Each year, investors, businesses and governments spend over $1,3 trillion on waste reduction as well as on repair and reuse schemes. The sum in question is inadequate for the purpose of establishing a sustainable and circular economy across borders, a new study finds.
Conducted by UK think tank Chatham House and research specialists Just Economics, the study established that governments allocate $510 billion, companies $800 billion and financial institutions and investors $46 billion to circular economy initiatives.
Taken on their own, these numbers appear remarkable yet compared to annual investments in conventional ‘linear economy models’, that is, to markets where products and resources are conceived of for single rather than multiple use, the figures seem negligible.
