Relevance of Circular Economy on Creative Processes
Introduction
The world is currently going through significant climatic changes, which are mainly rooted in the release of waste into the environment. Unlike before, climatic patterns are less predictable, and weather patterns have severe negative impacts on the world. This has called for the need for adaptation of better practices that ensure the environment is not compromised. These changes mainly revolve around responsible practices that do not cause more harm on the ozone layer, due to the release of greenhouse emissions to the atmosphere. This explains the development of the circular economy, which is mainly rooted in the attainment of sustainability through the reduction of wastage (Pratt, 2022). Circular economy is mainly grounded in the production and manufacture of new products, but with the end of their life cycle in mind.
It mainly focuses on ensuring that items are kept in use for as long as they possibly can, to reduce the amount of wastage that is being disposed into the environment. It also inclines on getting better value from raw materials, through the principle of reuse, reduce, recycle. The recycling principle primarily protects the environment by ensuring that the reusable items are not wasted. The circular economy is highly relevant in the creative practices, as the model can be used in the art world in different ways for repurposing of objects. Its influence on the creative practice not only lies on its environmental impact, but also plays a key role in enhancing innovation, enriching community engagement, as well as fostering collaboration (Deselnicu et al., 2018). The circular economy particularly fosters collaboration by inviting all major stakeholders such as artists, policy makers, and designers to create better solutions to the existing challenges. As more creative practitioners begin to embrace the principle of circularity, they stand a chance to build a more regenerative world, and also inspire change among the rest of the society.
Relevance of circular economy
The first major point of influence in the role of circular economy in creative practices is the sourcing of materials, as well as how they are used. It mainly fosters up-cycling of the waste material so more designs and artistic creations can be developed. This is an extremely influential approach towards ensuring that there is reduced wastage, and at the same time, it also influences innovation. Up-cycling waste materials is not an obvious practice, and requires the creatives to put in more intentional effort towards coming up with new ideas. This is a major focal point in enhancing innovation, which often trickles down to other practices. Currently, a significant number of artists have began embracing up-cycling and ultimately created the most stunning pieces (Dan & Østergaard, 2021). Their works of art come from waste materials that would have otherwise been discarded if the artists were not intentional about tapping into their creative minds.
Consequently, the circular economic practices can also be used in the distribution of artistic content. For instance, during film and music production, the producers and the artists alike can be intentionally involved in ensuring that they use eco-friendly materials during the production process. This is an influential step towards creating change in the environment by reducing the amount of waste that is disposed. Additionally, the transition into the use of technology is highly influential to transitioning away from using physical distribution practices. Unlike before, there is no need for using CDs and DVDs, as the creative minds can use platforms such as YouTube to distribute their content. Essentially, the circular economy has been influential in ensuring that artists are challenged to find more innovative ways to repurpose materials during production activities.
Circular economy has also had a profound impact on design thinking in the creative practices. It has highly stimulated how the artists, among other creative practitioners, think and approach problems. Their problem solving skills have been taken a notch higher with the need to become more innovative, and also attain sustainability. Among the changes that have been developed in design thinking include systems thinking. Unlike before, the creative practitioners have had to set up systems in consideration of the interconnectedness of the entire production process. This has called for a more holistic approach in mapping the flow of materials, establishing any intervention methods, as well as establishing risk and problem mitigation strategies to ensure that the production process is not interfered with. By implementation of a systems strategy, the creative practitioners have had to establish more opportunities for the optimization and efficiency of circular economy.
Design thinking also calls for user-centricism in the production process. The creative process is not just about the achievement of sustainability, but also ensures that the users of the said products are kept in mind. Not only are the manufactured products durable, repairable, and can easily be reused, but they also highly meet the users’ needs. There often is a lot of functionality in the products that are created from the creative and circular economic process since the artists need to be more thoughtful about the production process. Most importantly, circular economy creates room for disassembly of the products. As stated earlier, circular economy is focused on the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle. For this reason, the manufacturing process has to take into account that the materials have to be dismantled to make room for reusing the raw materials for the production of new products. Some of the design thinking techniques that are used in this creative process is modular design and standardized interfaces. Taking the dismantling of products into account is an effective strategy into ensuring that the lifespan of things is extended, and wastage is reduced.
Case studies on circular economy strategies
This circular economy strategy is practiced by companies in the real world. IKEA is one of the companies that has a circular agenda and is highly intentional about ensuring that they minimize their impact on the environment. They commit to reducing the release of greenhouse gas emissions that stem from the IKEA value chain by only using reusable materials. This company recognizes that humanity plays an influential role in the safety of the environment. It embraces the practices listed above in a bid to embrace circular economy in the creative practices. Most of the furniture produced in this company is designed to grow older with the users. This shows that the production process had the users in mind, as they were highly invested in the manufacture of durable products (Bouhia, 2022). The furniture can easily be dismantled, which explains the narrative that their products can easily move with the users. All of their products reach the user in the dismantled state, and they then assembly it together using the manual that is inserted in the package.
