Linear vs. Circular Economy: What Truly is Waste?
Ratty clothing. Used packaging (like empty milk cartons and laundry detergent bottles). Tree bark, sawdust, and off-cuts.
What truly is waste?
Whether we realize it or not, the answer to this question impacts our day-to-day lives and increasingly shapes our economic and environmental futures.
It also has everything to do with linear vs. circular economies.
Take, make, waste—that’s the crux of a linear economy.[1] We take resources from the earth. We make stuff, use it for a while, then throw it away. And when we replace it, the take-make-waste system perpetuates. Thus the linear economy model packs a one-two punch to American economic prosperity and environmental health.
Take, make, waste—that’s the crux of a linear economy
Ultimately, a linear economy profits off waste.[2] In fact, the linear economy model very successfully yielded economic growth throughout the 20th century[3]—an unsurprising fact, perhaps, given that Americans throw away 4.5 pounds of trash per person, per day.[4]
(In case you’re curious: at this rate, the U.S. will collectively run out of currently active landfill space in just over 60 years. Some states will actually run out in the next 5 years.[5])
From an environmental (not to mention quality-of-life) standpoint, it’s easy to see how this is untenable. But experts are also beginning to recognize the unsustainability of a linear economy itself.[6]
Here’s why. With our rapid population growth, we’re destroying the ecosystems on which businesses and society depend. While we’re at it, our throwaway culture is depleting and degrading Earth’s bank of natural resources—the same resources needed to sustain a linear economy—at an accelerated rate.[7] And what are we doing with all those increasingly limited, increasingly valuable resources?
We’re burying them in landfills.
By contrast, a circular economy recognizes the value in all that discarded “stuff.” It intentionally designs waste out of the picture, preferring to keep resources in use for as long as possible to optimize value before recovering and regenerating them at the end of a useful life.[8], [9] The circular economy model mimics patterns found in nature, where there is no such thing as “waste.”[10] It also ensures the possibility of economic growth despite resource constraints.[11]
A circular economy designs waste out of the picture.
So—what does all this have to do with shipping solar PV modules?
A lot, actually.
Despite being built on sustainability, the solar energy industry participates in the take-make-waste model by relying on single-use wood pallets. In 2020 alone, an estimated 1,580,000 wood pallets were used to ship solar PV modules[12]. In the same year, the linear economy of a wood pallet used for solar shipping began with nearly 200,000 trees and ended with an estimated 60 million pounds of wood waste in U.S. dump sites. What’s more, if the industry continues to see double-digit growth, the waste will increase at the same trajectory[13].
But that’s not the whole picture. A lot more happens between forest and landfill.
Wood pallets require logging, sawmilling, manufacturing, use, and transportation—lots and lots of transportation, from forest to sawmill, from sawmill to manufacturing site, from manufacturing site to PV module manufacturers, from PV module manufacturers to job sites, from job sites to—finally—landfills, where they will sit for 13 years until decomposed.[14]
Take. Make. Waste.
Worse, nearly every phase of a wood pallet’s life cycle creates waste and negatively impacts the environment. Heavy machinery used in sawmilling, toxic chemicals used to treat and adhere the wood, and the many stages of transportation discharge greenhouse gasses (GHG) and other emissions into the environment.[15] Some of these chemicals, such as methyl bromide, are known to be toxic to humans and are believed by scientists to break down the Earth’s ozone layer.[16]
Nearly every phase of a wood pallet’s life cycle creates waste and negatively impacts the environment.
PVpallet is here to change all that.
We don’t take resources from the earth. Instead, we take discarded HDPE plastic “waste” (some of which is even picked up curbside), grind it down, and feed it directly into the injection mold, resulting in a sturdy, adjustable and collapsible PV module pallet system. We then put our pallets to use, again and again and again. After about 20 uses, we retire, reclaim, and re-grind them with more discarded plastic to be manufactured into new PVpallets. And the cycle continues. It’s a clean, efficient system with real-world impacts.
We think the real difference between linear and circular economies is a question of vision and value: what truly is waste?
At PVpallet, we see “waste” for exactly what it is.
Simply put, it’s value—and a path toward positive change.
[1] What is the Circular Economy? https://www.greenamerica.org/consume-less-live-more/what-circular-economy
[2] What is the Circular Economy? https://www.greenamerica.org/consume-less-live-more/what-circular-economy
[3] Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Circular%20Economy%20Best%20Practices.pdf
[4] Based on the EPA’s figures from 2018. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials
[5] https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/landfills-were-running-out-of-space
[6] Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Circular%20Economy%20Best%20Practices.pdf
[7] Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Circular%20Economy%20Best%20Practices.pdf
[8] What is a Circular Economy? https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview
[9] Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Circular%20Economy%20Best%20Practices.pdf
[10] What is the Circular Economy? https://www.greenamerica.org/consume-less-live-more/what-circular-economy
[11] Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Circular%20Economy%20Best%20Practices.pdf
[12] Estimates based on 19.2 GW of solar installed in the United States in 2020 (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/the-us-solar-industry-posted-record-growth-in-2020-despite-covid-19-new-report-finds.html)
[13] “The U.S. solar industry posted record growth in 2020 despite Covid, report finds” (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/the-us-solar-industry-posted-record-growth-in-2020-despite-covid-19-new-report-finds.html)
[14] “The Impact of Wood Pallet Waste on Earth’s Landfills” (plasticpalletpros.com).
[15] Minimizing environmental impacts of timber products through the production process ‘From Sawmill to Final Products,’ Environmental Systems Research 7, Article 6, 2018.
https://environmentalsystemsresearch.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40068-018-0109-x
[16] “The Impact of Wood Pallet Waste on Earth’s Landfills” (plasticpalletpros.com)