To what extent do closed loop product systems affect resource effectiveness? : -a study into the application of closed loop product systems within industry

Sammanfattning: The closed loop product system is a way of reducing overall waste and utilizing resources to their full potential. The closed loop product system works through products being returned back into the market through reusing, remanufacturing, or recycling. This is a tool and/or method that can be used to fulfil a circular economy. Circular economy is a system where resources and energy are reused to their full potential. These are both important concepts to consider when one wishes to solve the current resource crisis. This report aims to analyse the modern application of the closed loop product system within industry and to what extent these applications are resource effective. This will be done by comparing theoretical framework of the closed loop system to that of individual case studies. The case studies are examined by the writer and by researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Companies or organizations promoting the closed loop or the circular economy system provide the case studies that have been studied in this report. These companies or organizations have been working towards ending an increasingly insistent resource crisis. It is through the organizations the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Kingfisher Group, and ResCoM that case studies have been collected. Analyses of the case studies find that the idea of driving towards a circular economy and closed loop system almost always provide resource effective products. This is prominent both when the framework of a closed loop system is fulfilled as well as when it is not. Not all of the products advertised as closed loop by their organizations or manufacturers follow the framework of a closed loop system established by scientific articles and publications. It is for this reason that the analysis of the case studies has been performed with the aid of researchers as well as that of evidence provided from scientific databases. Even though these concepts are still infant and largely untested within modern industry, there are a few instances where the closed loop system can be observed within industry. Evidence shows that a closed loop product system can greatly improve resource effectiveness despite the lack of modern applications of the concept. The deviation from the modern ‘make, sell, dispose’ method is difficult and the initiation of a complete and proper closed loop system would require a new set of thinking as well as time. This change of mindset is ominous as the concept is still largely untested.