9 out of 10 UK adults don't know what the circular economy is.
22 Jul 2022
Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash
9 out of 10 adults don't know what the circular economy is, a June survey finds.
The YouGov survey, commissioned by the app Youngplanet, surveying 2000 people had these basic results. There is no immediate and secure conclusion: its unclear whether circularity is uninteresting, or like many other areas of sustainability considered by the public to be niche, it will matter when it is more unavoidably present in how consumer decisions are made - what to buy, where to travel, what to do with a product when its done, how to package things, on and on.
Naturally, he survey a limited sample size, so theres room for hope. But let's assume this does scale to the wider population. The EU is pushing forward with its broader and more concerted circular economy package. The UK is accelerating its circularity model with research and funding efforts across the UKRI CE hub, the plastic tax, and its own circular economy package.
Policy is happening before effective education in the UK. So lets ask the question - how much of a problem is this?
If the UK's circular economy appraoch depends on people responding to circularity as a branding effort to re-engineer social behaviour through individual choice, then yes, this is a big problem.
This is to say - if the UK's strategy is to rely on people at the grocery store, in online shopping, seeing circularity and understanding with nuance its impact on alternative green supply chains, sustainability, critical materials, then theres a problem.
So the UK is faced with a choice, or rather, many choices.
First - They can pause circular economy policy efforts and begin a larger national circular economy education campaign through advertisements, educational programs, TV spots, posters - all of which could ironically create its own waste problem. But assume they do it in a way that's green and circular in itself. 100% of the population does not need to be educated. Instead, as with any movement, a minimal amount of key stakeholders which serve as lighthouses of their local environments would be needed.
The people whose messaging and behavior translates into assumed trust. Im trying to avoid saying influencers - but that also would likely be part of the campaign.
Here you get larger push into national UK led and third party led campaigns. We would start to see more direct effort on behalf of brands to put circularity front and centre. To have more dedicated pages on brands home websites to show what their circular approach is. This model is not about adding circularity to ESG, its about making the concept immediately and intuitively accessible, making it communicable.
Second - the UK could do the education initiative while moving ahead with every other circular economy plan. The choice would be whether to slow down or speed up. Likely, it would be to keep the same pace, and in some areas speed up.
Circular package would continue in the UK. But with each new initiative, a larger effort to frame and talk about these efforts could emerge - more MP discussion, more tv spots, more journalistic coverage. But this has a feedback effect, as a heavy part of the UK framing is the negative approach - taxation to limit usage of materials, avoidance of certain items. Reduce, refuse, and re-use are essential to circularity - but integrating these into a life built on convenience is certainly a unique challenge.
Third - the UK could ignore the educational problem and avoid branding the "circular" changes as circular. Even the circular economy movement is looking for alternative ways to frame the common agreement on shifting from the linear economic model of production.
But this can follow the trap of attempting to brand and enable organic and sustainable, which diverge in legal ability to ensure quality and consistency in use. Just as circular should not be the next CSR, it likely should not become the next 'organic'.
Fourth - the UK could ignore in part the educational problem and not rebrand circularity and just push forward regardless with the idea that education comes after continued exposure to the idea in real products and services. Policy first, industry second, education third.
These options are demonstrative of a spectrum of timing choices, but the point here is that the potential real crux of the matter will not be whether education comes first, but what narrative of the circular economy the UK comes up with regardless.
Is the circular economy a materials and resources austerity program?
Is the circular economy a new top-down effort from the government to change how we have always been doing things?
Is the circular economy just a new niche area of sustainability?
Is the circular economy a critical area for business model development which can make sustainability more financially viable?
As any circular theorist will tell you - circularity is not any one thing. But this provides the issue and the opportunity. How the circular economy begins, what investment packages and framing packages come first, will matter. There is no universal set of stages an economy goes through to get from linear to circular. There is no clear and known-to-be-succesful roadmap.
The opportunity for circular economy is waiting and open in how its framed. What we need to know, and what this survey does not tell us, is exactly how people, when first exposed to the idea, come to frame it. Is there an opportunity for re-framing that could shape how brands pursue circularity, how national policy frames and communicates circularity.
The concept of the circular economy is only as valuable as what it helps us to do.
It may just be that circular economy, given its global state of increasing investment and wide disconnect with the public, affords one of the most unique science-communication opportunities for the next generation.
