by Agnieszka Pacholczyk

The Deutsche Post DHL Group and Cranfield University have published a report, entitled Waste not, want not: Capturing the value of the circular economy through reverse logistics, which looks at the potential to evolve a concept where materials, components, and products are recovered and re-processed more effectively in comparison to today's (wasteful) practices.

A long time ago we adopted a linear approach to the process of utilizing goods.

We produce, purchase, use, and afterwards throw the leftovers to a rubbish dump, to then burn it in an incinerator or bury it in a landfill. Out of sight, out of mind.

As such, we treat waste materials as useless outputs where none of the material value of the refuse can be recaptured. This one-way model of production and consumption not only generated unprecedented growth in the past but has also led to a dramatic depletion of (finite) resource.

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