"It's time to see all those circular economy strategies for what they are"

The circular economy is an unhelpfully vague concept that belongs in the recycling bin, writes Smith Mordak.

There's a skip on my street. Builders are putting waste down the shoot clipped to the scaffolding. It's loud, and the builders play '90s pop that creeps into my consciousness. Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" has been stuck in my head for days.

I don't begrudge them the classic tunes, but the brand-new, plastic-wrapped building materials coming in, the sound of the gas torch melting the bitumen that seals the felt roof, and the big skip are all a bit sad, and making me think: where's our circular economy?

Your garden-variety circular economy isn't really confronting to business-as-usual

The architecture and design industries (and beyond) have been banging on about the circular economy for years now. Why isn't it happening? Is it just too difficult and complicated and time-consuming?

Or, is it too easy and simple and quick to do the basic version of it?

Hardly anybody seems to disagree with the idea of the circular economy. That might seem like great news: we're all agreed, so any second now it'll happen, right?

Or, it might be an indicator that there's not much there to really disagree with. I mean, at its heart, it's just really good recycling, what's not to like?

Yes, there's a high-concept version where entire cities can run like bottle gardens, with nothing going in or out and all our needs met by making stuff out of other stuff. But the basic version – circular economy lite – is to separate your waste: job done. This makes the circular economy a very forgiving concept, difficult to disagree with and easy to say you're adhering to.

And there's the problem, of course. Because your garden-variety circular economy isn't really confronting to business-as-usual, business-as-usual can carry on as usual. This is especially dangerous because the circular economy ends up being something that everyone thinks they're doing, which means we don't really need to be doing anything else climate action-y.

We need to ask the tough questions that will incite some real change

In other words, I'm starting to worry that the so-called circular so-called economy has become a placeholder for a more radical strategy that will never come, so long as the circular economy is making it look like the little box next to "do something about unsustainable extraction and pollution" is ticked.

Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan (UK) and Aalto (Finland) Universities carried out an extensive review of the way the circular economy appears in business and management scholarship. They found that the circular economy is well on its way to becoming a "hembig" – a hegemonic, ambiguous, big concept that "through its dominance crowds out other less fashionable concepts or prevents the development of a more precise terminology".

They found that because the circular economy is pitched as a win-win (a win for sustainability and a win for business) it's seen as an omnipotent concept that can be applied to everything, and therefore nothing.

This is a story we know well. Think of every circular economy statement and strategy and action plan that has been written over the last few years. Pretty much every one started with a hopeful feeling, perhaps connected to some new legislation that was finally taking the climate emergency seriously, such as the EU's 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan or Circular Economy Act, due for adoption in 2026.

But then the cracks quickly start to show, and it becomes obvious that neither the EU nor national or local governments, nor the institutions or companies, or anyone, were ever really taking the climate emergency seriously, not truly madly deeply.

Maybe it's time to see all those circular economy strategies for what they are: just a seemingly sensible, more efficient version of the status quo, and put them in the recycling bin. Instead, we need to ask the tough questions that will incite some real change.

The circular economy comes across as saintly; its symbol is basically a halo

Does this project reduce the total volume of materials being extracted from the earth? Does this project reduce the total volume of pollution being released into the atmosphere and ecosystems? Does this project help reduce society's reliance on consumerism for our emotional and economic health?

Does this project help put an end to toxic and harmful processes? Does this project help to fairly distribute the clean air, water, food and things we all need to live flourishing lives? Does this project empower people to be part of decisions that affect their lives?

Does this project disrupt the vested interests from continuing to exploit people and ecosystems for profit, greed, and selfishness?

On my way home late the other night, I saw someone searching through the skip for stuff they could use. My first thought was: "Good for them".

My second thought was that in reality there are plenty of people reducing, reusing and recycling, but it's not the big businesses with the circular economy strategies. It's the people and communities marginalised by the mainstream linear economy.

The circular economy comes across as saintly; its symbol is basically a halo. It acknowledges that the mainstream, so-called linear economy, isn't working, but that's just a ploy to get you to trust it. It's a false prophet: profit instead of prophet.

Instead of greenwashing extractive corporate behaviour, we should be restructuring society

Its seductive idea that we can solve all of the world's problems without confronting vested interests or business-as-usual is a fantasy. Any sustainability strategy that's not ruffling any feathers isn't worth the drinking water used the wash the silicon chips in the server farm it's stored on. Instead of greenwashing extractive corporate behaviour, we should be restructuring society so that nobody is left with few choices beyond rooting around for scrap in the dead of night.

To paraphrase Savage Garden, so long as the stars are still shining brightly in the velvet sky, I'll wish that we see through that empty circle. Instead, I'll be asking tough questions of every project, until the sky falls down on me.

Smith Mordak is an architect, writer and curator. They were previously chief executive of the UK Green Building Council and director of sustainability and physics at British engineering firm Buro Happold.

The photo is by Rafael Sales via Unsplash.

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