The essential notion of sustainability has progressively affected Business management in recent years. More emphasis is being devoted to circular economy in order to ensure sustainable growth, which allows resource utilization and waste creation to be decreased. Although the circular economy is not a new idea, it has garnered a lot of attention in recent years as climate change, waste, and resource scarcity have become more pressing issues. The circular economy provides additional economic benefits. The linear economy loses a lot of value when “trash” is reimagined as a resource. Only 8.6% of the resources that enter the global economy are returned to it today. The rest follows the linear economy’s path, being abandoned and frequently replaced with new products.
Circularity has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, but businesses who wish to apply circular solutions confront a number of challenges. In order to grow circularity in harder-to-abate businesses, we need to overcome certain constraints. One of the constraints is to understand whether circular economy is 100 percent attainable. In case of manufacturing sectors, we can assume that the products which are being made can be reused, dismantled and may be remanufactured but in service sector it might be difficult to close the loop indefinitely. Lack of recycling technology can be considered to be another constraint and to ensure the circular economy’s success, we must ensure that the technology required to recycle materials are sufficient to meet all of the industries’ needs – both in terms of quantity and quality. Another biggest challenge that can’t be ignored is to arrange proper infrastructure for the treatment of wastes in India. What will happen if there aren’t enough plastic waste treatment facilities to ensure that the materials are ready to be used again in the industry? Plastic garbage will be piled up in landfills or thrown into the ocean. So, the governments need to make proper decisions on creating the recycling centers at proper locations.
In order to overcome these challenges, We need to create a sustainable business framework for India by doing extensive market research and education for both producers and consumers and ensure how we need to manage our resources in a circular manner: one that produces nearly no waste or pollution and focus on the following facets:
- We as Indian citizens should be ready to accept the changes and sensitize our children emphasizing them on the importance on managing waste.
- The local governments should try to align themselves with the central government and try creating a strong waste management policy and keep the track on the effective management of waste treatment plants.
However, in the developing nations like India, the circular economy is at an early stage yet, most businesses have ventured forward to facilitate their work in embracing something similar. By Integrating with the other stakeholders, India has lot of opportunities for innovations. So, let’s rebuild our India’s economy and try making it more sustainable and circular.
About the Author
Associate Professor – Quantitative Techniques and Operations
Jaipuria School of Business, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad