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From an ecological perspective, cattails fill many roles within an ecosystem. They are used for water purification and erosion control, and they provide habitat for frogs, insects, small mammals, and birds. They are also the “canary in a coal mine,” except they are the “cattail in a wetland”: they serve as indicators of wetland health.

I love foraging, and while I love the idea of foraging for cattails, it is important to note that they have an amazing ability to absorb toxins such as pollutants, fertilizer runoff, or heavy metals. It might not be in your best interest to forage cattails for food unless you understand the water quality of the wetland where they grow.

Getting back to their use as a filler for puffy jackets, I really love this idea much better than de-nuding ducks or putting more plastic into the world. I will be keeping my eye out for this type of natural filler. If you ever see a product containing cattails, please share!

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Urban forests

To quote myself (?) from that post:

“Why should we care about the “urban forest”? An urban forest has many benefits. Here are a few that were mentioned [yesterday]:

• Trees help keep things cool via shade and “transpiration,” which is when trees take in water from roots and release it through their leaves

• Trees beautify the surroundings

• Trees and nature have been shown to increase mental and physical health and well-being.

• Trees help to reduce both heating and cooling costs

• Trees clean the air

• Trees provide a habitat for wildlife

• Trees reduce storm runoff

• Trees are “carbon sinks,” absorbing and storing carbon instead of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

Friends of Trees

Planting trees makes sense. But not everyone has the option to plant trees. That’s ok. If you still want to help create an urban forest, there are organizations where you can donate your time to planting trees such as “Friends of Trees.” They have many volunteer roles, including planting crew leader, tree planter, and truck driver. According to their website,

“Since 1989, we’ve planted over 1,000,000 trees and native shrubs in neighborhoods and natural areas in western Oregon & southwest Washington, all with the power of volunteers.”

That is incredible! Thank you, Friends of Trees!

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Nature-based cooling

Development Asia has an article called “How Cities Can Combat Extreme Heat Using Nature-Based Solutions.” The article cites several nature-based solutions, including green spaces (street trees, urban treed green spaces), green infrastructure (green roofs), blue spaces (rivers, canals), and wind (building placement). Can you guess which of these has the biggest cooling potential? If you guessed “green spaces,” you are correct! By planting trees and allowing grasslands and wetlands to flourish, the article says,

“Green spaces and vegetation cool cities by providing shade and promoting evapotranspiration, which converts heat from the air into water vapor.”

I first saw this diagram in this LinkedIn post. Majd makes the point that nature-based solutions are only one part of the total solution. Adding urban planning and an efficient infrastructure compounds the benefits.

Field trip opportunity

And here is a photo of the sidewalk in front of my house. You can see trees planted all the way down the parking strip. It is considerably cooler in the shade. And if you are in Portland, Oregon, here is a fun field trip: the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum. If you are interested in planting trees here, the arboretum is a great way to check out approved street trees.

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Welcome!

Hello new free and paid subscribers! Welcome! I see you, and I am glad you are here. If you have any topics relating to circular flows you want me to explore, let me know. That goes for all subscribers. This is an adventure we can go on together. 🧭

p.s. I scheduled this post ahead of time because I am off in the woods searching for shade at Pickathon!

“Even more remarkably, each shop includes its own repair workshop, allowing customers to see how items are restored and giving them the opportunity to learn how everyday objects can be repaired instead of thrown away.”

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What can you purchase there? Everything from second-hand and repaired clothing to second-hand or upcycled home goods to reupholstered and refinished furniture. They even have refurbished electronic products. Shopping and purchasing things gives us a dopamine hit. But this shopping mall allows you to get that dopamine hit in a more environmentally friendly way and participate in a circular economy at the same time. Here is a list of all the types of stores they have:

But the mall is multi-purpose. In addition to being filled with stores, it is also a conference center. They offer a variety of conference rooms and sustainable food and drinks. Their website also includes “tips for a sustainable conference.” I’ve not yet been to any of the Nordic countries, but this is just another example of how they weave circular flows into their lives. According to the LinkedIn post,

“The facility houses repair workshops and hosts educational events, lectures, and hands-on workshops (along with a dedicated year-long design and recycling education program) to teach visitors how to fix and repurpose items.”

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Here in Portland, there are a few “antique malls,” but they are not the same as the ReTuna mall. They are generally filled with second-hand home goods, collectables, clothing, and kitchen goods. I’d love to see something closer to the ReTuna mall with more contemporary, practical items sold among the antiques. Do you have anything like ReTuna near where you live? Have you ever been there? What do you think?

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The Value Gap

As a way to make a case for becoming more circular, the report delves into what they call “The Value Gap,” which is described as a “new perspective on the potential of circularity” and is described in this manner:

“The Value Gap provides a pragmatic, economy-wide measure of how much avoidable economic value, expressed monetarily, is lost due to linear material use.”

The report states the main drivers for the losses, which include:

• Processing losses: “Value lost during the transformation of raw materials into semi-finished or final products due to inefficiencies, defects, and reduced yield.”

• Energy losses: “Inefficiencies across the energy system, from extraction to end use, where a large share of input energy is wasted and does not deliver useful service.”

• Food losses and waste: “Edible food that exits the supply chain [ed note: or my refrigerator] without being consumed, including losses during storage, transport, retail, and final consumption.”

• End-of-life waste: “Products and materials discarded prematurely, representing residual material and product value that is not recovered.”

• Consumption of fixed capital (the deterioration of buildings, infrastructure, and machinery): “Value lost as long-lived assets such as infrastructure, machinery, and buildings deteriorate faster than necessary due to underuse, poor maintenance, or obsolescence.

Loss Drivers

If you had to guess which of these loss drivers was the biggest, which would you choose? The good news is that the biggest driver is also the one that puts power into each individual’s hands. End-of-life waste has the biggest impact, and it is about not discarding things prematurely. We have power over when we discard things, which means we can use the biggest driver to make changes in our lives.

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Total Impact

According to the 2026 report, “Initial estimate of the Value Gap suggests it amounts to € 25.4 trillion +/- € 4.7 trillion in avoidable annual economic value lost to linear material use, equivalent to almost 31% of global GDP.” (That is closer to $29 trillion USD). By creating a more circular economy, we could actually save a great deal of money, not to mention our environment, including air, water, and materials.

