Circular Economy For Dummies

Chapter 4

From Linear To Circular: What You Need To Know

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the key differences between a linear and circular economy

Identifying how waste from one system can become a resource for another

Investigating how resilience influences the circular economy

When scientists drop the scary-sounding term entropy into a conversation, all they’re doing is describing the amount of waste or disorder in a system. Even within the most efficient circular systems — like the ones this book is focused on — waste and disorder will exist. And it has to exist, because waste is a vital component of the second law of thermodynamics. If you paid attention in physics class, you’ll remember that this second law addresses the irreversibility of natural processes and the limitation of efficiency. Does it ring a bell? No? Okay, well, for those of you who passed notes during physics class, the idea here is that there's a limit to how efficiently energy can be transferred between systems — waste will always exist, most commonly as heat loss. This is why neither a fully circular economy nor a perpetual motion device will ever exist. Wait — you might believe that this statement massively ...