Unlocking the Circular Economy - Realising the potential of the Biological Cycle

Opportunity / Hypothesis In classic Circular Economy thinking, resource flows are divided into the Technical Cycle (managing stocks of finite resources, such as minerals and fossils), and the Biological Cycle (managing flows of renewable resources, such as agricultural products, and renewable energy). The two are best kept separate, and have different applications. Biological materials are ideal for short lived-uses, need no segregation before decaying to yield valuable nutrients, energy, and water, and are benign if they fall into the environment. Technical materials are better used for long-lived applications, need segregation into specific resource re-use pathways, and can contaminate the environment, say with metals or CO2. The hypothesis is that not only is the current economy predominantly linear, it specifically underutilises the biological cycle. Symptoms include: - Agriculture based on heavy use of synthetic fertilisers, which pollute water systems, deplete soil health, and have a high carbon footprint - The failure to provide widespread sustainable sanitation systems, in part caused by failing to see them as part of the biological and water cycles - The use of plastics for short-lived applications which naturally involve mixing with biological materials - food packaging, sanitary products, nappies , uses after which re-use and recycling are always likely to be very limited, and durable waste proliferates - The absence of consistent collection and processing of multiple forms of biological waste, in developed and developing countries - Increasing energy recovery from waste incineration, which in effect makes plastic a fourth fossil fuel, as opposed to recovering renewable energy from biological sources The aim is to reverse the triple negative impact of this linear model: - Profit: although the linear model has highly optimised business models, there is evidence that the circular model can be economically favourable, realising value in resources, and enabling financially sustainable businesses and infrastructure. - Planet: the linear model contaminates land, air, and water, diminishes soil health, and depletes resources and ecosystems , the circular model can help to regenerate all of these. - People: these two outcomes combine to indicate that the circular model could enable sustainable systems with important social/health benefits, particularly sanitation. In practical terms this would mean two design changes, needed in parallel: - Widespread introduction of infrastructure which collects all forms of biological/compostable waste (a better term is resource) and safely yields water, renewable energy, nutrients, and other valuable products. - Substitution, within food / consumer goods products and their supply chains: a) biodegradable materials replacing (some) plastics b) recycled nutrients and water replacing synthetic fertilisers and fresh water c) renewable bio-energy replacing fossil-based energy and wood fuel This research will help businesses and infrastructure providers to design and implement these systems, providing practical guidance and methodologies.

Water-WISER will train a cohort of 50 British research engineers and scientists and equip them to work in challenging environments both in the low-income settings of rapidly growing poor cities and in the changing urban environment of the UK, Europe and other regions with a historic endowment of aging infrastructure. The vision is for a generation of engineers with the skills to deliver the trans-disciplinary innovations needed to ensure that future water, waste and sanitation infrastructure is resilient to the stresses posed by rapid urbanisation, global climate change and increasingly extreme natural and man-made disasters. Our alumni will address the urgent need to re-imagine urban spaces as net contributors to ecological and environmental well-being rather than being net users of vital resources such as energy, nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon. These new leaders will be an essential resource if the UK is to deliver on its commitment to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6 which calls for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services, within planetary and local ecological boundaries. This next generation of research engineers will enable UK-based engineering consultancies, manufacturers, and utility companies to grow their share of the expanding global market for water and waste services, for example; in the water services industry from 3% to 10% (an increase of £33 billion per annum) by 2030, and attract significant inward investment.
The research which Water-WISER cohorts enable will form the basis of new innovations in the design and delivery of resilient infrastructure and services. Innovations developed by Water-WISER graduates will inform how growing cities are designed and built in the global south and will be used to inform the re-engineering and replacement of the aging infrastructure on which the UK's water and waste services are currently reliant. Our alumni will form the new generation of leaders who will play a central role in securing a larger share of the international water and waste management consultancy market to UK consultancies. The network of expertise and skills created by Water-WISER will enhance potential for collaborations between major UK players (for example strengthening links between UK consultancy, the Department for International Development, and leading UK water agencies such as WaterAid and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor) and between UK companies and partners in the global south including international investors such as the World Bank, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Graduates of Water-WISER will enter industry, academia and development agencies having spent a substantial period (minimum of six months) embedded in an industry or development partner organisation delivering their field-based research. Water-WISER students will thus gain a unique combination of trans-disciplinary training, field experience and cohort networking; they are destined for leadership roles in UK and international engineering and development consultancies, academia, international development banks, international agencies such as the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations.