What is a closed-loop production system?

The basic principles of organic farming focus on the practice of sustainability throughout the production cycle. In doing so, it essentially creates a closed-loop system to ensure that steps in a production cycle generates little to no waste, reduce energy consumption and minimise transportation processes and packaging. The good thing about this type of system is that it not only applies to organic farming but any business that works to focus on preventing negative environmental impacts. When companies in a supply chain work together to close unnecessary dead ends, a circular economy is created and can strengthen developments in sustainability improving both environmental and economic performance.

This is a relatively easy concept to understand, considering the benefits to the environment, so then why aren’t there more businesses taking responsibility to implement closed-loop production systems? Successful traditional production systems rely on high productivity and economic efficiency for customer satisfaction and profitability. Whilst a significant portion of sales is still driven by these actions, it appears customer demand is shifting toward environmentalism. Large companies and local businesses alike are taking advantage of this concept which is quickly becoming a part of an upcoming trend in environmental marketing strategies, and rightly so, as market research shows that consumers say they want more sustainable products.

What is the best solution for reducing the solid waste problem?

If you’re familiar with the famous five R’s: refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle, they are aptly listed in the order of priority. Growing up in the 90’s in Australia, recycling was a huge part of waste management especially after the introduction of the household recycling bin. It was slowly in built into our culture that it was OK to continue to use single use products, whether it landed up in landfill or a recycling plant. The biggest problem we are now faced with is simply: generating too much waste for landfill and recycling plants to be a viable option for the future. For a sustainable future, there needs to be more focus and responsibility on reducing waste and progressing towards developing circular economies.

The best solution for reducing waste in a production system is to implement sustainable actions to reduce, reuse or recycle existing waste at each step of the production line. The challenge in this is being able to achieve a balance between economic and environmental objectives. A sustainable supply chain network (SSCN) is formed from companies that work together synergistically at the supply chain level within a sustainable circular economy that takes into consideration waste reduction and waste avoidance throughout a product life cycle.

What is the difference between a closed-loop system and closed-loop recycling?

Closed-loop recycling relies a lot on choosing the right type of materials for a product to enable the recycling process. Take the humble element Aluminum for instance. It be recycled back into itself unlike different grades of soft plastic that may be upcycled (into other products) or downcyclyed (broken down into its base products) also known as open-loop recycling. Closed-loop recycling in its purest form is in effect an ideal alternative to reducing waste whereas recycling in the form of an open-loop system still generates a significant amount of waste at the end source. Studies show that recycled materials can increase up to 80% in closed-loop systems in comparison to 1% in open-loop systems.

Either way, the recycling process relies a lot on compliance from consumer’s actions. In addition to this, a large amount of energy consumption, manpower and financial expense is involved. Establishing a SSCN within a circular economy is advantageous by incorporating recycling within a product life cycle whilst considering a closed-loop system for the product. The goal to sustainability lies here: to improve waste reduction and waste avoidance from the design phase to the end-of-life stages of a product’s life cycle.