You are in control

The outlook is dire, but now is not the time to give up. What is in your sphere of control? Certainly, individuals have control over their stuff, the places they live, and their food. By changing your outlook about when to discard things, by learning to fix or mend things, by keeping your things in good repair, including where you live and how you get around, and by using your food efficiently, you can begin to live in a more circular fashion. You can make a difference. According to this Instagram Post,

“Using clothes for 9 months longer can cut their impact by up to 30%, and by repairing, you go against an exploitative system.”

Which loss driver was most surprising? Which one do you want to tackle?

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What does that mean?

While this varies dramatically based on geography and weather, according to this website, the Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) for a French household is 6,447.21kWh per year. 136MW = 136000 kWh. Doing the math, adding turnstile turbines to the entire Paris metro would cover a little over 21 houses. But check this out, according to this article, the amount generated, “almost enough energy to power the entire Metro system and equivalent to removing 30,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually.” That’s cool.

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Kinetic devices

In addition to the video, the LinkedIn post contains other examples of kinetic devices. I’ve heard of some but not others. Have you heard of any of these? Here is the list from Majd’s post

• Kinetic floor tiles generate electricity from people’s footsteps. [In the Netherlands, there is a dance floor that uses people dancing to create energy for the lights!]

• Roads can generate electricity as the weight of passing vehicles compresses hydraulic systems under the surface [I haven’t heard of this.]

• Speed bumps can convert the force of passing cars into electricity [I haven’t heard of this, either.]

• Exercise bikes, rowing machines, and elliptical devices can generate electricity. There is a gym called the Green Microgym where the people working out generate energy for the gym.]

• Small wind turbines installed alongside highways can capture the airflow created by fast vehicles. [I haven’t heard of this.]

• Ocean waves can generate electricity by converting their continuous mechanical motion into power. [I have definitely heard of this before and think it is a great idea. There are quite a few companies out there that are working with wave energy.]

Party on the dance floor

Small aside…the Crystal Ballroom has been open since 1914 (!) and has the coolest dance floor I’ve ever experienced. It is called a “floating dance floor” and was designed to make you feel like you were dancing on air. To read more about it, check out this article. Sadly, it doesn’t capture renewable energy, but it sure is fun to dance on! If you ever get the chance, check it out!

Have you ever…

Have you ever experienced a kinetic invention like the ones listed above? If so, let me know in the comments.

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P.S. I am out of town on my normal posting day, so I am scheduling this to post on Sunday.

The circular economy is based on three principles, driven by design:

• Eliminate waste and pollution

• Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)

• Regenerate nature

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In the early aughts, I was attending a brand-new MBA program focused on sustainability. One of the classes taught the concept of Industrial Ecology using the example of Kalundborg, Denmark. According to Wikipedia, “Industrial Ecology is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems.” One can use Industrial Ecology principles to design a system of cascading material use, as Kalundborg began doing in 1972. Below is a video explaining the Kalundborg Symbiosis as of 2022 and showing the flows. It is easy to see the relationship between Industrial Ecology and a Circular Economy or circular flows of materials.

According to this webpage,

“Kalundborg Symbiosis is a partnership between sixteen public and private companies in Kalundborg. We also work closely with project Biopro.

Together, since 1972, we have developed the world’s first industrial symbiosis with a circular approach to production.

The main principle is that a waste stream in one company becomes a resource in another, benefiting both the environment and the economy. In a local partnership, we can share and reuse resources, saving money and minimizing waste.”

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And here are the results:

But how does it work?

Here is an example of one flow in Kalundborg:

“This industrial park is special because companies reuse each other’s waste (which then becomes by-products). For example, the Energy E2 Asnæs Power Station produces gypsum as a by-product of the electricity generation process; this gypsum becomes a resource for the BPB Gyproc A/S which produces plasterboards.”

Kalundborg uses a system of cascading, which is roughly defined here: “The principle of cascading, the sequential and consecutive use of resources, is a potential method to create added value in circular economy (CE) practices.” Kalundborg uses cascading to capture and reuse energy, water, and materials in beautiful flows.

Industrial symbiosis can also be found in Washington State. In 2021, the state opened a grant program to develop industrial symbiosis and the circular economy. According to this fact sheet, there are already twenty-seven projects around the state!

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The concept of Industrial Ecology and the example of Kalundborg have been enduring inspirations to me, and my passion for the circular economy grew from them. Kalundborg is a 50-year experiment with continuing progress. I hope others can gain inspiration for a new way of industry.

Reverse logistics

It is funny because humans are great at logistics. We manage the extraction of raw materials, transportation, manufacturing, distribution, and sales. We pump out so much stuff into the world, and we do it efficiently. What we don’t do is have efficient processes to get all that stuff back. To create circular flows, we need efficient systems for getting everything back so we can reuse it. This is called reverse logistics. Here is how this article defines this process:

“Reverse logistics encompasses all activities that occur after a product’s initial sale or distribution. It includes managing returns, recovering unsold or excess inventory, inspecting and refurbishing items, recycling materials, donating unsellable goods and ensuring responsible disposal.

Unlike forward logistics, which focuses on getting products to customers, reverse logistics deals with bringing products back.”

But why is it so difficult? Especially considering how good we are at logistics? According to this research paper, the most significant barriers to reverse logistics were “lack of strategic plans for returns and lack of visibility for recycling/reuse…” I would add a third barrier: once things are sold, they are scattered. It is more difficult to collect and transport them for reuse when they are out in the wild. There are efficiencies to be gained by removing 100 Neodymium magnets from laptops for recycling instead of one at a time. But that requires collecting the far-flung laptops.

Best Buy collects unwanted e-waste and Nike collects old shoes. When these things are returned, they can use them to create circular flows of refurbishment or recycling. On Cloud shoes have a return system built into their process. When you have worn down your old shoes, they have a system to exchange them for new. In this example, they have overcome the barriers mentioned above since they have strategic plans to get shoes back at end of life and recycling / reuse is built into their brand. What do they do with the returned shoes? According to their website,

“Innovation in action: In 2025, we received a sufficient volume of returned Cyclon™ shoes to make the recycling process both efficient and responsible. Then, we paired materials from those shoes with leftover shoe parts from manufacturing to create the Speedboard® in the Cloudrise Cyclon 1.1.”

What return programs are you aware of?

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Regenerative practices

While I think regenerative practices can be applied to different systems, the one that came up the most in my research was “regenerative agriculture.” According to this blog, there are 5 principles of regenerative agriculture:

• Minimising soil disturbance

• Minimising the use of chemical inputs

• Maximising biodiversity, both animals and plants

• Keeping the soil covered with crops as long as possible

• Adapting to the local environment

In searching for an example, I found one in the Balbo Group, a sugarcane producer in Brazil. When Leontino Balbo Junior joined the family business, he realised that a focus on the long-term health of the business was missing. He began implementing changes to regenerate the soil, thereby increasing the farm’s efficiency. These changes included returning organic matter to the soil to restore nutrients and reduce water evaporation. He adopted different tires for farming equipment, which reduced damage and erosion to the soil. He also invited the community in to learn more about regenerative practices. While the results were not immediate, over time, they increased their productivity by 20% while caring for the land where they grow the sugarcane.

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Ecosystem regeneration

In this research paper, the terms regeneration, restoration, and rewilding were discussed as part of ecosystem regeneration. Forest landscape restoration is defined as “the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes,” while a broader definition is, “the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed”. Restoration, on the other hand, is described this way:

At its heart, however, is the idea that we as humans can assist the regeneration of nature – we can help reverse damage while perhaps also prioritising the return of the many declining services nature provides humanity. Historically, regeneration has focused on natural processes, either ecosystem recovery without intervention or recovery after deliberate removal of stressors, referred to as “assisted regeneration” or “passive restoration”.

Finally, rewilding is yet another facet of ecosystem regeneration, which is defined as “rebuilding, following major human disturbance, a natural ecosystem by restoring natural processes and the complete or near complete food web at all trophic levels as a self-sustaining and resilient ecosystem with biota that would have been present had the disturbance not occurred.”

This interesting research paper discusses the principles of rewilding. And there is a non-profit in my city called “Rewild Portland.”

At the heart of each of these practices, regeneration, restoration, and rewilding are bringing the ecosystem back into balance. They serve to nourish and build ecosystems, as nature builds ecosystems. Honestly, I don’t think humans are as smart as nature, but we can try.

Which practice would best help create circular flows? I am pretty sure the answer is, “all of them,” but I am curious what you think!

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Unthrowawayable world

As I was researching the symbol, I came across a TEDx talk, which I am sharing here. The presenter, Amy Larkin, is the person who talks about an “unthrowawayable world”. We used to live in an unthrowawayable world. Things like bowls and baskets were precious and passed down within families. Reuse was something that people just did. It was the way they lived. That was then, and now we live in a place overrun with single-use plastics. Reuse can be one of the answers to this problem.

“Research undertaken with our colleagues at the University of Portsmouth’s Revolution Plastics Institute has identified that a systems approach to reuse is the key to success at scale.”

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Reuse on fire

Here in Portland, Oregon, we have a newly revived (after 20+ years) women’s basketball team called the Portland Fire. At Moda Center, where the Fire plays, there is a cup reuse system. Your drink comes in a sturdy plastic cup, and there are banks of containers everywhere with 4 options: compost (including the compostable food containers), general recycling (mixed recycling of paper, metal, and plastic), cup recycling, and landfill (which is much smaller than the other containers). They only serve drinks in cups or cans. The reuse messaging in the stadium is everywhere. It is great because people are getting exposed to reuse, which may be a new way for them to interact with the world. In the long run, as reuse gains momentum, this early exposure is a good thing.

Reuse is another aspect of a circular economy. By creating a symbol for reuse and creating an infrastructure of reuse, we can begin to educate people on how they can contribute to a circular economy.

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*Adapted from an article I published internally at work.

• Eliminate waste and pollution

• Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)

• Regenerate nature

There are so many ways to get to a circular economy, and we need to do them all at once. That sounds daunting, except the linear economy is the predominant economic system, and it is a complex system with rules in place. Unfortunately, the rules are meant to maximize profit. Nothing is ever said about regenerating nature or eliminating waste and pollution. But I believe those rules can change.

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Under the surface

If recycling is what we can see on the circular economy iceberg, what is under the surface? Many of the things I’ve written about here include: reuse, repair, remanufacturing, reduce, refurbish, material recovery, sharing economy, refuse, and rethink. But the author adds more levers to kick-start a circular economy. Here are a few other concepts that he mentions: energy recovery, circular sourcing, process optimization, cascading, industrial / region symbiosis, reverse logistics, regenerative practices, and ecosystem regeneration. What the heck are those other things? Let’s discuss a few below.

Energy recovery

I have mixed feelings about energy recovery. It is also known as “incineration with energy recovery.” (This differs from just burning stuff and recovering nothing. ) On the one hand, you are destroying the material to create energy. On the other hand, often the things that cannot be recycled in any other way; think about things that are ruined, moldy, or simply aren’t technically feasible to recycle. If energy can be created without pulling petroleum out of the earth, maybe that is a good solution for non-recyclable materials.

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Circular sourcing

Circular sourcing is simply using raw materials that help to create and perpetuate a circular economy. For example, instead of sourcing virgin plastic for packaging, what if you used recycled plastic? Or what if you used a completely different packaging material like mushrooms, molded pulp, or packaging made from seaweed? You can utilize waste products such as leftover banana peels or orange peels. By choosing things that are renewable or that are recyclable by design, sourcing can impact circularity.

Process optimization

Optimizing processes, according to Wikipedia, is defined as “...the discipline of adjusting a process so as to make the best or most effective use of some specified set of parameters without violating some constraint.” A really simple example of process optimization is Oregon’s Bottle Bill. When you purchase bottles and cans in the state of Oregon, you pay a bottle deposit. You receive the entire deposit back if you return your bottles and cans. You are incentivized to use the system, and those materials are recycled to live another life. What is the alternative? The alternative is that they have no apparent value, and they end up as trash in our environment or in our landfills.

