Okay, it has been a moment since the last time I posted something in
this blog. I usually posted my (personal) stuff that I wanted to share to my
other blog, http://bayuimaduddin.wordpress.com/. Then, here I am. Firstly, I am
sorry if this time is in English. I just want to share this not only to
Indonesian people, but also my friends and the others, so they can have a look
and read. My English is not that complicated, though. So, hope you enjoy it!
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Circular
Economy? What is that?
In my own
words, circular economy is an industrial economy system where they don’t
produce any waste at all. The waste that I mean could be anything, like plastic
from food packaging, wools from old clothes, and metals from technology. But,
why is it important?
As we
already know, the Earth or the nature has already had its own capacity to be
sustainable for itself, like the nutrients and water cycle. But, on the other
hand, what human have been doing for a long time is usually making new stuff without
doing any recycling. Then, time by time, the pile of waste we have will
keep increasing and increasing if we don’t do anything, while there won’t be
enough space to bury it on. So, recycling things is very important. More specifically about circular economy, you can have a look at this video:
So,
basically, I could say the principle of the circular economy is interchangeably
with 5R principle, which are: Reduce, Reuse, Refuse, Recycle, and Replace. And
now, what I want to talk about might relate to that principle, which is
repairability. Repairability is the ability of a technology to be repaired if
there are any damages. Let me give an example; one of the biggest phone brand –
iPhone – has actually a very low level of repairability. As in most cases, the
iPhone parts can’t be replaced (like its battery). That’s why people will most
likely just buy a new one if a certain part of the old one is broken. And sure,
this is not good because actually there are many parts of it are still in good
condition.
Well, on
the other hand, I just knew from my teacher (actually almost this whole post),
there is also a brand of phone – still on development – called Fairphone. This
phone has been designed to be able to be modified, by making the parts are
replaceable. So, if there are any damages on a certain part or we just want to
update to a newer technology (like more pixelated camera), we can just replace
that part without buying a new phone! Cool, right? Have a look at Fairphone’s
website: here.
Back to the
5R principles, we really need to apply these to daily life. Then, it might be a question in your mind: What can we do now? Good question. I think,
the best thing we can do is starting it by ourselves in our lifestyle. You can adopt
“Zero Waste Lifestyle”. It is indeed very hard to avoid producing waste, but not
impossible! There have been many role models in this lifestyle; Zero Waste Home
can be a reference. Perhaps I’ll just make another post of this ;)
Lastly, I want
to say that I don’t force anyone to do anything. I even haven’t applied this totally
to my lifestyle, but I just want to share this idea and information, and perhaps
encourage people to start wasting less. You don’t have to have a completely
zero waste lifestyle; keeping this in mind and trying to reduce waste are
already great! Just remember, it is not only for you neither only for me, but
for all of us. :)
Best,
Bayu
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Notes: I am
sorry if I post a lot of things related to sustainability or environmental
issue. I don’t only learn about these things at school, but these things might
be the ones I am most interested in and therefore I want to share it. If you
have any idea/suggestions/comments, please feel free to let me know by putting
it in the comment section!
