
Chances are, most things that currently surround you have been produced following the principles of the linear economy. From the clothes that you wear to the phone you carry and the packaging of your groceries - all of these were likely produced with just one life cycle in mind, from the moment that you bought them to the moment of their disposal.
Granted, reusable products are becoming more accessible and models for refurbishing, recycling, and reusing certain products are popular. However, the growth paradigm still abounds and is sustained by ongoing mass production and consumption on a global scale.
Prices are kept low for both manufacturers and consumers due to the high production volumes as well as the factoring out of negative externalities, including the enormous environmental impact of waste, pollution, and carbon emissions that are baked into the system.
Our current legal frameworks were developed to ensure that manufacturers internalise profits and externalise the cost of risks during the use of objects to the buyer, and end-of-life costs to society, namely the taxpayer , explains S ren Bauer, head of the Vienna-based NGO REVOLVE Circular.
Such a system can function as long as we do not overstretch the extraction of resources and do not manufacture objects made of synthetic materials, which are - quantitatively and qualitatively - outside nature's absorption capacity. But that is exactly what we have been doing for decades.
-- Play
-- --
A webinar to help journalists and other media professionals understand the circular economy. Recorded on 13th October 2021.
Effectively covering the circular economy means connecting the dots of closed loops rather than repeating marketing lies.
Benedict Wermter, investigative journalist
The circular economy aims to keep resources in play for as long as possible by focusing on higher resource efficiency. It's been heralded as holding the promise for systemic transformation of our society and the way to ease climate change, resource depletion and waste.
The European Commission has incorporated a circular economy action plan as one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal. Many national governments - including China, Nigeria, and Ecuador - are developing their own strategies and roadmaps.
For journalists across several beats and in particular in relation to sustainability, the circular economy is likely something they have had to wrap their heads around.
Explainers on the overall concept are plentiful (and risk taking you down a rabbit hole), yet editors in particular prefer specific examples of the circular - or not so circular - economy in action.
Having covered the blue economy and marine environment extensively, Wanjohi Kabukuru, editor-in-chief at the Indian Ocean Observatory and an environmental reporter based in Kenya, sees a role for the media in storytelling and bringing the intellectually ambitious concept to life:
The circular economy has too few successes, and it is too shy on its narratives of triumph - the critical elements that secure front pages and build narratives. For the blue economy movement, the case of Rodrigues in the Mauritian Archipelago, where well-structured community initiatives turned the devastated flora and fauna of the small island into a biodiversity hotspot, tells such a powerful story.
The circular economy has too few successes, and it is too shy on its narratives of triumph - the critical elements that secure front pages and build narratives.
Wanjohi Kabukuru, editor-in-chief, Indian Ocean Observatory
Others contend that companies and non-profit organisations may well be piggybacking off the concept of a circular economy for profit or political gain. Effectively covering the circular economy means connecting the dots of closed loops rather than repeating marketing lies, says investigative journalist, Benedict Wermter.
Benedict has spent several years researching the recycling efforts of the packaging industry and has uncovered the lobbying power of Green Dot companies in Europe among other stories. His journalistic approach to the circular economy story has been to hold large companies and brands accountable to their marketing claims. Covering circular economy means uncovering greenwash. As a journalist, I hold those responsible who suggest to move towards closed loops.
But it isn't just the industry juggernauts from the Global North that should feature in the discourse on circularity.
This beat is a very interesting one to cover. But it also includes pitfalls, as people with different agendas are using the same discourse as the true change-makers.
Sarah Vandoorne, investigative journalist Sarah Vandoorne, a Belgian investigative journalist, has focused on the textile industry since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In her reporting, she has combined an investigative approach into the labour rights of garment workers as well as environmental pollution from textile dyeing with a more solutions-based lens, highlighting good practices and questioning dominant narratives.
Covering aspects of both the linear and the circular economy in the textile industry have led her to contemplate on her role as a journalist in a world with resource scarcity: I became a journalist out of idealism. In this light, this beat is a very interesting one to cover. But it also includes pitfalls, as people with different agendas (industry related or not) are using the same discourse as the true change-makers. So how do I tell the difference? And how do I remain unbiased? While at the same time realising, as an idealist, of course I'm biased. The thing is: my only bias is saving our environment (trying to, at least) and challenging structural inequality.
Related content
Environmental journalism | Why local matte
More from Thomson
25/03/2023
To increase women's participation; these four words, written down in four seconds, in a proposal can take months, if not years to achieve.
Especially, wh...
24/03/2023
When I started out as an investigative journalist, there were few practising journalists in Kenya to learn from or manuals that I could read to sharpen my skill...
23/03/2023
Journalists in the Western Balkans have been given access to free resources and training in their own languages thanks to a unique platform launched by Thomson ...
22/03/2023
One million refugees have been welcomed into Germany since the Russian invasion who aside from being far from home have lost contact with their community and in...
21/03/2023
Millions of people in Tajikistan have read, watched and listened to an extraordinary social media campaign which has clearly shown the population's hunger f...
08/03/2023
It's August in Pakistan and much of the country is underwater. Catastrophic flooding has killed hundreds, left millions homeless and destroyed infrastructur...
15/02/2023
A strong, fearless and effective media, where talent is recognised and rewarded regardless of gender. That's the goal of She Leads Media: Bettina Fellowshi...
07/02/2023
Our pioneering WhatsApp course is leading the way in training journalists and citizens to spot misinformation and disinformation in Sudan - a country targeted b...
03/02/2023
The finale of the third Valley Voices project saw women journalists and writers gain confidence in writing about some of the more controversial topics facing wo...
23/01/2023
Take six of the brightest young journalists and connect them to six of the best in the industry and you have the recipe for Connect 6', a new, world-class ...