I looked back, and I don’t think I’ve discussed Kalundborg!!! I can’t believe it! It is one of my favorite stories. I will discuss in a future post along with the other examples of a circular economy identified by Majd Fayyad. It is good to ground myself in a circular economy. Repetition is helpful, especially when it shows you what can be.

Shout out!

Thank you to my paid subscribers! I appreciate you! And thank you to my non-paid subscribers! I appreciate you, too! I enjoying sharing my thoughts about circular flows with all of you. Thank you for reading and interacting.

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Last summer, my kids and I had a garage sale on what may have been the hottest weekend of the year. We had loads of stuff, including clothes, books, a bike, an inflatable kayak, and so much more. But it was unbearably hot! And no one was out and about. We made about sixty bucks the first day and zero dollars the second day. In the end, we still had most of the stuff. Sigh. At the end of the sale, we left some things on the curb. They disappeared immediately.

The aftermath

After the garage sale, I tried selling things on Craigslist with zero success. I tried. I was able to sell some books to Powell’s Books. I used their online system to see which books they would take. While the system is working better than a few years ago, it is still quite cumbersome, so it took time to make my way through the boxes of books. Ultimately, Powell’s didn’t want most of the books. I may have made another thirty bucks (and that was only in credit).

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Trying to muster enthusiasm

Some of the remaining clothes were mine, and some were my daughter’s. I donated my clothes to Goodwill a month or so after the garage sale. I spoke with my daughter about going with her to sell her clothes at a place like Buffalo Gap, and she thought it was a good idea. But after 11 months, it never happened. As I mentioned in my last post, I tried to muster up the enthusiasm to open a Depop shop, but I have a full-time job. I couldn’t imagine successfully navigating a shop.

Eleven months

Eleven months is a long time for stuff to sit, taking up almost an entire room. Despite getting rid of some of the items, it was time to get things moving. Last weekend, I brought all the remaining stuff to Goodwill. It must have been a popular day for donating. I went to the bigger Goodwill with the drive-through donation area, and the breezeway was completely jammed with other people’s things. I was able to let go of half of the stuff in my car. I then went to a smaller Goodwill and dropped the rest of the stuff off there. On my second trip of stuff from my car to the door, a gal stopped me and said, “Is that a [so and so] bag?” I told her I didn’t know, but I would check. The bag was the brand she asked about, and so I offered it to her. She was delighted. At least one thing was definitely going to a happy home!

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Dissapointed

I hoped I’d be able to find homes for everything. My dream was to connect the stuff I had to people who really wanted it. It did not happen that way. I am disappointed that I wasn’t able to find homes for more things. In the end, I was only able to find homes for our things through the garage sale, selling books to Powell’s, putting stuff on my curb, and giving a few things away. Everything else went to Goodwill. I did some research on Goodwill last week, and they do have some really great programs. According to their 2024 Annual Impact Report,

“2.1 million people received support from Goodwill locations across the U.S. and Canada and online.” And “4.4 billion pounds of donated goods kept in circulation longer.”

I am all about circular flows so all those second-hand goods living another life make me happy.

Where does all that Goodwill stuff go?

An interesting article on the Green America website says this,

“One popular charity shop chain is Goodwill, which reports that it offers many opportunities for the clothes to be resold, although roughly 5% of donated clothes are directly sent to landfills, largely due to mildew issues, which can contaminate entire bales of clothing. The rest remain in the 3,300 stores for four weeks before being moved to Goodwill outlets, found in 35 states, where items are sold for 99 cents per pound. What doesn’t sell at the outlets is then sent to Goodwill Auctions, where huge “mystery” bins full of items are sold for as little as $35 each. Finally, what clothing remains gets sent to textile recycling centers where they will be cut into rags, processed into softer fiber used for filling furniture and building insulation, or sent overseas.”

I appreciate all the different options Goodwill has to give our things new lives.

Is my appreciation ill-founded?

Let’s be clear: 5% of 4.4 billion pounds of donated goods is a lot (220,000 pounds). Of course, I hadn’t considered that things donated might be ruined with mildew, mold, or moth infestations. (This is another reminder to wash your stuff before you donate it! Make sure you aren’t making your problem into their problem.) I am not sure if my appreciation is ill-founded, but I might be talking them up because I feel a little guilty for not doing a better job of circulating my stuff directly. On the bright side, I did discover that Goodwill is opening a textile recycling plant!

What next?

Honestly, this experience has opened my eyes to the things I am bringing into my house. Because eventually, I am going to have to do something with those things at the end of their useful life with me. One way to help this is to think about everything that comes into the house. Fewer things coming into the house mean fewer things I need to deal with later. I am taking that lesson with me into my future. Will you?

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Doing it “right”

What does “right” mean to me?

• I want the item to go where it is wanted and needed.

• I want to extend the lifespan of each item.

• I don’t want the stuff to end up in the landfill, or worse, sent to a third-world country because it isn’t being handled like I expect it to be.

Have you ever moved? After deciding it is time to move, you spiff up your place to get it ready for the next owner. You do all the things you’ve been meaning to do. You have the floors finished. You paint the walls. You fix that leaky tap. You do a little landscaping. You are intentional about doing these things because you know it increases the value of the home.

Why “as is” might not be the best move

Your stuff is the same. While it would be easy to sell your house “as is” or dump all your stuff off at a charity shop, consider preparing your stuff to live the best life it can. Donating trash makes it someone else’s problem. Instead, let’s take responsibility for our stuff. How can we ensure we are passing the value of things on to others?

I think the decision to give your stuff a new life actually starts when you acquire things. Responsibility doesn’t usually factor into a purchase decision. What if our purchase decisions included a commitment to see the item on to its next home? It will be easier to find a new home for something if it holds value. Taking care of your things, buying good-quality items (they can be second-hand!), and fixing what breaks are all ways to help your things hold value.

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Taking responsibility

What is the alternative to taking responsibility for all your things? If your stuff holds no value, whether because it is stained, smelly, broken, of poor quality, or missing parts, the value will be diminished. Your trash is just trash. Am I an advocate of “throwing stuff away?” If you’ve read any of my posts, you know I am not. Plus, there is no “away!”

