What is the connection between circular economy and the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development?
The establishment of a truly circular economy can help to achieve the goals of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
The implication that this economic model has on the mentioned goals is obvious in some of them, such as having sustainable cities and communities, reducing CO2 (climate action), favour responsible consumption and production, etc.; but it can also help a lot to achieve other goals which connection with the circular economy is not as clear, such as eradicating hunger and poverty.
Nowadays, there are many underdeveloped countries which economy is based on producing new products for the developed countries, or on extracting materials they have in their lands to make products destined to be sold in richer countries.
This fact makes it very difficult for them to develop their own economy, produce for themselves, and stimulate their market.
Moreover, having these countries as producers of richer countries is also devastating for their environment. Their regulatory framework on this matter is extremely permissive or even inexistent, so their land and water are being polluted, and their flora and wildlife are being killed with it.
This is causing a lot of illnesses, such as poverty and hunger, as polluted lands cannot be cultivated, and their cattle don’t have land to graze.
A circular economy will subtract much pressure from these countries. If products are recycled and reused, and when manufactured design to need much less raw materials, underdeveloped countries will stop being needed to provide materials for richer countries. They will already have the materials needed from the unused products already existing in their countries.
Furthermore, production may be allocated in the country where the products are going to be sold and underdeveloped countries may start developing their economy, based on their needs, without polluting their environment.
In this sense, the implementation of the circular economy in construction and demolition activities plays a fundamental role, since, as discussed in various sections of this document, these activities are by far the ones that generate the greatest volume of waste and use the most water, electricity and raw materials (see section 6.2).
Therefore, all the benefits of implementing a circular economy would not be achievable without the participation of construction and demolition, and the achievement of the UN goals is not feasible without including these activities.
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