LAUSR

The term, Circular Economy, is beginning to be seen with some frequency in technical journals. The term originated in the field of inquiry known as environmental economics. Only a year ago, the concept was officially promoted by the World Economic Forum, which in 2018, in collaboration with several governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as World Resources Institute (WRI) and Ellen MacArthur Foundation, published a document called Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) to stimulate developments that adopt the principles of Circular Economy. Several multi-national corporations are also participants in implementing PACE. At the political level, this idea of development is now included in the European Union Horizon 2020 strategy. Several standards agencies in the European Union are also engaged in preparing guidance documents for implementation. The concept is illustrated in the figure below (https ://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/Circu lar_econo my). The figure contrasts the features of the so-called linear economy with those of circular economy. Linear economy is used to describe systems that produce products and wastes, all of which ultimately result in disposal and pollution in the environment, which are detrimental to human health and the environment. In circular economy, on the other hand, wastes from all ventures are used up in followup ventures to produce beneficial artifacts for human use. The process of production/recycle/reuse is, according to this principle, repeated ad infinitum. It must be pointed out at the outset that it is only material resource that undergoes this virtuous cycle. Energy is an essential ingredient of any venture, because just bringing materials in contact with one another serves no useful purpose. It requires energy to make things happen. Quantitative energy recycle and reuse, however, cannot be a feature of a circular economy, as it would run against the wall of the second law of thermodynam-