Transição para a economia circular: possibilidades de aplicação no setor de metais

Abstract

The industrial economy development path is based on a model that depends heavily on the extraction of finite natural resources and in which losses of materials are embedded. This is a linear model that has been established throughout the twentieth century, being the basis of a development strategy based on unlimited economic growth and a logic of production and consumption intensive in materials use. For decades, criticism of this model argues that it does not respect the ecological limits of the planet, and that alternative models are needed to rethink the economy. The circular economy has emerged as an alternative discourse in the first decade of the twentieth century and has been consolidated and explored in different parts of the world. Although the term has been used years ago in China as a drive for urban and industrial development policies, the concept evolved and the current state incorporates a variety of schools of thoughts around the design of a new economic model, which is regenerative and restorative by nature. The core of the concept is the notion of decoupling economic progress from the use of finite natural resources and in practice new mechanisms are needed to achieve models that point to this goal, reducing the need for extraction of virgin nature reserves to feed new production and consumption cycles and material losses. The transition towards a circular economy requires changes in materials flows and stocks management in the economy and metals are a significant portion of these materials, critical for the development historically and that is expected to occur in the world in the coming decades. The notion of recovery and extension of the life-cycle of metals in continuous loops, rather than a linear model strongly extractive and intense in social and environmental impacts, reveals an important area to develop a circular economy, which will require complex changes in value chains and in the principles governing the value creation in the economy