Circle up. There’s big hype right now for developing circular economies for sustainable production. (Think mitigating climate change, feeding a growing population.) The folks at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a Circularity Index to measure how far we’re progressing on that goal.
Soundbite: “The traditional economic system is linear—we produce, distribute, use, and dispose of products. To increase sustainability, we need to develop a circular economy. Rather than just using natural resources, we must recover, reuse, and recycle waste materials.” — Yuanhui Zhang, study lead author and Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering professor at U of I
U of I’s index gives a comprehensive method to quantify bioeconomic systems, which differs from most current studies that are mainly descriptive and do not measure impacts.
Say what? Yeah, that was a lot. Grab your coffee. The researchers give a step-by-step outline of Circularity Index (CI) in the paper. It measures circularity on a scale from 0 to 1, zero meaning the system is completely linear, and 1 meaning it is completely circular. CI includes eight categories: recover, remake, reuse, take, make, distribute, use, and dispose.
Example, please? Sure thing. Researchers have applied CI to a corn/soybean operation, looking at nitrogen cycles over eight years while using two different fertilizer treatments. They also applied CI to the entire U.S. food and agriculture system with a focus on energy use.
Seed Sauna: ThermoSeed Revolutionizes Seed Treatment
An innovative seed treatment process is gaining steam in Europe, and it could have significant...
A Breakthrough in CWD Testing
BREAKING: Dream Genomics, Inc. has found the first ever bioprofile in the blood of live deer,...
Midwest Heat in Late Summer? Blame Corn
Labor Day came and went, which means fall is here—or what some may call the second summer, with...