A. Robinson Turner
US Department of Energy - Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office,
United States
Keywords: circularity, circular economy, re-x
Summary:
The current economic model, both in the United States and globally, is largely linear; resources are extracted, products are manufactured and used, and then they are discarded. This linear model results in substantial energy use, resource extraction, waste generation, and loss of valuable materials from the economy. Additionally, existing global supply chains struggle to adapt following disruption. An economy that maximizes recovery, reuse, and recycling has been proposed as a more resilient alternative to a linear economy, and is essential for realizing the economic, environmental, and societal benefits of recirculating products and materials within the U.S. Increasing product and material recovery, reuse, and recycling is also a critical enabler of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE’s) mission. It expands the supply of critical materials needed to expand access to affordable energy and extends the lifetime of energy technologies. Recovery, reuse, and recycling improve material efficiency, which reduces energy demand related to raw material extraction and manufacturing processes and strengthens the U.S. manufacturing ecosystem by creating secure, domestic supplies of critical materials; expanding the manufacturing workforce; and creating better-paying, higher-skilled, and safer jobs than traditional waste management. In addition to the direct benefits of job creation, increased product and material recovery, reuse, and recycling can make U.S.-manufactured products more competitive globally. EERE recently released a draft strategic framework that identifies unique challenges and potential solutions related to recirculation of products and materials at their end-of-use (EOU) or end-of-life (EOL) back into the economy. This document aims to describe the potential economic and environmental impact of increasing product and material recovery, reuse, and recycling approaches, strategies, and technologies and to communicate EERE’s objectives in this space. It identifies opportunities, challenges, and enablers for advancing recovery, reuse, and recycling. Finally, it provides an overview of current efforts across EERE. This talk will discuss the contents of this strategic framework, including some of the challenges, opportunities, and enablers to unlock recovery, reuse, and recycling that were identified by EERE and the request for information (RFI) that was released with the draft document.