How a Circular Economy Can Help Us in a Recession
The UK Recession
It was announced on Wednesday that the UK has officially gone into a recession for the first time in 11 years. After lockdown measures were put in place at the end of March and thousands of businesses were forced to stop trading, the UK economy suffered its biggest slump on record between April and June.
As many shops and hospitality businesses were forced to close, and factory and construction output fell, household spending dropped. This resulted in the economy shrinking by 20.4% compared with the start of the year.
This recession will have dreadful effects on many people, including those who have lost their jobs, as finding a new job in these uncertain times will be incredibly difficult. This will leave many people with a lower disposable income than previously.
Through these hard times, it will be important to work towards a circular economy, where we can limit our spending by making the most of our possessions. Currently we have a ‘linear economy’, which consists of extracting, producing, consuming, and disposing. This will not sustain us, especially in a recession.
What is a circular economy and how can I contribute?
A circular economy allows us to recover our waste and utilise our resources to reduce the need for extracting new material and in turn reducing the creation of carbon emissions. The aim is to increase the lifespan of already existing products so that they are in use for longer, resulting in improved productivity. By doing this, we begin to make the move towards multiple reuse and recycling. This will decrease the amount of money we will spend on unnecessary used goods. This is a sustainable model which could help many people through a recession.
One way you can contribute to a circular economy is by reusing products that you already own. This means fixing and mending rather than throwing away. You can also sell your unwanted products on to be refurbished for resale, so that you are gaining money yourself and saving someone else from spending lots of money on a brand-new product.
Circular economy and electronic goods
IT equipment and electronic devices seem to be one area where people simply throw away any item which they no longer use or is broken. The problem with this is that the E-waste is taken straight to landfill and further emissions are released in extracting new materials to make new products. These brand-new products are then more costly for the consumer.
Instead of throwing these sorts of products away, you could sell them to us, here at Zixtel, where we are able to refine and refurbish them to sell on for further use. This is contributing to a circular economy by extending the life of the device. So not only are you helping the environment, you can make yourself money from an item that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
In difficult times such as the one we face ourselves in now, we could all do with a little bit of extra cash. So, if you have any unwanted or unused electronic products, sell them to us. We will give you a great price and will refurbish them so that people in need of such devices can pay less for a product they otherwise would have had to by brand new.
