Circular economy, like many “popular” and new concepts in society, has for some time been used as the “paradigm” of a new approach to development. However, it is used with much uncertainty as to what it actually entails and what its implementation would bring.
In the first place, we will often hear for the term circular economy that it is necessary to increase the recycling rate in Serbia. Recycling, of course, is an important component, but not the only one.
A circular economy involves a completely changed attitude towards using everything that is a “resource”. This means, in the first place, that we will waste far less resources – we will generate far less waste than we create it today, and finally, the waste that we have created will be selectively collected and recycled.
So – first, it is necessary to reduce the amount of waste at the “source”, through the introduction of new innovative business models. In addition to more efficient business operations and household spending, it also includes more sustainable cities and local communities. Being the owner of certain products, we can already switch to “buying short-term service” to our own liking. Whether we need a bike or a car just to drive from Kalemegdan to New Belgrade, or we need a professional office printer for six months. In this way, we have the opportunity to use the most expensive products (let’s drive the latest car model, for example) in the required period of time, which consequently costs a lot less. Many new applications, such as Blabla car or DriveNow, are also contributing to this, either connecting those in need of transportation to those who can offer it at that moment, or providing a network of cars that can be easily “disposable” to transport. In transport, this means a much smaller number of cars in circulation in major cities.
In addition to reducing the amount of waste at the source, the circular economy also means the more efficient use of waste that has been generated. In most sectors, this implies, first of all, an improved logistic system for the collection and proper sorting of waste. For example, it is estimated that in Serbia and in the world , the dominant portion of food waste from commercial and hospitality facilities is simply dumped into landfills, and the circular economy would mean greater reuse of food for human consumption, through donations to food banks, processing into animal feed, and even electricity and compost. In order to make such a system sustainable, it is necessary to establish a system of supply of uniform type and quality of discarded foods, reports Nova Ekonomija.
The recent conference, “National Circular Economy Perspectives – Seizing Opportunities”, organized by the Ministry of Environment and the GIZ project “Waste Management in the Context of Climate Change (DKTI)” on November 27, among other things, presented three analyzes economic and social effects of applying the circular economy to identified priority sectors, developed within the GIZ project in collaboration with the expert team of the Center for Higher Economic Studies (CEVES).
