Circular Economy

The circular economy is an economic system that generates value by reusing, repairing, sharing, lending, and promoting all activities that give goods and resources a new life or extend the useful life of an item. A linear economy makes waste. Items are produced, sold, used, and thrown away. Building a circular economy means rediscovering a culture of reclaiming products and materials, following the model of many cultures - notably indigenous ones - that prize conservation and creative reuse of material resources. 

In our current single-use economies we throw away a ​lot. This begs the questions, "Where does all our trash go? Who bears the burden of all this trash?" In the case of Ann Arbor, w​hose population is predominantly white, the city outsources 67% of its waste to landfills in Wayne County, which is home to the 6th largest Black population in the US (about 39% of the county's population). While Ann Arbor's median household income in 2019 was $66,000 per year, the median household income in Wayne County that same year was $47,000 per year.

• ​The Parks Department ​mulches grass clippings and leaves on-site, shares equipment between golf courses, and ​​paves cart paths with street grindings (the top layer of asphalt removed from a road being resurfaced)​​.
• The city maintains a storage area for surplus supplies to be shared by all city departments.
• The city has implemented city-wide curbside recycling, established a local Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)​ to handle this recycling, and opened ​a local drop-off station for recyclable materials not accepted at the curb.​​​​​​
• ​The city has implemented city-wide residential composting.
• The Public Works​ Department is working on a circular economy strategy, with help from Nextcycle's Intergovernmental Initiative and Public-Private Partnership (I2P3) track, ​​two Circular Economy Interns, and a team of ​UM SEAS master's students.​​
• The Department of Public Works and Office of Sustainability and Innovations worked with
  Ann Arbor Resident Advisors and community partners to create the A²​ZERO​ Circular Economy Community Engagement Strategy (PDF).

When was the last time you donated clothing to a thrift store or had something repaired instead of buying a replacement? Have you bought something from a reuse store or a garage sale? Do you mend your clothes when they show signs of wear? Do you get your appliances repaired when they break? When was the last time you borrowed something from a friend instead of buying it yourself? Have you sold something you were done with instead of throwing it away? All of these actions - and more - help to make up ​our circular economy!