There are things you can do to ensure your stuff is seen in its best light. First of all, wash the things you are sending to new homes. If it is clothes, wash and fold them and ensure there are no stains or smells. Mend clothing, as needed. Then, move those things along. There are myriad ways to do this. Refer to this article for other ideas (but in reverse). In no particular order, you can:

• Put items by the side of the road with a “free sign” (Remember Curb Culture?)

• Utilize the Buy Nothing app or Buy Nothing groups on Facebook

• Freecycle.org

• Craigslist

• Neighborhood swaps

• Goodwill

• Donate specific items to people in need (baby clothes, dress clothes, etc.)

• Sell your stuff on Depop, Poshmark, or any of the other second-hand apps

• Bring your stuff to a consignment shop

• Have a garage sale

• Offer stuff to your friends and neighbors (I did this once when I was moving. We had one last bash in the old house, and I had shelves with things I no longer needed. People could take whatever they wanted!)

• Give the stuff to someone else to sell

What’s next?

Going into this post, I contemplated starting a Depop page to sell the clothes in my storage area. This would be a lot of work, and I am not sure that is how I want to spend my time. Perhaps I will have a reverse garage sale where I sell nothing and give it all away, locally, to the community. I will let you know in a future post how I decide to get rid of everything in the “right” way (according to me).

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Circular policies

The policy recommendations are as follows:

1. Reduce VAT (in the EU) and eliminate sales tax (in Canada and the US) “on resold products and repair services.”

2. Reduced labor taxes (in the EU) and labor tax credits (in Canada and the US).

3. Extended producer responsibility to create collection and sorting at scale.

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Textile waste

Textile waste is a problem I’ve written about directly or indirectly here, here, and here. The sheer magnitude of textiles being manufactured and discarded is unfathomable. At the rate we are creating new items of clothing, the entire world will eventually be covered in mountains of clothes.

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Textile waste is a systemic problem with myriad issues. These policy levers will only work if manufacturers design and produce textiles and clothing intended for repair and resale. Even if these policies were adopted in the US and the Americas, they would not solve the issues of fast fashion manufacturers pumping out more crappy clothes. Clothes need to be made of fabrics that will last, with hardware that will last, be repairable, and hold their value. By minimizing fast fashion and adopting the policies, circular fashion with an emphasis on repair and resale will have a chance to succeed.

The demise of Everlane

One sustainable fashion manufacturer, Everlane, was expensive, but the clothes and shoes were well-made and long-lasting. They used renewable fibers, and their stuff was cute. Alas, they have been sold to Shein, which I consider to be the worst fast-fashion producer (possibly second only to Temu). I am appalled at this unlikely venture, and I am not the only one. It is shocking because they were known for their radical transparency of their working conditions, which I do not believe Shein shares. I suspect the radical transparency will now end. In a world of fast fashion, it is sad to see a well-made clothing manufacturer be subsumed by a manufacturer who pumps crappy clothes into the world.

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Thank you

Thank you to my readers who made suggestions last week after I requested ideas to help create lasting change. I am still ruminating and am still open to suggestions! (Hint, hint).

For me, thinking about circular flows and the circular economy dates back to 2002 when I was working on my MBA in Sustainable Business. The idea of using both the product and the waste products felt right. Aligning with my undergraduate degree, which highlighted efficiency, you could make a case that waste is a function of both an inefficient system and a lack of imagination. Circular flows of material are more efficient through intentional design. But that puts a burden on the designers of new things to understand the system in which their products will be made, used, and eventually fall out of use. It always comes back to all the things that weren’t designed to be circular. Is there a way to create circular flows around those things?

I write this Substack, and I talk about these ideas with friends and family. I want the idea of circular flows to catch fire. I want people to understand that they have choices about how they move through this world. We can all choose to have a light touch or a heavy touch. But you can only choose if you understand that you have a choice.

Attributes

I am interested in creating a Circular Flows Resource. What is it? I am not sure. I keep coming back to a network of resources that are:

• Easy to find

• Easy to access

• Easy to understand

• Free

• No judgment

• Easy to search for what you want.

Background understanding

I want to enable people to make decisions based on the principles of circular flows. Background understanding is needed for this to matter:

• Defining circular flows

• Understanding the importance of circular flows

• Understanding how the expansion of circular flows is helpful for the community

• Understanding how engaging in circular flows makes you more self-sufficient

• Understanding all the different ways you can apply circular flows (to food, clothing, gardening, nature, efficient use of resources, etc.)

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Brainstorming

It is more than this Substack. I am looking for ideas of what it could be. Here are ideas I brainstormed yesterday about what could complement this Substack:

• Write a book

• Teach a college class

• Give a workshop

• Collaborate with known circular flow organizations like RepairPDX or the PDX Thread Collective

• Create a hotline (Idk what this means…)

• Grow a TikTok audience

• Grow an Instagram audience

• Advertising in local papers

• Write for a local paper (like Concordia News)

• Create an online class

• Create an online community

• Become a community connector

• Do a series of YouTube videos

• Develop a Circular Flows zine

• Explore Substack-specific tools (notes, chat)

• Create a search engine specifically devoted to circular flows

Starting a movement

Through this Substack and its 67 (so far!) posts, I have many topics to share. The question is, what is the best way to share them? The idea of “circular flows” encapsulates many topics, and those topics are important to different types of people. How do you start a movement? I found a 9-step guide online. I guess I’ve already started.

Your help is needed

It should be obvious that I am searching. I’m searching for how to grow these ideas in a useful way. I don’t want to grow for the sake of growth. I want these ideas to spread and for people to benefit from using them in their daily lives. What do you think? Are these ideas worth spreading? Do you have any ideas for how I can educate more people about circular flows? Please let me know in the comments or reach out directly.

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“...a set of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials that are considered to be critical due to their high economic importance and their exposure to high supply risk, often caused by a high concentration of supply from a few third countries.”

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Where are CRMs found?

The diagram below shows how the CRMs are used. If you look at the center column, you see they are found in the following technologies: batteries, fuel cells, wind, traction motors, photovoltaics, robotics, drones, 3D printing, and information and communications technology (ICT); most of the technologies that we use daily.

