Reconomy highlights urgent need for greater circularity with ‘Close the Gap’ campaign

A new campaign ‘Close the Gap’ has been launched by international circular economy specialist, Reconomy, to highlight the urgent need to transition away from linear economic models and embrace more circular solutions.

Despite a growing focus in recent years on sustainability, the global economy remains overwhelmingly dependent on the extraction of virgin materials to satisfy demands for consumption, with too little focus on recycling, reuse and conserving resources, says Reconomy.

Since 1970, global material extraction has tripled, now reaching over 100 billion tonnes per year. As global material use has reached new heights, the Circularity Metric has declined from 9.1 per cent to 7.2 per cent within only six years and just 7.2 per cent of materials make their way back into the economy, leaving a circularity gap of 92.8 per cent which is placing unsustainable pressure on the earth’s ecosystems. Additionally, the extraction and processing of materials are responsible for approximately half of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and over 90 per cent of biodiversity loss and water stress.

Reconomy’s campaign seeks to address this by making the circular economy more accessible for businesses and help them decouple growth from resource use. It aims to show that by keeping their materials in use for longer and making small operational or design changes, this can significantly reduce consumption. This will not only lower their carbon footprint, but also unlock material cost savings, improve efficiency, boost profitability and cash flows.

Running over the coming weeks, the campaign will include:

• Educational content and sector showcases for businesses across key sectors
• A spotlight on Reconomy customer success stories demonstrating real-world impact
• A launch video and campaign page.

Diane Crowe, Head of Sustainability at Reconomy, commented: “We are pleased to launch this campaign to shine a light on one of the biggest challenges of our time. Society is consuming resources faster than the world can regenerate them and the exponential growth in material extraction is driving unsustainable levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Through this campaign, we want to show that embracing the circular economy is easier than many businesses realise. By better managing resources, businesses can lower their environmental impact while boosting profits, cash flows and long-term resilience. This is all the more critical in light of the current volatile global economic backdrop, where businesses are under growing pressure to cut costs and operate more efficiently.”