There is an increasing focus on, and recognition of the damage individuals are causing to the planet. 

As the damaging impacts of climate change are growing more visible, the pressure to innovate and adjust to a circular economy is starting to become a significant priority business practice.

The Circular Economy

The idea of the circular economy can be defined by the three R’s: Reducing materials and waste, Reusing products, and Recycling materials. The Ellen MacArthur foundation demonstrates that there is a perpetual movement of materials through the value circle.

Today’s consumers are demanding more product transparency from brands, and approximately 60% of them are likely to buy products that have a precisely defined sustainability policy, as determined by the success of fashion brands like Allbirds and Veja.

How businesses manage the disposal or reuse of their stocks is essential today. They must immediately adapt and innovate, using disruptive business standards and technologies to promote the movement.

Blockchain technology can be applied on various fronts to this issue, with wide-ranging advantages of the circular economy. As we understand, blockchain technology initially developed through the progress of bitcoin and cryptocurrency but is now extensively used in applications like voting, supply chain, health records, energy supply, and protection of critical civil infrastructure, ownership and identity management.

The Three R’s And Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology can decrease resource consumption by providing traceability and transparency, which efficiently promotes the provenance of items. 

Blockchain technology can help to fight imitation and its substantial adverse environmental and social consequences in terms of materials utilized and human rights, as well as fair work traditions. 

Furthermore, customers will be able to make more informed buying decisions, allowing them to consume truly sustainable circular products and services.

The circular economy is a complicated area to drive, mainly due to its vast range of participants and the universal nature of supply chains. Attempting to fix the circular economy is a job for all participants in the ecosystem rather than a few companies.

This is why blockchain technology is a crucial enabler: It helps implement an ecosystem with a trusted set of data and transactions on which the entire ecosystem can make joint decisions.

How Businesses Are Supporting The Circular Economy With Blockchain Solutions

MonoChain is on a mission to use blockchain technology to keep around $460 billion worth of clothes out of landfills every year. MonoChain’s blockchain solution links the primary and “second sale” markets, which allows the reuse of products and helps to expand products’ lives. 

For the end consumers, they can see items’ provenance and their “worth” or “resale value” in real-time and find out the excellent places to trade them. This creates an obvious way for consumers to reuse or resell their items with secure solutions.

In the U.S., $100 billion in medication is consumed yearly, while almost 32 million Americans cannot manage the medication they require. Remedichain is disrupting the game and presenting a solution by redistributing unused, still-consumable medicine to patients who need it. This serves people in poverty and decreases pharmaceutical waste.

Bext360, a startup in the field of agriculture, is using blockchain technology to track and validate the authentication of the organic cotton supply chain. With a center on transparency and greater penetration into this market, Bext360 is partnered with Fashion For Good, the C&A Foundation, and the Organic Cotton Accelerator.

And ultimately, a global fashion brand is examining the use of hemp to produce “cotton” denim. Levi’s, one of the world’s greatest denim brands, has issued the Wellthread x Outerknown collection, which utilizes hemp that has been processed to feel similar to cotton. 

The goal is sustainability: “We take out more than 2/3 of the total water impact to the garment. That’s saving a lot.” So not only do you dress sustainable denim, but you also get to wear hemp clothing. It’s like being brought back to the 1970s.

Looking Ahead

The future circular economy and blockchain use cases seem assertive as more and more brands shift toward embracing a circular economy.

Organizations should take benefit of developing technologies to improve the tracking and tracing of goods exceeding the point of sale and allow authentication, resale, and physical recovery.

The future of our planet will be significantly developed if more companies embrace blockchain technology for the circular economy.