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The list

For years, the EU has been creating an exhaustive list of CRMs. The first list of 14 materials was created in 2011. In 2014, the list was updated to 20 materials. In 2017, 27 materials were on this list, and 30 in 2020. In 2023, 34 materials were defined as CRMs. Since the cadence for updating the list is every three years, we can expect an update this year. The annotated periodic table below includes only the first three lists: 2011, 2014, and 2017. I couldn’t find an updated version.

The gist of the regulation is that the EU knows that many of these elements and materials are not naturally available in the EU. Therefore, they need to figure out how to ensure their future with respect to critical materials. A Material System Analysis was done to visualize how materials flow into and out of the EU. You can see a visualization of this below.

2030 Benchmarks

With this information, benchmarks by 2030 were set for the CRM value chain, which can be seen here:

• at least 10% of the EU’s annual consumption for extraction

• at least 40% of the EU’s annual consumption for processing

• at least 25% of the EU’s annual consumption for recycling

• no more than 65% of the EU’s annual consumption from a single [third] country

The webpage describing the act talks about “Creating secure and resilient supply chains.” Now here is where it gets interesting. The webpage goes on to say,

“EU countries will take measures to improve the collection of critical raw material-rich waste and ensure its recycling into secondary critical raw materials. EU countries and private operators will have to investigate the potential for recovery of critical raw materials from extractive waste.”

This means that not only is the EU going to increase its collection of electronic waste, but it is also pushing to recover the waste with the intention of reusing it. This is the essence of circular flows: taking items at the end of their useful life and giving the materials another life.

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Green Deal Industrial Plan

This act is only one of many within the Green Deal Industrial Plan, which is a companion to the EU Commission’s Net Zero Industry Act. While the CMA Act went into force in 2024, the EU is still in the early stages: defining the list, funding research, policy changes, and banning exports of critical items (such as permanent magnets). There is a long way to go, especially if they hope ot accomplish the benchmarks above. I am hopeful that this regulation will provide the impetus towards increased “urban mining,” aka mining the e-waste.

Watercolor paints

Have you ever painted with watercolors? If so, have you ever poured your rinse water from painting down the drain? It turns out, you might want to rethink that action. Watercolor paints are made from a variety of ingredients, including, but not limited to, pigment, brightener, binder, plasticizer, humectant, extender, dispersant, and water according to this website. Was anyone surprised by the plasticizer? Yes, me, too! The article defines all the listed ingredients. According to the article, “Pigments are chemical compounds with appealing or useful color attributes and that do not dissolve in water.” Some companies make watercolor paints using different colors of soil as the pigment, although they still seem to contain concerning ingredients. How do you know what is concerning and what is not?

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ASTM Standards

ASTM International is a standards body that has an “art materials industry subcommittee”. This committee sets standards for properties such as lightfastness or specifications for watercolor, acrylic, and oil paints. ASTM 4236 is the “Standard Practice for Labeling Art Materials for Chronic Health Hazards.”

Have you ever noticed a label on your art supplies that says “ACMI: Art & Creative Materials Institute Certified” and underneath it, “Comforms to ASTM D 4236”? The logo is a circle, and inside it might say “AP” or “CL”.

The AP label means the paints have been evaluated and certified as non-toxic. This article has a definition for non-toxic:

“A product can be certified nontoxic only if it contains no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to humans, or to cause acute or chronic health problems. AP certification is reviewed by ACMI’s Toxicological Advisory Board. These products are certified by ACMI to be labeled in accordance with the chronic hazard labeling standard, ASTM D-4236 and federal law P.L. 100-695.”

The CL label means it contains ingredients that are hazardous or toxic, but can be used safely with caution. Another label you might see on paints is the CA Prop 65 label, which indicates it has “chemicals that have been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.” It is worth checking if your paints are labeled and, if so, what labels you are finding.

Acrylic paint

According to Wikipedia, “Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps.” Acrylic paints and paint water should not be washed down the drain due to both microplastic content and potential toxicity. Interesting to note that acrylics became popular in the 1950s and 1960s because people didn’t want to wait for oil paints to dry. Acrylic paints dry in minutes compared to the longer dry time of oil paints.

My daughter let me know about a line of plant-based acrylic paints. The Natural Earth Paints Natural Acrylik Color are non-toxic and free of preservatives, solvents, synthetics, heavy metals, or fillers. They are made of 100% bio-based resins without petroleum-based ingredients (which means you won’t be washing plastic down your drain!). The label says it conforms to ASTM D4236, but the post I was looking at didn’t show an AP or CL label. If you are a fan of acrylics, it seems worth checking out.

Toxic chemicals in art materials

My mother was an artist who worked with glass pigments on metal, which, when fired in a kiln, created an enameled finish. When she got a new color, she would do a test, showing the new color layered over white, black, plain copper (her usual substrate), silver foil, and gold foil. I always loved those test pieces. When I was in college, her favorite company, Thompson Enamel, stopped making lead-containing enamels. They were the last company in the US to remove lead. My mother was very upset about this change, and she may have hoarded some of her powdered enamels. The change was made to keep people safe, but my mother loved the colors of the lead-containing enamels. Below is an original enamelled piece by my mother in a whimsical stencil phase. To my knowledge, it doesn’t contain lead.

You may have heard of popular paint colors like Cadmium Yellow or Cobalt Blue. Guess what? They contain heavy metals, which are definitely toxic. I have a large number of old watercolor paints, and I am sure that some are toxic. It is time to see what I have and whether anything is labeled as concerning. It might be a good time for you to take a look at your paints.

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Latex paint

Latex paint is a type of acrylic paint specially formulated for painting walls and contains plasticizers. I was chagrined to think of all the times I have washed paint off brushes, which went down the drain. What can you do with a large amount of paint? This article shows a three-bucket solution that minimizes or eliminates paint down the drain.

Oil paints

Oils use linseed oil as the vehicle and binder of pigment. Unfortunately, many traditional pigments are made from toxic chemicals. While dried oil paints are waterproof and long-lasting, they are solvent-based, meaning clean-up traditionally required strong solvents like turpentine. However, there are solvent-free options for clean up. One of which can be found here. I remember my dad, who was also an artist, keeping brushes in a jar of turpentine indefinitely. I assume he cleaned the brushes off and covered the jar to stop evaporation. At least I hope so!

