In 2016, Finland became the first nation to design a circular economy roadmap, in an effort to design goods to be less resource-intensive, from their manufacture to disposal and recycling. Tim Forslund of the Finnish Innovation Fund (SITRA) was one of its architects and joins this episode of Mongabay Explores to detail his nation’s circularity plan and the challenges ahead.

While 75 nations now have such plans in development, Finland is years ahead of them all, and yet hasn’t seen a reduction in its economy's resource consumption so far. Forslund explains why, and how policies implemented today may only produce results much later.

“We're seeing a lot of these policies being implemented, but it will take more [time] to see the change.”

Read more on Finland’s circular economy roadmap by Mongabay contributor Sean Mowbray here:

Lessons from Finland’s attempt to transition to a circular economy

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Image Credit: Finland has produced innovative solutions seeking to increase circularity in the textile sector. For example, a pilot project incentivizing textile collection in the city of Lahti claimed a 500% increase in recycling rates. Companies such as Spinnova are adopting methods that use renewable resources, such as wood. Other circular solutions, including expanding markets for recycled materials, increasing circularity in design, and reducing consumption, are required, experts say. Image courtesy of Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto.

Timecodes

(00:00) Introduction

(02:17) It’s Not Just Finland

(05:58) Sector by Sector, Country by Country

(11:30) Roadblocks and Challenges

(17:16) Policy and Market-Based Solutions

(20:17) A ‘Greenlash’ to Mandates?

(25:37) Slowing Down Fast Fashion

(29:07) Plastics Recycling

(31:33) Transforming Education

(33:50) Designing Solutions for People

(36:41) Credits

The fifth season of Mongabay Explores dives into the circular economy: the effort to design goods to be less resource intensive, from their manufacture to disposal and recycling.

In this episode, we speak with circular economy researcher and policy expert Jessika Richter, associate senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, who discusses the environmental and social impacts of electric vehicles (EVs), and what we can do to mitigate them.

As she says, any conversation about solving transportation emissions that only discusses cars misses the bigger picture:

“We need to go back to, exactly, what do we need? And are there different ways we can solve this? Again, public transport, biking, walking need to be part of the discussion when we're talking about transport. It can't be just about cars, and any conversation that is just about cars or vehicles is too narrow at solving a problem, because it's only going to be shifting things,” says Richter.

Read more on the circularity of electric vehicles from contributor Sean Mowbray here:

EVs offer climate hope, but total auto supply chain revamp is vital

Internal combustion vs. EVs: Learning from the past to boost sustainability

Mongabay Explores is our in-depth podcast series which investigates some of the most significant environmental issues of our time. Check this podcast’s feed to hear previous seasons about Congo rainforest conservation issues, and other compelling topics.

Image credit: While electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions, there are a lot more factors involved in producing a car: steel, tires and people affected along the supply chain. Image by Ivan Radic via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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Time codes

(00:00) Introduction

(03:28) The benefits of EVs

(05:02) The costs

(08:04) Cleaning up the supply chain

(13:33) It’s not just about cars

(17:30) Rethinking how we use urban centers

(22:28) To retrofit or not to retrofit?

(27:41) Mining and NIMBYism

(34:35) Pricing externalities for real

(35:42) Credits