[INTERVIEW] Circular economy is consumerism of the future

The circular economy is not a concept fashionable only in renewables-rich Nordic nations, said experts from Denmark and Finland who joined a policy forum in Seoul on Thursday. "This T-shirt," said Kirsi Terho, key account director of Finland's..

Anne Kari Hansen Ovind, ambassador-designate of Norway to Korea, speaks at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul on Thursday. [EMBASSY OF DENMARK IN KOREA]

The circular economy is not a concept fashionable only in renewables-rich Nordic nations, said experts from Denmark and Finland who joined a policy forum in Seoul on Thursday.

“This T-shirt,” said Kirsi Terho, key account director of Finland's Infinited Fiber Company, while pulling out an article of clothing during an interview at the Shilla Hotel Seoul on Thursday, “is a Patagonia T-shirt that was produced from old shirts sent from Patagonia stores in Korea to us.”

The Infinited Fiber Company is working to make used fibers as good as new, a technology they’re hoping to apply on a wider scale so that they can be more than “just a drop in the ocean” among other textile producers in the world.

Kirsi Terho, key account director of Infinited Fiber Company, speaks with the Korea JoongAng Daily at the Shilla Hotel Seoul on Thursday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Millions of tons of clothes are thrown away every year. One study from the United States put the figure at 13 million tons in 2017, of which 85 percent were buried or burned.

Terho says she is one of many trying to reverse this trend.

Pernille Berg, science director at Bloxhub, a Nordic institution working on sustainable urbanization, also traveled into Seoul to speak on Thursday at the World Knowledge Forum, an event hosted by the embassies of Nordic nations — Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden — in Korea.

Berg, who was visiting Seoul for the second time, said she’s seen a huge potential for the megacity as a testbed for solutions to adjust consumer behaviors to drive changes on industrial levels.

“I think Seoul can be an interesting place for many partners working on projects to change consumer behavior, because of its size and how well run it is,” Berg said. “The greater Seoul area has 27 million people living in it, so much bigger than Copenhagen and many other European cities, and that would mean that large-scale solutions could be tried out in Seoul, with meaningful data and results.”

Pernille Berg, science director at Bloxhub, speaks with the Korea JoongAng Daily at the Shilla Hotel Seoul on Thursday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Cities occupy just 3 percent of the Earth’s land, yet they are known to be the largest carbon emitters, according to Berg.

The following are edited excerpts of the interview with Terho and Berg, in which they discuss how Nordic and Asian cities and companies could collaborate to transform the age-old way the world has produced and consumed for a greener future.

Q : In the simplest terms, how would you summarize the concept of a circular economy?

A : Kirsi Terho: It is about using the resources that already exist to the fullest, and creating a business around the process. Because if there is no business around it, there can be no circular economy.

A : Pernille Berg: I’d compare it to living in circles. We all know about seasonal changes, that we live and die, and everything operates with that circle in mind. So when we say goodbye to our plants, our home, or our loved ones, we always send them off to a better journey. I think the way we've lived in the last 50 to 70 years, we have forgotten to have that level of veneration and love for our habitation. Circular economy is about having the economic system that sustains that circularity.

Q : What are some good examples we see today of companies fully on board with this idea of a circular economy?

A : Berg: One company that I think is quite a leading star because of their holistic approach to circularity would be Patagonia. They have just recently dedicated their wealth to doing good for biodiversity. And I think the way in which Patagonia has really also looked at its company policy from human resources to materials to business models is a very, very good example.

A screen capture on Patagonia's website about their upcycled T-shirts. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Q : Since the onset of the pandemic, more people in Korea have turned to buying and selling used clothes on various online platforms. For Infinited Fiber, how did it turn the concept of recycling textiles into a business model?

A : Terho: So it all started in the 1930s in Alabama, where there was an innovation for this technology [to turn used materials into fiber] that was never used. And our founder Ali Harlin, professor at VTT [VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland], was keen on making it work. So he began experimenting with it, making fibers out of old newspapers, then old banana boxes, and then old jeans. He decided to take the results to ITMA Milan, a textile fair. The result? A huge list of brand names interested in circulating old clothes into new ones. So VTT was the one behind the innovation and application of the technology, and Infinited Fiber was lucky to get the hundreds-years of experience and develop it to a commercial level.