Cleaning up

If I haven’t made it clear, you shouldn’t pour your rinse water down the drain. If you do, you add microplastics and toxic materials such as heavy metals to your water supply. So what can you do instead? For water containing acrylic particles, I’ve read that you can let your paint water sit overnight. It should separate naturally. Then you can pour off the clear water and dispose of the old paint in the garbage. For water containing watercolor particles, you can let the water evaporate, leaving you with weirdly colored paint! It might be fun to try to use the dried paint. If you don’t want to paint with it, you can place it in the garbage. You know I am not a huge fan of putting things in the garbage…there is no “away”, but at least you can avoid putting these potentially toxic materials directly into the water supply.

Circularity and art

The subtitle for this post is “how to interrupt a negative cycle.” The negative cycle I am referring to is toxicity in art. With information, such as the ASTM and CA Prop 65 logos, you can make good decisions about the art materials you expose yourself to. By understanding that you shouldn’t pour paint rinse water down the drain, you can make different decisions about how to clean up and properly dispose of paint. I encourage you to be artistic and express yourself! By educating yourself, you can keep making art, be safe, and interrupt the negative cycle of toxicity in art materials.

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Thank yous

Thank you to:

• my new paid subscriber (!) and

• to one of my best readers for their topic suggestion!

You both know who you are. :)

Cost and availability of slate vary widely, and installation is often quite expensive. If you want a slate roof in the United States, it may cost as much as the structure! Because of slate deposits, slate tiles are often used in Scotland, Wales, and Cumbria.

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Organic roofing

Thatching is also used as roofing in areas with lenient building codes. [Which makes me think of Hobbit houses!] According to the same Wikipedia article, thatch made of sea grasses can last up to 40 years. Asian countries favor quick-growing bamboo; splitting the stems “laid turned alternately and overlapped.” Green roofs or cut turf require architectural support but, when installed correctly, have many beneficial effects, including insulation, providing animal and bee habitats, and a natural way to process rainwater, which otherwise may need to be managed. All of these roofing materials can be composted at the end of life.

Metal roofing

Sheet metal roofing is popular in various parts of the world and can be made from different types of metal, including copper. Copper roofing actually gets stronger as it ages. According to this article,

“Once copper changes color from brass to its prestigious green patina — think of the Statue of Liberty — it actually becomes more durable. The oxide-sulfate coating on the outer surface of copper makes it especially resistant to corrosion in most environments. Tests were conducted on 18th century copper roofs in Europe and the tests found that copper roofing can last approximately 1,000 years (at least in theory).”

The article goes on to list copper roofs, including: Berlin Cathedral Church, Macon City Auditorium, Wales Millenium Centre, and Belvedere Palace, Vienna. One wonderful thing about copper roofing is that it is fully recyclable at the end of it’s useful life.

Other roofing materials include terracotta baked tiles (this is what was on my home growing up), iron electroplated with zinc, banana leaves, and even stone slabs.

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Cool roofs

I replaced my roof a few years ago and had to choose the shingles. They came in a variety of colors and thicknesses, where the thickness corresponded to the number of years on the warranty. At the time, I wondered about whether color would have an impact on the temperature of the roof. Think about being out on a hot, sunny day. If you are wearing a white shirt, you will be cooler than if you are wearing a black shirt. Was it the same for roofing materials? I found an EPA website on cool roofs, which helped me understand the different specifications I needed to look for when choosing my shingles.

There are many benefits to choosing a “cool roof.” They include lowering the overall building temperature, which helps to reduce the use of air conditioning, and decreasing the roof temperature can help to extend the life of the roofing materials. Finally, lowering the temperature can reduce the “urban heat island” effect in cities. But what makes a cool roof? According to the EPA website,

“There are two ways to help cool a roof. First, a cool roof can reflect away sunlight, so it stays cooler. Such a roof is said to have a high solar reflectance. Second, a cool roof should also release or emit heat (infrared radiation) so it stays cool. Such a roof is said to have high thermal emittance. An ideal cool roof is a roof with both high solar reflectance (SR) and high thermal emittance (TE).”

Do they work?

But do cool roofs actually work?

“According to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Heat Island Group on a typical summer afternoon a clean white roof that reflects 80% of sunlight will stay about 50°F cooler than a grey roof that reflects only 20% of sunlight.”

I chose a white roof based on the SR and TE specifications, and have not regretted it. Of course, cool roofs will work better in hotter climates, but with the number of days with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in my city rising every year, my choice to get a white roof was a good one.

What type of roofing material do you use? Have you heard of cool roofs?

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EU Circular Economy Act

In the European Union (EU), there is an upcoming regulation called the Circular Economy Act (CEA), one of the building blocks of the European Green Deal. Per the EU website,

“Due for adoption in 2026, the Circular Economy Act aims to establish a Single Market for secondary raw materials, increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials and stimulate demand for these materials within the EU. It will contribute to the ambition laid out in the Competitiveness Compass to make the EU the world leader in the circular economy by 2030.

The circularity rate is one way to measure how circular our economy is. This number shows how much of the materials we use are recycled or reused instead of being thrown away. Right now, Europe’s circularity rate is about 12%, but the goal is to double it to 24% by 2030.” [Note: worldwide, the circularity rate is less than 9%, so the EU is already doing something right.]

EU Critical Raw Materials Act

Along with the Circular Economy Act is a companion regulation called the Critical Raw Materials Act. The premise is that within the EU, it is recognized that while many critical raw materials are imported into the EU as products, many of the critical raw materials are not found in the EU. Therefore, if they can extract the critical raw materials from EU end-of-life items, they can build resilience, understanding that they will never be 100% self-sufficient for these materials. The act, which entered into force on May 23, 2024, doesn’t appear to have obligations in place yet, but they are working on a) building the list of critical raw materials [currently 37, I believe] and b) setting 2030 targets. Still, extracting critical raw materials from old assets, including IT equipment, electric vehicles, and renewable energy equipment, is a smart move given the current geopolitical tension.

