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Change is slow, but more and more consumers around the world, fed up with contributing to environmental problems, are willing to pay more for products made from scarce natural resources.
This was confirmed by a survey carried out last year in 28 countries, in which 71% of respondents said that companies that use these resources must pay more taxes, even when the consumer price increases.
This sentiment was particularly strong in developing countries such as Latin America.
Perhaps unknowingly, consumers are pointing to an economic model that has been promoted for years by academia and multilateral organizations: the circular economy.
The current model is linear, explains Daniela Córdoba, World Bank consultant and expert on the subject, who sat down with EL PAÍS in an interview.
If the linear model is to extract, produce and discard, the circular model is to reuse, reproduce and recover.
The large textile, oil, plastic and chemical companies are the ones that put up the greatest resistance, says the specialist, via videoconference, from her office in Quito, Ecuador.
But the potential is enormous.
It is estimated that five million new jobs can be created in the region to move towards the circular economy by 2030.
Ask.
What exactly is the circular economy?
Response.
It is a productive and economic model where either a product or a service is analyzed with the primary objective of extending the useful life of the product and a final objective of recovering, so that no waste or garbage is generated.
That is the key.
At the end of the useful life of this product, you send it back to the production cycle or to the biological cycle, as is the case, for example, with foods that can go to composting.
The circular economy analyzes all the inputs and outputs of water, matter and energy.
All processes and efficiencies are analyzed and go hand in hand with the production of different products and services.
Q.
This sounds great, especially when we consider the effects of climate change in the region, but how realistic is it for countries to move to this model?
R.
Many countries, especially in the European Union, already have a circular economy plan focused on the different strategic sectors, where micro, small and medium-sized companies and the Government must first be sensitized and educated.
Once this is achieved, it focuses on the consumer.
The new laws are being designed to be followed by producers, manufacturers or importers.
If they want to sell a lot, in an accelerated and unsustainable way, let them do it, but they will have to recover, let's say, 35% of the waste they generate.
An example of this is the strategy that Colombia is implementing with its decree on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which is progressive and extends the responsibility of the producer.
In Peru there is also a general directive that came out this year that deals with cleaner production,
which is also focused on the circular economy and allows companies to generate commitments with the Government, so that they say, for example, 'We are going to reduce our water consumption by 15% by 2023'.
At first these are voluntary, but it is understood that in the near future they will be mandatory.
Right now, Mexico is discussing its circular economy law.
Governments, academia and companies have to raise consumer awareness, who is the Achilles' heel of the circular economy.
Let's say that a company adopts a circular model, working hand in hand with the Government.
If the consumer throws the product in the garbage without delivering it to the garbage collector or recycler, the model is broken.
Europe too has now declared that everyone has the right to repair.
This means that big companies like Apple, Samsung, Huawei,
those have to literally give you a brochure and videos and give you a screwdriver so that you yourself have the opportunity to change your battery, change the screen, et cetera.
In Japan there is a very strong culture of “the three Rs”: reduce, recycle and recover.
P.
Do you think that this culture can be generated in our region?
R.
In Latin America we have the circular economy in our blood because we always want to lower costs.
When I buy a new cell phone, I sell the old one on the second-hand market, or I give it to my relative, for example.
We always see the financial and emotional benefit of repair and we see it in the Apple and Samsung stores that offer repair services.
What they saw in Europe is that it is not enough to offer this service, because it is a kind of programmed obsolescence that the consumer cannot open or repair the product himself because the guarantee is no longer respected.
That is not right.
A few weeks ago we saw the announcement that Europe will force all cell phone manufacturers to use the same type of cable, to stop generating so much waste.
If an Apple cable can be used for a Samsung product, resources are optimized and mining extraction is avoided.
The idea is to stop extracting from our planet.
Q.
Despite the fact that Latin Americans seek to extend the useful life of expensive products, single-use plastics dominate the market.
A.
It is true.
We have become a very easy culture in which, for example, we prefer disposables for a party to washing the dishes.
Single-use plastic is very cheap, it does not cost you what it costs you, for example, a pair of jeans.
What is needed is a government that offers you facilities to deliver all those single-use plastics or tells you where the recycling company that collects them is.
It is worth mentioning that this type of plastic degrades between 10% and 15% with each process and can be used for a more limited number of products because it loses resistance.
The denim pants, in our region, become a short and then even a bag.
It all depends on the cost.
If it costs you, it hurts your pocket, you look for alternatives so that another person can take advantage of it.
Q.
Fashion, especially the concept of fast fashion, is known to be highly polluting.
Has the circular economy not reached these textile companies?
R.
These companies continue to put out up to three clothing collections per week.
They are now incorporating a collection that they label as sustainable.
C&A, for example, obtained a very expensive and very difficult certification called
cradle to cradle
, in which they use clothing that was not sold and remained in warehouses.
But, so far, this is more of a
greenwashing
, an action taken to give the impression of sustainability.
H&M is offering discounts in exchange for used clothes, regardless of the brand.
These clothes are then used to make new designs.
But they continue to produce excessively because, of course, for them this represents sales.
The problem is that the extended responsibility of the producer is not falling in the textile industry.
The same goes for the big bottlers and food companies.
P.
Who are the ones who most strongly resist this model?
R.
In addition to the textile, bottling and food companies, there is a lot of resistance in the plastics and chemical industry.
The chemical industry is the strongest, it is the one that sends lobbyists to ask congressmen to change the laws, to make them more lax, to be progressive, so that they can comply by making minimal changes.
There are countries where fines are imposed, but the fines cost less than making a structural change in the company process.
For the oil and mining industries, the circular economy is not convenient because it is convenient for them to continue extracting.
To the construction industry as well, despite the fact that it is the sector that can most easily move towards circular economy models using steel, stone, cement or aluminum from previous buildings.
But, I repeat,
if it doesn't cost big companies, they won't change.
We have the opportunity to generate approximately five million jobs, in all of Latin America, in repair, remanufacturing, etc., by 2030. The circular economy has enormous potential.
Companies have to start thinking about how to generate industrial symbiosis, where their waste can become raw material for another company, even in another industry.