David Tompkins, Associate Director at WSP, considers the transformative potential of the Circular Economy - from rethinking business models to resource recovery, he highlights the water sector’s role in aligning economic activities with global limits.

David Tompkins :The circular economy (CE) offers us an opportunity to re-think our approach to the world. It allows us to shift from classic linear (‘take, make, throw’) business models to circular models helping to bring our economic activities back within planetary boundaries.

For many, the CE has become synonymous with recycling; we now have a well-established waste and resource management sector which routinely collects glass, metal and other solid wastes for recycling back into common products.

The water sector is similarly active in developing technologies for recovering heat, nutrients, biopolymers, and other resources from wastewater – reducing the impact of their businesses and returning value to customers. However, resource-recovery is just one small part of the CE. The water sector has the potential to take a leadership position across all parts, stimulating discussions and stakeholder interactions that should lead to fundamental change.

Those other parts of the CE include eliminating waste and pollution, and regenerating nature. These sit alongside circulating resources at their highest value as the three principles underpinning CE thinking. The familiar waste hierarchy is embedded in this thinking too but has expanded from the initial reduce-reuse-recycle to a list which now starts with ‘Refuse’ and ends with ‘Recover’.

How to refuse or avoid the need for a new product or asset should be the first question we help customers to explore, before we consider how to ensure that the asset is designed and implemented as sustainably as possible. By doing so, it forces us to consider why the asset is required and whether the need is truly unavoidable.

Do we need a new water treatment asset because we are permitting leakage from our existing network? Have we explored all opportunities for customers to use water more efficiently? Do non-household users have a good understanding of their use, and have we helped them to consider options for re-use or non-potable options? Are we looking to create capacity to meet future demand – in which case, are there options to move that demand to locations where there is an excess of supply?

Media coverage of poor water quality continues to make headlines, but we will never fully address this issue until farmers can afford to comply with their own regulatory obligations.

The water sector works closely with many farmers and land managers on catchment management schemes that address water quantity and quality – and at the same time is in daily dialogue with customers who struggle to pay their bills.

This highlights a pressing need for public discourse on the actual cost of natural resources – whether water or food. We know that we need to transition to a sustainable future in which high quality water and food is available to all, but how do we make that change?

A Circular Economy is our destination – the route map is now being prepared.

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