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Changing views

An article, “The circular economy is now an economic and industrial strategy. Here’s why,” explains businesses’ changing views of a circular economy. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires something called a ‘double materiality assessment.’ This assessment is to understand the biggest sustainability impacts on a business. The “double” portion requires surveying internal and external partners. Here is an example of how the results of the assessment have changed:

“Today, nearly 80% of business leaders say that circularity is important or very important to their organizations – up from 36% three years ago.”

And it is expected to rise to 95% in the next 3 years!

“This shift signals an inflection point. Circularity is no longer only about doing less harm; it is about doing better business.”

The article goes on to explain how a circular economy drives resilience and competitiveness by:

1. Strengthening resilience and resource security

2. Enhancing competitiveness and growth

3. Advancing environmental sustainability

It is heartening to me to see the web of regulations in the EU, how they recognize the importance of a circular economy, and the steps are being taken to create one.

Garden glove update

Last week, I shared the triumph of sewing patches of leather onto my gardening gloves to extend their life. As I expected, I completed many gardening tasks, and yesterday, as I was planting strawberries in a pot, one of my mends catastrophically failed.

All of the other spots I mended are holding up, which is good news. I will need to go back to the sewing table / drawing board for the pointer finger mend. I have a long awl in the leather mending kit, and I think I can use it to assist in a finer mend. The only thing I’ve used the awl for is punching holes. However, I can thread the waxed linen through the awl and use it as a giant, unwieldy needle. Stay tuned for more updates!

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Apparently, I am hard on my gardening gloves. I had worn out another pair of gloves. All the places highlighted in pink have holes. There are a lot of holes. I had been thinking it was time for new gloves. In fact, it was ridiculous that I kept wearing these gloves because every time I wore them, I ended up with dirty hands and fingernails.

As I was cleaning dirt out of my fingernails yet again, and contemplating new gloves, I had a thought. For Christmas last year, I made gifts from leather scraps, and to do so, I purchased a little leather sewing kit. I still had leather scraps and decided to repair the holes in my current gloves instead of purchasing new ones. The result is not pretty! Do I think it will work? Yes, I do. Do I think some dirt will sneak in? Yes, I do. But certainly less than previously. My yard is demanding, so I have lots of gardening chores in my future. There will be many opportunities to test them, and I will keep you posted on how they do. I am least confident in the repair of the tip of the middle finger. It is hard to push a needle through leather and doubly so where I only had the space of a finger to work with, even when I pre-punched the holes.

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I suspect I could have fixed my beloved white leather gloves, too. This is obviously not a permanent fix because the gloves will wear out eventually. But if I can get another half or full season out of them, I will be happy. And I realized the sewing kit came with an awl, which I realized only after I finished the repairs. That will change my approach to future repairs and hopefully make it a little easier.

Have you ever tried to make a difficult repair? What was it?

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Here is a list of practical circular flows you may participate in without recognizing that by doing so, you have become a “circular economist”!

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Borrow & share

• Borrow books, tools, and media from your local library (or Little Free Library)

• Swap or share clothes with friends and family

• Share home-cooked meals with friends or neighbors (or both!) or your local Free Fridge

• Rent or borrow things you only need occasionally: tools, equipment, and appliances

• Utilize community sharing: curb culture, Buy Nothing, or your local tool library

Repair & repurpose

• Repair broken items instead of replacing them (YouTube and iFixit are highly recommended for this action)

• Creatively repurpose (currently, I am collecting second-hand blue cotton fabric to add another layer to my blue cotton quilted bedspread, which is wearing out)

• Reuse packaging for storage or gift-wrapping

Buy & give wisely

• Don’t purchase things you don’t need (simplify your life - you will never have to go through the stress of spending money on something, needing to store it, needing to fix it, needing to dispose of it at its end of life if you don’t buy it in the first place!)

• Buy secondhand before purchasing new

• Donate thoughtfully - match the items you need to donate to those who need them

• Instead of sending things to the landfill, sell unwanted items

• Salvage useful items left on the curb, or put items there yourself

• Use refillable products - soap, cleaning supplies, pantry staples

Grow, cook & compost

• Compost food scraps and yard waste (this takes a problem - organic matter rotting in landfills, and turns it into a solution - organic soil to grow something new)

• Shop at farmers’ markets and support locally made goods

• Plant seeds saved from last year’s garden (or save seeds this year)

• Eat leftovers instead of letting food go to waste

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Many of these actions are simple things that you may already do. In some cases, they may require a mindset switch. Some people don’t care for secondhand clothing, while others know never to purchase synthetic fabrics. (The smell never comes out of some synthetic fabrics - ask me how I know!) In other cases, people don’t know how to use leftovers. Making fried rice with leftover rice, veggies, and protein sources is fast and delicious. You can find tasty recipes online. Search a list of the items you have on hand, and you will find recipes containing those things. I typed in “recipe: rice, tofu, broccoli,” and many recipes came up!

I appreciate Earth every month, but if you need an excuse, April 22 is Earth Day, and April is Earth Month. Why not try one new action from this list to celebrate our planet? Which one will you try? Let me know in the comments.

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I noticed so many things on the curb this week! I wanted to take pictures of all these things, but I usually saw them while driving, and that wouldn’t have been safe. So you will have to take my word about things I saw on the curb this week:

• Bedframe

• Shelving unit #1

• Lay-z-boy #1

• Suitcase

• Stroller

• Mirror

• Shelving unit #2

• Broken upholstered chair

• Lay-z-boy #2

• Loveseat

• Winter hat

• Shelving unit #3

• Lay-z-boy #3 (what is it with Lay-z-boys this week?)

• Mattress

• Headboard

• Puzzles

• Sweatshirt

• Garden pots

• Random box of stuff (didn’t look too closely)

• Lay-z-boy #4 (seriously, what is up? This one even had a built-in cup holder!)

• Pair of jeans

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That’s all I’ve got this week. A list of things I saw by the side of the road, proving that the curb culture is real. Do you have a curb culture where you live? What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen intentionally placed by the side of the road? Have you ever grabbed anything? Let me know in the comments.

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