Q : Consumer behavior is often the key to changing the way we produce and consume. Where does the public in Nordic nations stand when it comes to going the extra mile in the way they consume to protect the environment?

A : Berg: When we’re talking consumer behavior in fashion, we have to talk about going from fast fashion to slow fashion. Some companies today are throwing out new styles on a weekly basis. That has to stop. The skirt I'm wearing now is completely upscaled because it's plastic bottles that have been turned into fiber. The skirt doesn’t behave in a different way than had it been produced from another type of material. And this is why we need the experts in research and technology to refine and perfect their knowledge on how to produce recycled products and also to ensure that consumers don’t lose any value in purchasing them because they behave the same way as the fiber we’re used to would.

I'm hoping that a similar trend will be increasingly visible within the construction industry. We have some examples of houses being built based on circular principles, but the consumers still weigh in whether using a more environmentally-friendly material would look the same aesthetically.

A : Terho: Generation-Z at the moment is looking very heavily at what they're wearing, and how they want to feel about what they're consuming. Consumers are steadily driving businesses at the moment, forcing the industry to change.

Smoke and steam billow from Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant, near Belchatow, Poland, in this file photo taken on Nov. 28, 2018. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Q : With the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis in Europe, would you say that the businesses and consumers’ interest implementing circular economy through smarter recycling and greener production have been put on the back burner?

A : Terho: There has been much talk in Europe about whether the energy crisis would turn everything around [on the climate agenda] and push down some of the conversations around renewable energy. But I think this will be something that happens momentarily. In Finland, we’re expecting a very cold winter this year, but we are also ready to get through it with our sources of renewable energy.

A : Berg: I think the energy crisis is instilling a lot of fear in people. And we know that when people become afraid and worried about the future, they tend to regress to what makes them feel safe. So people talk about staying warm by using coal. But what we also saw in Europe over the summer, as you’ve also seen in Seoul, were the extremely heavy rainfalls, as well as droughts and heat waves. So people are aware that we are facing many crisis at the same time. While there is no one solution that fits all, we have no doubt that we will see our CO2 emissions grow temporarily as we try to get through this [energy shortage] crisis and then go down again because many are also set on addressing the climate change problem.

A fisher boat passes wind turbines between the island Langeoog and Bensersiel at the North Sea coast in Germany, in this file photo dated May 15, 2019. Four European Union countries plan to build North Sea wind farms capable of producing at least 150 gigawatts of energy by 2050 to help cut carbon emissions that cause climate change, Danish media reported in May. [AP/YONHAP]

Q : Despite the postponement of the plan for Copenhagen to go carbon neutral by 2025 in light of the energy crisis in Europe, Denmark remains a leader in decarbonization. Where should one go in the Danish capital to see some examples of green urbanization?

A : Berg: Definitely drop by the “Living Places,” which will be ready next year. It is an initiative to create houses that, as a community, fulfill the sustainable development goals. The construction industry needs to reduce their current CO2 emissions by 96 percent [to meet the carbon neutrality goals], so Living Places will be an example of how we can construct homes differently to meet these goals. We also have what we call the Copenhill, where we have a waste-to-energy plant.

Environmental activists wearing outfits made from plastic waste participate in a campaign to mark Earth Day against climate change in Seoul,on April 22. [AP/YONHAP]

Q : Plastic waste in Korea, including the thousands of disposable plastic cups coming out of cafes in the country every day, is a big problem here. If Seoul were to come to Bloxhub to ask for its advice on how to tackle this problem, where would you start?

A : Berg: I think we know that in reducing CO2 emissions, we need to begin with consumer behavior. So I would start with social awareness and behavioral change mechanisms and incentives. I think Seoul can be an interesting place for many partners working on such projects to change consumer behavior, because of its size and how well run it is. The greater Seoul area has 27 million people living in it, so much bigger than Copenhagen and other European cities, and that would mean that large-scale solutions could be tried out in Seoul, with meaningful data and results.

Heads of diplomatic missions of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark in Korea join the speakers of the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul on Thursday. [EMBASSY OF DENMARK IN KOREA]

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]