it is for the environment.

Personally, since I’m not shopping, I’m stuck with what I have. So if I want variation, I need to wear everything in my wardrobe. I have to turn the 80 per cent that’s currently collecting dust into things more wearable. Fortunately, there are some easy strategies for doing so.

Mending. Somehow I never learnt to properly mend clothes. I do remember my mom mending my torn pants as a kid but I never really adopted this habit myself. Having things mended for you is, sadly, sometimes as expensive as buying new things. Luckily, there are lots of help to be found on the internet. Wornvalues has a great tutorial for mending knits, for example. Katrina Rodabaugh has a tutorial for elbow patches. Cotton and curls for how to remove pilling and removing stains on shoes.

Second life sewing. Clothes beyond repair can be turned into ‘new’ things. Traditionally, we made rugs out of left over textiles. Aiayu, does so with their textile waste. But you can also make clothes. I removed the torn sleeves from a shirt and thus making it sleeveless. Using the left over fabric and another torn shirt, I made Willow tank, for example. All you need to know is how to operate a sewing machine.

Refashioning. For clothes that are wearable but where you don’t like the style or the size, refashion them. Make the hem a bit shorter or cut off the collar. I’ve been following Wornvalues tutorial for making a cardigan out of a former v-neck sweater that I never wear. This way I get a ‘new’ red cardigan without shopping. Cotton and curls have a tutorial for making jeans slightly bigger, which seems useful.

Dyeing. You can simply dye a garment if you don’t like its color. This natural dyeing book is on my wish list. I’m planning to dye a boringly white dress.

Embellishment. One of my new year’s resolutions is to start embroidering. This is a great way to make some garment a little more fun. There are again lots of inspiration on the internet on how to embroider clothes, for example Elisalex of By Hand London, Tessa Perlow or these collars by Nadya Sheremet.

Styling. If truth be told, there are also items that are absolutely wearable as they are but that I still don’t wear (typically stockings with pattern). In these cases, I have to challenge myself to put on the garments that are not in the comfort zone (but that I at some point thought was a good idea). I find that the key is to figure out new combinations. What I would love is some super inspiring blog for how to wear not-so-easy-to-wear things in ones wardrobe. How to combine items we already own but rarely wear to look really stylish. However, the styling blogs and Instagram accounts I encounter typically try to get us to buy things from different brands. There’s just much more available ‘inspiration’ to buy things and so much less for taking care of what you’ve got. But it does exist and the above are some of my favorites.

Got recommendations for blogs that style what we already own or other take-care-of-your-wardrobe tricks? Please share !