circular economics is a science that studies human economic activities according to ecological laws. Circular economy is a social production and reproduction activity characterized by efficient use of resources and environmental friendliness, and it is a new mode of production. The difference from the traditional growth model is that the traditional economic growth regards the earth as an infinite resource pool and sewage disposal field. At one end, it mines a lot of resources from the earth to produce consumer products, while at the other end, it discharges a lot of waste water, waste gas and waste residue to the environment. It is a linear growth model with the expression of "resources-products-abandonment". Circular economy requires recycling all available resources in all aspects of production and reproduction, improving the efficiency of resource utilization, extending the industrial chain according to the relationship between material metabolism or * * *, and taking "resources-products-waste-renewable resources" as the form of expression, which is an intensive growth model. Circular economy is an effective way to realize the sustainable development of human society by solving the contradiction between resource constraints and environmental pollution with the idea of development.
In recent years, circular economy has not only entered the vision of China's central decision-making level, but also become the research focus of theoretical circles, which has received unprecedented attention. From the concept of circular economy put forward in China to the summary of practical experience in various localities and industries, the formulation and implementation of the development plan of circular economy not only reflects the scientific, coordinated and sustainable characteristics of the development concept of circular economy itself, but also reflects the significance of developing circular economy for improving the efficiency of resource utilization, alleviating the pressure of environmental pollution and realizing the sustainable development of social economy in China.
Case: Typical Kalenburg Model
Carenborg is a Danish coastal town, which is the most successful example of industrial ecosystem operation in the world. The so-called industrial ecosystem refers to the application of the principle that animals and plants exist in a system in ecology to industrial activities to form a "chain" of enterprises. In Carenborg Eco-industrial Park, different enterprises are closely linked through the trade of "changing waste into raw materials". The main industrial enterprises in Carenborg Eco-industrial Park are power plant, oil refinery, pharmaceutical factory and gypsum board factory. Taking these four enterprises as the core, the wastes or by-products in the production process will be used as raw materials by other enterprises through trade, or replace some raw materials; There are also greenhouse farms, fish farms, sulfuric acid plants, heating stations, cement plants and farms in this enterprise chain.
the connotation and background of circular economy
the cycle in "circular economy" refers to the cycle in the ecological sense, not the cycle in the economic sense. Ecological circulation mainly emphasizes material circulation and metabolism in economic activities, which is the reason why material flow is involved in the discussion of circular economy in China at present. The cycle in the sense of economics, in terms of time, is reflected in the periodic changes; From a spatial point of view, it has the requirement of regional interaction.
Circular economy is the result of human reflection on the development model, and it has a process of continuous development and perfection. Before the first industrial revolution, human beings' ability to intervene in nature was low, and environmental pollution and ecological destruction were local, small-scale and inconspicuous, and their influence was limited. After the industrial revolution, with the rapid development of social productive forces and the rapid growth of population, the scale of human social activities has been continuously expanded, and the ability to demand from nature and intervene in the environment has become greater and greater. The speed of resource consumption has accelerated, and the waste discharge has increased significantly. In addition, the limitations of understanding and subjective efforts have made environmental pollution more and more serious, and pollution incidents have occurred frequently, posing a greater threat to the safety of human life and property and the order of social and economic development. In 1962, Carson, an American biologist, published the book Silent Spring, which expounded the harm to people and the environment caused by the extensive use of pesticides with shocking cases and vivid language, and sounded the alarm of the environmental crisis in industrial society. On April 22, 197, the United States held a large-scale demonstration demanding the protection of the earth's environment, which marked that mankind began to pay close attention to the earth's environmental problems. In 1972, the Rome Club, a non-governmental academic organization composed of scientists, economists and entrepreneurs, published a research report on the Limits of Growth, which officially warned the world for the first time: "If the current trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource consumption continue, the limits of growth on this planet will one day occur in the next hundred years." This report is considered to be the first time to systematically investigate the relationship between economic growth and population, natural resources, ecological environment and scientific and technological progress. Although the views in the report are somewhat one-sided and pessimistic, the view that the supply of natural resources and environmental capacity cannot meet the extension growth still warns people. Since then, the ecological environment has attracted the attention of the whole world as a factor restricting economic growth. In the same year, the United Nations issued the Declaration on the Human Environment, solemnly stating that there is only one earth, and that while developing and utilizing nature, human beings also bear the obligation to safeguard it.
