Context
A circular economy is an industrial model that is restorative by design and proposes that, instead of extracting natural resources, materials that have already been processed can be recovered and reused in various ways, thus protecting natural resources from over exploitation, an issue that is particularly sensitive in Latin America. The objective in this is to keep scarce, valuable resources in circulation for longer periods of time, promoting recycling and avoiding loss of materials. Achieving these objectives requires alternative models of business such as reuse, remanufacturing and product-as-service.
CTCN Support
To perform an assessment of the circular economy and to prepare a road map for Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and Paraguay, revealing who are the key actors/interested parties and characterizing gaps and deficits, to serve as input for the collaborative construction of a roadmap on this issue, to serve as a management tool for the future implementation phase.
Expected Impact
● Reduced use of resources needed per unit produced;
● Reduction of the quantity of waste produced;
● Reduction of the quantity of energy consumed. Reuse of raw materials reduces the amount of energy required to obtain an element that can be re-used in preparing the same or another product;
● Development of new businesses and generation of new job positions. Latin America presently has a low rate of recycling and increasing the present rate will create the need to hire more personnel for the various tasks required in the different links of the value chain of each product prepared;
● Promotion of innovation, because it is necessary to change the production model and update the production infrastructure, equipment and technologies, to process what is today considered waste (future raw material);
● Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.