The company’s commitment to be part of the solution in the circular economic staretgies in the creative practices is evident in their goals by FY30. IKEA is dedicated to a circular future, as its management recognizes the impact of their production process in the environment. In a bid to reach their goal, they ensure that the circular designs are implemented during the design phase of the production process. This is among the initial stages of production, which are then embraced throughout the manufacturing. The management states that they currently are on a journey to transform the company so it will have reached its full potential in the circular creative processes by 2030 (Malmgren & Mötsch Larsson, 2020). According to the company, circularity is ensuring that the products manufactured in the business circle back into it years later. Regardless of where the products are shipped across the world, IKEA is committed to ensuring that they eventually get reused so they can be used in the development of new products in the future.
The implementation of this strategy will have a major influence on its entire product catalogue. Moving forward, they are committed to being intentional about the products that they produce and the developmental strategies that are implemented in the company. Additionally, they are committed to using reusable materials in the production so they have minimal negative impacts on the environment. Essentially, the raw materials sourced by the company are more sustainable, which is a step closer to achieving the goals they intend to have achieved by 2030. They also intend to have attained as much value as possible from the products they manufacture in the business. In this case, the IKEA product catalogue is not only bringing value to the clients, but also caters to the goals of the business as well as the environmental goal of attaining sustainability. The circular loops that are being used in IKEA include reuse, refurbish, remanufacture, and recycle.
Precious plastic is also an organization that engages in plastic recycling projects. It is an open hardware and open-source institution, meaning that it is open to receiving plastics from anywhere in the world. The project was first started in 2013 and has continually grown to greater levels over the years. This company is committed to bringing together the solutions that are required to solve the plastic menace that is currently afflicting the world. Plastic is a huge menace since it is non-biodegradable. This means that it will take years before they are broken down and reabsorbed into the environment. In this case, this company is committed to reducing the amount of plastic wastage in the environment through embracing the principles of reusing and recycling (Spekkink et al., 2022). Additionally, they also emphasize on the need for promoting the use of biodegradable materials, or the adoption of zero wastage lifestyles. The main impact that this company has had to the environment is solving the plastic pollution concern which has for a long time affected the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The above analysis has been insightful on how the circular economy is relevant to creative practices. Material sourcing and usage is particularly a big step towards ensuring that circularity is a principle that creative practitioners around the world are embracing. Essentially, the intentional move towards the use of reusable and recyclable materials plays a big role towards ensuring that the environment is cushioned from harm. Embracing the principles of circularity encourages that the sourcing of materials is done more sustainably. This is evident in companies such as IKEA, which is one of the leading furniture manufacturing companies globally. As an institution whose products are used across different parts of the world, they are currently more committed to sustainable practices in the sourcing of materials, as well as how they reach them. This has fostered more innovativeness and creativity within the institution, as it has to move from the old practices which have a negative impact to the environment.
Consequently, circularity has been accompanied by a lot of community engagement and collaborativeness. Purpose plastic can only attain its vision if it receives support from the members of the community. Major stakeholders such as businesses, the government, and the rest of the community have to join hands in order to solve the plastic menace. Additionally, involving the members of the community in coming up with new designs and practices also propels the growth of the institution much further.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the circular economy is highly relevant to creative practices as it ensures that the environment is safeguarded from harm. A lot of education and awareness needs to be channeled to the creative practitioners, so they can gain insight on alternative practices that they can put into use in a bid to attain sustainability. Most times, people may fail to embrace the circularity practices as they are unaware of the positive influence that they bring to the world.
What is more, they can also make use of their platforms as a medium of education to other community members. They can enlighten them through art installations and design projects that set an example of how the circular economy can be applied in normal life. Such channels can be used to enlighten people on the need for reducing wastage, recycling of materials, and the conservation of resources. Generally, they can be the catalyst to positive change, since people are more attracted to creative expressions and educational platforms. Circular economy is a great step to changing people's thinking, as they begin to see waste as a resource, and not an invaluable part of the environment. With such renewed thinking, there will be significant progress towards combating climate change, which is one of the biggest environmental concerns.
References
Bouhia, G. (2022). Applying the circular economy concept to a sustainable business model for large retailers: the case of IKEA. International Journal of Competitiveness, 2(3), 212-233.
Dan, M. C., & Østergaard, T. (2021). Circular fashion: The new roles of designers in organizations transitioning to a circular economy. The Design Journal, 24(6), 1001-1021.
Deselnicu, V., Zăinescu, G., Albu, L., Deselnicu, D. C., Militaru, G. H. E. O. R. G. H. E., & Pang, X. (2018). Circular Economy–An Innovative and Creative Production Model. Proceedings of the ICAMS.
Malmgren, K., & Mötsch Larsson, K. (2020). Reverse logistics in the transition towards the circular economy-a case study of customer returns at Ikea.
Pratt, A. C. (2022). Toward circular governance in the culture and creative economy: Learning the lessons from the circular economy and environment. City, Culture and Society, 29, 100450.
Spekkink, W., Rödl, M., & Charter, M. (2022). Repair Cafés and Precious Plastic as trans-local networks for the circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 380, 135125.