the three oil crises in 197s made people feel the crisis of resource supply, and it became their pursuit to improve the efficiency of resource utilization. At the same time, the rapid growth of solid waste needs a new management strategy, which is the original intention of developing circular economy and establishing circular society abroad. Western countries consume a lot of natural resources in the process of industrialization, but after a long period of industrialization, there are a lot of wastes, such as scrap steel, old cars, waste household appliances, waste paper sheets, etc. In this way, it is objectively required to recycle the wastes to reduce the cost of economic development. In fact, it is precisely because of these wastes that recycling is possible and the material basis for developing circular economy is available.
In recent years, China's advocacy has promoted the research and development of circular economy in the world. On the one hand, a large number of monographs or articles on ecological economy and industrial ecology have been published abroad, but there are almost no monographs on circular economy; There is no subject setting of circular economy in foreign higher education. On the other hand, by the end of 24, China had not only published a large number of articles on circular economy, but also published nearly ten monographs or compilations. Circular economy is also a hot topic in the publishing industry in 25. It can be said that circular economy is an out-and-out China concept, and it is an innovation of China scholars' development theory and model based on their own national conditions. At the same time, with the development of economic globalization, foreign scholars have put forward the "China factor", and the study of circular economy is no exception; Foreign experts who participated in the China Committee for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) deepened their theoretical research on circular economy through cooperation with experts from China. Foreign experts also promoted China's concept of circular economy to the world. China's promotion of circular economy has attracted the attention of international organizations and foreign governments, and has become one of the key areas of cooperation with China.
The implementation subject of circular economy involves every citizen, every family, every community, every enterprise, every region and even the whole Chinese nation. For example, a family's power saving, water saving, garbage sorting and other activities; Energy-saving of an office building, the reuse of copy paper, toner cartridges and reclaimed water, clean production of an enterprise, the development of comprehensive utilization of resources, garbage sorting and recycling in the community, the use of solar energy, etc., all these activities can reduce the material flow of the system, so they belong to the category of circular economy. As China's industrialization and urbanization have not yet been completed, it is impossible to realize material reduction in economic activities unless it is no longer developed, which is contrary to our starting point of advocating and promoting circular economy. In other words, the focus of promoting the development of circular economy in China should not be placed in a narrow sense. The so-called circular economy in a narrow sense refers to the development of the economy through the reuse and recycling of waste, which is equivalent to the category of "garbage economy" and "waste economy". The construction of a recycling society proposed by Japan emphasizes the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste, which corresponds to the "vein industry". The so-called "vein industry" refers to the industry formed around the recycling of waste, which is relative to the "artery industry", which refers to the industry formed by the development and utilization of natural resources.
disciplinary basis of circular economy
The disciplinary basis of circular economy cannot be discussed without the integration of natural science and social science.
1. Ecological Basis
Ecology is a science that studies the relationship between living things and the environment. Just like bionics, circular economics also studies the laws of material metabolism, circulation, and * * * life that human beings imitate in nature, and uses them to arrange economic activities. Tansley, a British scholar, put forward the concept of ecosystem in 1936, emphasizing the functional unity between living things, living organisms and abiotic environments in a certain natural region. An ecosystem, including living organisms and all the spaces around them and all the environments that directly or indirectly affect living organisms; Environmental conditions, that is, ecological factors, have an impact on the growth, development, reproduction, morphological characteristics, physiological functions and geographical distribution of organisms. The laws of ecosystem can be summarized as: entirety, coordination, circulation, regeneration, etc. These ecological laws have been applied to the practice of circular economy in agriculture, industry and other fields.
