Yves here. Recycling and waste processing are or should be important practices that get far too little attention. A lot of consumer schemes, like separating garbage, are so inconsistently applied as to be of no use (do not get me started on what I have seen all over the world) when business and industrial programs would seem to have more potential (as in re-use more material and also be easier to implement and manage due to the scale of operations). I assume those are in place in forward-thinking countries, but the US fixates on household-level feel-goodery.1
Also in a bit of drafting laziness, the authors designate Russia an emerging country by virtue of its membership in BRICS.
By Aifani Confidence Tahulela, Researcher, Durban University of Technology, and Fulufhelo Netswera, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Postgraduate Studies, University of Venda. Originally published at The Conversation
The global economy still largely follows a simple pattern: extract natural resources, manufacture products, use them and then throw them away. This “take, make, dispose” model has driven economic growth for decades. But increasing use of resources has also damaged the environment, contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Circular economies could be a solution. The idea is to keep materials in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair and recycling. In this way, goods circulate within the economy rather than ending up on dumpsites as waste.
For rapidly developing economies, this approach is becoming increasingly important.
We are researchers working on waste management, circular economy and sustainability transitions in emerging economies.
In a recent book chapter, we looked at how the original Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – deal with climate change adaptation and pursue sustainability. (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates have since joined Brics.)
We chose to study these countries because they are among the world’s largest emerging economies. They face similar challenges of demand for resources and goods and growing amounts of waste. This makes them important case studies for understanding circular economy transitions at scale.
We reviewed existing research on the countries’ policies, technologies and business models to identify the main opportunities, challenges and policy lessons.
Our findings show that circular economy practices are emerging in the countries we studied, but not at the same pace. China stands out as the most advanced. It has strong national circular economy policies and implements these on a large scale.
Brazil and India have made moderate progress, mainly through bio-based systems that use natural products like plants to create environmentally friendly products and chemicals. They’ve also set up innovative ways of recycling.
In contrast, Russia focuses mainly on recycling industrial waste. South Africa is lagging behind because it doesn’t have enough recycling facilities and doesn’t put all its circular economy policies into practice.
The way countries manage resources and waste will shape the quality of urban life, public health and economic opportunities for millions of people.
Why Brics Countries Face Growing Pressure
Globally, cities generate more than 2 billion tonnes of waste that is sent to local garbage dumps each year. This will increase as populations grow and consume more and more.
The Brics countries account for more than 40% of the world’s population and roughly a quarter of global economic output. These economies have urbanised rapidly and their industries have expanded, increasing the demand for raw materials, energy and manufactured goods.
This growth has also produced large volumes of waste. But recycling levels remain relatively modest. China currently has the highest recycling rate among the group, recycling about 38% of its waste. Brazil recycles roughly 29%, and India about 24%. Russia and South Africa recycle much smaller shares, at approximately 14% and 12% respectively.
To sustain economic growth while reducing waste and pressure on the environment, our research suggests that these countries must move fast to adopt circular economy practices.
Circular Economy in Practice
Brazil: Brazil has developed bioenergy and waste management practices that reuse agricultural residues and improve recycling systems in universities and municipalities. In cities such as Curitiba, residents can exchange recyclable waste for food or transport benefits, improving both recycling rates and social welfare.
Russia: Russia has focused largely on recycling industrial waste. For example, it has promoted the development of “eco-technoparks”. These house waste processing facilities next to factories so that industrial waste can be used to make new goods. This reduces the amount of waste going to landfills and improves efficiency.
India: India has experimented with “urban mining”. This is where valuable materials are recovered from electronic waste and reintroduced into manufacturing. For example, India’s e-waste recycling system recovers metals such as gold and copper from discarded electronics.
China: China has some of the most ambitious circular economy policies among the original Brics countries. Several cities have introduced large-scale recycling programmes and mandatory waste-sorting systems where households must separate their waste into four categories, or pay a fine.
South Africa: South Africa has begun bringing circular economy ideas into green supply chains. This involves redesigning how products are sourced, produced, transported and disposed of so that materials are reused, waste is minimised, and environmental impacts are reduced. For example, using recycled materials and reducing packaging.
Sustainable manufacturing is another example. South Africa has introduced Extended Producer Responsibilityregulations. These require manufacturers to take responsibility for the waste generated by their products across their whole life cycles. This encourages companies to design goods that are easier to reuse or recycle.
Petco brings together producers to manage the extended producer responsibility schemes for packaging in South Africa. It supports collection, recycling, design, and markets to reduce waste and advance a circular economy.
South Africa could speed ahead if it adopted more practices of other Brics countries.
Opportunities for Innovation
Circular systems not only reduce waste and lower environmental impacts, they can also create new industries focused on recycling, repair services and re-manufacturing (restoring used products to an almost-new condition). These are badly needed in all the Brics countries and across the African continent.
Digital tools such as artificial intelligence, big data and smart waste-management systems can help. For example, smart bins fitted with sensors can alert collection trucks when they are full. Artificial intelligence systems can automatically separate plastics, metals and paper on conveyor belts in seconds.