10/01/2023
You're a journalist and news breaks that Pele, arguably the greatest footballer the world has ever known, has died. A colleague in your newsroom is assigned...
14/12/2022
Two former winners of the Vodacom Young Journalist of the Year award in South Africa have finally been treated to their prize of an all-expenses paid trip to Lo...
08/12/2022
Sabin Agha is a Pakistan-based documentary filmmaker, multimedia journalist and a blogger. She has been teaching women journalists at Tribal News Network (TNN)...
29/11/2022
Yashraj Sharma is the interim editor of the online news portal of The Kashmir Walla. He is the winner of the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 202...
25/11/2022
Yashraj Sharma is the interim editor of the online news portal of The Kashmir Walla. He is a finalist in Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2022.
...
24/11/2022
Jyoti Yadav is a journalist from New Delhi, working for India's fastest growing news website The Print. She is a finalist in Thomson Foundation's Young ...
23/11/2022
Carlos Ra l Kestler is a 23-year-old journalist from Guatemala. He is a finalist in Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2022.
Every time a tyre t...
21/11/2022
One year ago, I woke up and was surprised to find out the great news that I was selected as the winner of Thomson Foundations Young Journalist Award 2021. This ...
07/11/2022
Ewen Macaskill introduces the second in his series of news writing courses for the Thomson Foundation - Advanced Writing: The art of storytelling
Storytelling...
04/11/2022
During a time of war, it's essential that journalists are prepared for any eventuality, however unlikely.
With that in mind, Thomson Foundation has respon...
20/10/2022
It has been tough three weeks for the panel of judges at the UK Foreign Press Association (FPA) who had the unenviable task of selecting three finalists for the...
19/10/2022
Three landmark environmental training courses devised by the Thomson Foundation have been translated into Arabic as part of a major push to guide and inform loc...
28/09/2022
A remarkable number of entries arrived from all over the world for this years Young Journalist Award - Cameroon to Colombia, Ukraine to Uganda and Egypt to Ecua...
12/09/2022
This article is written by Hudaibia Iftikhar, a blogger working in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan. Despite being highly educated, she holds a ...
23/08/2022
Running a media organisation in the Western Balkans (WB) is far from easy. A region beset by instability, corruption with challenges to media freedom which prov...
08/08/2022
A digital learning course on mis and disinformation delivered via the messaging platform WhatsApp has gone viral in Sudan.
The first seven days after publicat...
28/07/2022
Dina or evi is a journalist with the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS). She has won a number of national and international awards for her w...
01/07/2022
Thomson Foundation is celebrating 60 years of promoting excellence in journalism and to mark the occasion, we're offering six rising stars the chance to con...
24/06/2022
Hello, can you hear me? The zoom screen springs to life and the responses quickly follow.
Yes, we can. Good morning . The greetings come from Kenya, Nigeri...
20/06/2022
The crisis in Ukraine has again focused world attention on the plight of refugees and mass migration. It has also challenged journalists to report on the issue ...
10/05/2022
The moment you see your byline next to a story is a magical moment for any journalist. It brings with it a sense of relief, pride and hope that you'll get n...
06/05/2022
Success in our training programmes is measured in many ways but one of the most rewarding is reading or watching powerful stories produced by young journalists ...
25/04/2022
A pioneering band of creatives in Sudan are promoting social change through photography. The Thomson Media training for digital media entrepreneurs formed part ...
31/03/2022
Chemical and biological weapons may be banned but that has not stopped them being used in recent conflicts and for journalists reporting on the war in Ukraine k...
25/01/2022
The look of politics in Gagauzia, the small autonomous territory in southern Moldova, is decidedly male. Just two of the 35 members of local parliament are wome...
13/01/2022
Eleven women who participated in the inaugural Bettina Fund - Women in Media Leadership programme say it will transform their careers as they have gained confid...
18/12/2021
Stories on ecology and corruption, developed with Thomson Media support, are among the best investigations of the year.
By Dima Stoianov, media support expert ...
17/12/2021
Media in minority languages are relatively well developed, but one segment is significantly neglected in the six countries of the Western Balkans - Albania, Bos...
14/12/2021
Award-winning podcasters and journalists from the UK, India, Kenya, Australia and South Africa have joined forces to create what's believed to be the first ...
08/12/2021
The 7th of January 1991 was a big day for me. It was the day I started working as a radio journalist.
As someone who writes for a living, I'm supposed to a...
30/11/2021
PROFILE: Young Journalist Award 2021 winner
It was Kai Hui Wong's persistence in her investigations which led her to reveal abuses of power that convin...
30/11/2021
PROFILE: Young Journalist Award 2021 (environment) winner
It's hard to believe that Monika Mondal only started her journalism career last year at the hei...
17/11/2021
Three journalists - from India, and for the first time, Colombia and Malaysia - are the finalists for the 2021 Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award, in par...
06/11/2021
By Eileen Truax Eileen is a journalist specialising in migration working with Thomson Media on Moving Voices - a project looking at cross border issues affectin...
02/11/2021
As world leaders gather for COP26, it is a pertinent time to showcase the work o...
20/10/2021
In the latest in a series of personal reflections on womens role in the media, Luba Kassova, author of The Missing Perspectives of Women in News reflects on why...
16/10/2021
It's one of those points in the annual media calendar that early-career journalists await on the edge of their seats - and the moment has arrived.
We can ...
06/10/2021
A confidence gap is a constant theme when discussing the lack of women in leadership positions in media. Why do women feel that they dont merit their success mo...
20/09/2021
Chances are, most things that currently surround you have been produced following the principles of the linear economy. From the clothes that you wear to the ph...
13/09/2021
Journalists have a unique role to play in changing the narrative around the worlds environmental breakdown and becoming an essential part of the solution. Hear ...