2. Fundamentals of Economics
Since the birth of economics, the allocation of resources, especially the allocation of scarce resources, has been the research object of economics. With the gradual scarcity of ecological environment, it is not surprising that economics will expand its research object to ecological environment.
resource economics. Resource economics holds that the essence of economy is that people transform natural resources into means of subsistence. Resources are different from social resources and natural resources. Social resources include manpower, knowledge, information, science, technology, accumulated capital and social wealth, etc., and their greatest characteristics are accumulation and variability. Natural resources include land, forests, grasslands, precipitation, rivers and lakes, energy, minerals, etc., and their essential characteristics are limited; And some types of resources are non-renewable. The contents of resource economics related to the study of circular economy include the relationship between supply and demand, the influence of prices and taxes on the relationship between supply and demand, etc. Whether the "waste to raw materials" connection between industries can be formed is ultimately determined by resource economics.
environmental economics. The reason why governments are required to promote the development of circular economy is because it involves externalities. Welfare economics tells us that if the production or consumption of a commodity will bring a cost that cannot be reflected in the market price, it will produce an "external effect". Externality means that the production and consumption of some products will bring harmful or beneficial effects to enterprises or individuals who are not directly involved in such activities. The beneficial influence is called "external economy", otherwise it is "external diseconomy". The ecological environment belongs to public products. As the environment of public goods, the non-competitiveness in consumption often leads to the "tragedy of the commons"-overuse, and the non-exclusiveness in consumption often leads to the "free rider" mentality-insufficient supply. By developing circular economy, we can not only improve the utilization efficiency of natural resources, but also protect the environment.
3. industrial ecology
industrial ecology is a discipline established by imitating natural ecology. In 1997, Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology cooperated to publish the world's first Journal of Industrial Ecology. Reid Lifset, the editor-in-chief, put forward in his introduction: "Industrial ecology is a rapidly developing branch of system science, which systematically studies the energy flow and material flow in products, processes, industrial sectors and economic sectors from local, regional and global levels, with the focus on the role of industry in reducing the environmental pressure in the product life cycle." Industrial ecology tries to imitate the material cycle of nature, and through the systematic coupling between enterprises, make the industrial chain show the nature of ecological chain, and realize the material recycling, multi-level energy transfer, efficient output and sustainable utilization of resources. In the natural ecosystem, the production of producers, the consumption of consumers and the regenerators are relatively simple and stable, but the eco-industrial system is far from reaching the level of nature, whether it is the technical level or the relationship between them.
4. Eco-economics
Eco-economics is an interdisciplinary subject that crosses social science (economics) and natural science (ecology). Eco-economics is a science that studies the law and application of material circulation, energy transformation and value proliferation between economic system and ecological system in the process of reproduction. The ecological environment has changed from a purely natural human survival factor to an economic factor in the social sense, which has two meanings. First, a good ecological environment that meets the needs of human life has been in short supply, and having a good environment has become one of the goals of people's pursuit of happiness. Second, the absorption capacity of natural ecological environment for waste has been saturated or close to saturation, and some areas have even been overloaded. If we continue to use it for production, we must regenerate new environmental capacity, so we need to invest funds for "construction (ecological restoration and pollution control)", and a good ecological environment has become a "product" of labor. In other words, a good ecological environment has dual characteristics, that is, it is a goal from the perspective of life and has become a production factor and condition from the perspective of production.
5. From Baldin's spaceship theory to Pierce model
On May 1th, 1965, American scholar Kenneth? Baldin pointed out in the article "The Earth is like a spaceship" that people should not regard the Earth as a garbage dump, and they are a member of the ecosystem, and used words such as "recycle its wastes" and "circular-flow". People's viability depends on all elements and elements in the world ecosystem with closed-loop characteristics. But the word circular economy is not used, but the centrally planned economy is used. In 1966, Baldin published "The Economics of the Coming Space Ship Earth". It is proposed that the "future spaceship earth economy" is similar to the "astronaut" economy. The earth is a lonely spaceship, with no storage of infinite matter, neither exploitation nor pollution. Man must find his place in the circular ecosystem and carry out material reproduction. Therefore, Baldin is regarded as the earliest advocate of ecological economics and the concept of circular economy by Chinese scholars.
David, a British environmental economist? Pearce, D.W. &; Turner, R.K.) first used the word Circular Economy in 199.