Brics countries have large consumer markets. So any new innovations like these could also support the growth of new economic sectors centred on sustainability, and create new layers of jobs.
What Needs to Happen Next
Governments need clear strategies that promote recycling, encourage sustainable production and support resource efficiency.
A major barrier to circular economies in the countries we studied is poor coordination. Fragmented regulations across government levels and sectors, such as municipalities handling waste while national bodies set standards, make it unclear who is responsible for certain tasks.
Another problem is the lack of recycling facilities, waste processing systems and technologies that allow materials to be recovered and reused efficiently.
Businesses might also need incentives to participate in the circular economy as they tend to value short-term profits over sustainability.
Investment by governments and the private sector in green technologies and improved data systems for monitoring how waste and resources are flowing will also be important.
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1 Mind you, composting is great if you have a yard. My beef is about the input process to municipal recycling.
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This Massie ad deserves a look.
i get a 404 with that link
This is my first comment as a long time reader.
Just got back from a 3 week trip to China where i am deeply involved with industrial-scale Black Soldier Fly (BSF) Larvae production.
China has thousands of operations where organic waste is processed by nature’s recyclers – insects.
While dozens of companies have collectively raised Billions ($) in the west to essentially run ponzi schemes, many of which have collapsed spectacularly (notably Ynsect in France after raising €700million – good investigative journalism from Mediapart on that fiasco), the best know-how and viable BSF systems come out of China where I’ve seen first hand how organic waste from large cities, spent grain from rice wine production, manure from huge chicken laying farms etc.. get processed by (fed to) BSF larvae.
We’ve designed our own cost-effective, standardized system that bypasses the scaling bottlenecks experienced by the entire industry where big names (Buhler, Big Dutchman, others) built monstrously complicated and expensive systems that look flashy enough to raise crazy amounts of capital and scale huge facilites that end up never being operational (I know the inside happenings at a dozen of these), using grounded know-how and approaches from our Chinese friends.
Its been fascinating to see how the difference in a hyperfinancialized vs. production-oriented economy – incentives for real-world groundedness, cost-efficiency and viability when building out a new industry, versus grift after grift by making more money through founder valuations than through actual viable profitable production of real products.
The Insect industry has failed in the west due to these reasons (though I will have my say, soon!)
Regarding circular economy what’s beautiful about this space is the insect “Frass” (excrements/exoskeleton) left by the larvae after they consume their feedstock, is a fantastic soil enhancement similar to worm castings (but which we generated at much higher scale and price competitiveness), complete with beneficial microbes and other compounds that decrease reliance on external agrochemicals like synthetic pesticides and herbacides/pesticides, increase resiliance to extreme weather events, yield higher nutritional profiles for crops growing off soil that is not sterilized (fitting into Regenerative Agriculture practices and Food Sovereignty).
I could go on and on but those are my two cents! Thank you Nake Capitalism
as y’all all know, i have been an extreme recycler for a long, long time…such that everybody at the dump…as well as the one city gov…knows this about me. one of the many things im locally famous for,lol.
people throw away a whole lot of useful stuff.
from lumber and even windows, many things have found new life, out here at the hermit kingdom.
whole lotta gutters…and stuff that can easily transition into gutters… great piles of roofing tin and structural steel and t-posts…and on and on.
and my beloved telephone poles…which are really electrical poles… creototed pine trees.
built all manner of structures and fences and pergolas and such with all that.
napkin calculation says this has saved me likely 50,000 in material costs over 30 years, if i had been required to buy it.
i have never understood:
1. why folks throw away perfectly good stuff…or even sorta good stuff
and 2. why my practice isnt more widely adopted.
the landfill people all know me, and laugh when i get all excited about a find…but they more often than not help me load up whatever it is…big water tank, or whatever.
point is, our waste is ridiculous.
and we need to do better.
once my stuff is built, everybody says that my landfill chic construction methods are cool as hell, and should be replicated…but nobody ever does anything like it.
prolly 50% of the wilderness bar and environs is from the landfill.
if you count windows and interior walls, likely 30% of the house is from recycled materials…maybe more, i havent done an accounting.
rest of my structures are even more crazy…woodshed, chicken houses, goatbarn with loft.
little greenhouse attached to house(20×12), where i spend my winters, is almost 100% salvaged material…including the 100 year old kohler cast iron clawfoot, that we found in a dirt pile and used as a water trough for years, until i absconded with it.
big greenhouse is not,lol…and neither is the ‘cabin’ which is largely bought material.
notably, both of the latter remain unfinished, partially due to lack of new materials.(mostly due to laborlack, tho)
My guess is that China is influenced by Taiwan’s example, including the 4-in-1 system. Taiwan has one of the highest recycling rates it the world, at 60% in 2025 according to https://news.tvbs.com.tw/english/3197032
Aside from cultural links, Taiwanese invest in China, and run many of the factories there (see Foxconn/Hon Hai). A successful business in Taiwan often first looks to expand into China.