The circular economy - 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English with me, Neil.

And me, Sam.

Today, we’re talking rubbish.

Ooh, that’s a bit harsh – I thought it

was going to be interesting.

I mean our topic is about rubbish, not that

we are rubbish.

I see. Do go on.

Thank you. So the amount of waste we produce

around the world is huge and it’s a

growing problem.

But, there are some things that we can do,

like recycling. Where I live, I can recycle

a lot, and I’m always very careful to separate

- to split my rubbish into paper, metal,

food, plastic and so on.

But is that enough, even if we all do it?

We’ll look a little more at this topic shortly,

but first, as always, a question. Which

country recycles the highest percentage

of its waste? Is it:

A: Sweden, B: Germany, or C: New Zealand

What do you think, Sam?

I’m not sure, but I think it could be Germany

so I’m going to go with that - Germany.

OK. We’ll see if you’re right a little

later on. The BBC radio programme,

Business Daily, recently tackled this topic.

They spoke to Alexandre Lemille, an

expert in this area. Does he think

recycling is the answer? Let’s

hear what he said.

Recycling is not the answer to waste from

an efficient point of view because we are

not able to get all the waste separated

properly and therefore treated in the

background. The main objective of our

model is to hide waste

so we don’t see as urban citizens, or rural

citizens, we don’t see the waste, it is

out of sight and therefore out of mind.

What’s his view of recycling?

I was a bit surprised, because he said

recycling wasn’t the answer. One reason

is that it’s not always possible to separate

waste you can recycle from waste you

can’t recycle, and that makes treating it

very difficult.

'Treating' means handling it and using

different processes, so it can be used again.

And the result is a lot of waste, including

waste that could be recycled but which is

just hidden. And as long as we don’t see

it, we don’t think about it.

And he uses a good phrase to describe

this – out of sight, out of mind. And that’s

true, at least for me. My rubbish and

recycling is collected and I don’t really

think about what happens to it after that.

Is as much of it recycled as I think, or is it

buried, burned or even sent to other

countries? It’s not in front of my house, so

I don’t really think about it – out of sight,

out of mind.

Let’s listen again

Recycling is not the answer to waste from

an efficient point of view because we are

not able to get all the waste separated

properly and therefore treated in the

background. The main objective of our

model is to hide waste so we don’t see as

urban citizens, or rural citizens, we don’t

see the waste, it is out of sight and

therefore out of mind.

One possible solution to this problem is

to develop what is called a circular economy.

Here’s the presenter of Business Daily,

Manuela Saragosa, explaining what that means.

The idea then at the core of a circular

economic and business model is that a

product, like say a washing machine or

even a broom, can always be returned to

the manufacturer to be reused or repaired

before then sold on again. The point is

the manufacturer retains responsibility for

the lifecycle of the product

it produces rather than the consumer

assuming that responsibility when he or

she buys it.

So it seems like a simple idea – though

maybe very difficult to do.

Yes, the idea is that the company that

makes a product, the manufacturer, is

responsible for the product, not the

person who bought it, the consumer.

So, if the product breaks or reaches the

end of its useful life, its lifecycle, then the

manufacturer has to take it back and fix,

refurbish or have it recycled.

I guess this would make manufacturers

try to make their products last longer!

It certainly would. Let’s listen again.

The idea then at the core of a circular

economic and business model is that a

product, like say a washing machine or

even a broom, can always be returned to

the manufacturer to be reused or repaired

before then sold on again. The point is

the manufacturer retains responsibility for

the lifecycle of the product it produces

rather than the consumer assuming

that responsibility when he or she buys it.

That’s just about all we have time for in

this programme. Before we recycle the

vocabulary…

Oh very good Neil!

Before we - thank you Sam - before we recycle

the vocabulary, we need to get the answer

to today’s question. Which country recycles

the highest percentage of its waste? Is it:

A: Sweden, B: Germany or C: New Zealand

Sam, what did you say?

I think it’s Germany.

Well I would like to offer you congratulations

because Germany is the correct answer.

Now let’s go over the vocabulary.

Of course. 'To separate' means to divide or

split different things, for example,

separate your plastic from your paper for

recycling.

'Treating' is the word for dealing with, for

example, recycled waste.

The phrase 'out of sight, out of mind',

means ignoring something or a situation

you can’t see.

A 'manufacturer' is the person or company

that makes something and the consumer

is the person who buys that thing.

And the length of time you can expect a

product to work for is known as its 'lifecycle'.

Well the lifecycle of this programme is 6

minutes, and as we are there, or thereabouts,

it’s time for us to head off. Thanks for

your company and hope you can join us

again soon. Until then, there is plenty

more to enjoy from BBC Learning English

online, on social media and on our app.

Bye for now.

Bye!