Circular Economy

Minimize environmental and social harms in resource extraction

Photo by Shane McLendon via Unsplash

More effective monitoring, regulations and laws are needed to minimize environmental and social harms in resource extraction, to tackle issues including deforestation, water pollution, overfishing, ecosystem disruption, worker injuries, child labor and other human rights violations.

Resource extraction includes a range of activities, such as mining, drilling, quarrying, harvesting, fishing and logging. Unsustainable resource extraction can cause environmental damages such as water pollution, soil contamination, erosion and disruption of local ecosystems, as well as social damages such as worker injuries and health damage, human rights violations, use of child labor and persecution of local communities and Indigenous people. Global impacts of resource extraction and processing account for up to 40% of airborne particulate matter, causing health impacts. Resource extraction and processing impacts also account for more than 90% of water stress and land-use-related biodiversity loss.

Factors promoting harmful extractive practices include exploitative business conduct, lack of or poor implementation of proper regulations, government corruption benefiting some companies and elites only, misappropriation of public funds and illicit financial flows. These harms can be avoided with fair and effective regulation and due diligence to workers and local communities. However, poor resource governance, modern globalized supply chains and distant relationships between users and extractors of resources make these issues invisible to consumers and retailers.

Although there have been some efforts by the international community as well as national and local stakeholders, environmental and social harms in resource extraction remain a notable problem, and people continue to use more of Earth’s resources than can be regenerated.

To tackle these issues, more effective efforts should be taken to monitor these harms continuously; implement fair and effective regulations; help producers, retailers and consumers understand which products are sustainable and ethical; and take initiative to better leverage the buying power of governments. In these actions, not only extraction enterprises, but also producers, retailers and consumers using resources, are responsible and play important roles in selecting and sourcing proper resources.

Shifting to a Circular Economy

Watch a recording of this insightful discussion on how the world can transition from a “take-make-waste” economy to a circular economy – and in the process tackle climate change, protect biodiversity and promote equity.

Tracking progress on global outcomes

Key enablers and barriers to change

Data challenges

There are two large data-related challenges pertaining to this shift. One is a lack of widely accepted criteria at the global level to determine what constitutes environmental and social harms in the context of resource extraction and harvesting. Setting such criteria requires identifying what harms are significant and relevant to a wide range of activities of resource extraction, as well as determining and often quantifying the level of resource governance so as to avoid the harms of concern practically. An International Resource Panel report, “Mineral Resource Governance in the 21st Century,” and a scientific paper reviewing 25 sustainability certification programs were a good starting point for us to select indicators in this shift. Still, what exactly qualifies as sustainable and responsible manners of resource extraction remains a topic for further research.

The other challenge is to obtain the data that links environmental and social harms with resource-related activities. These harms usually occur far away from producers, retailers and consumers. Moreover, it is difficult to track such linkages on a country-by-country basis because these are linked along supply chains. Concerted actions to overcome this challenge are necessary.

Actions to measure the state and performance of resource governance are also important, requiring budget and effort as well as collaboration with the resource extraction sector.

Other shift Other shifts needed to transform the system

Decrease overconsumption

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Global material consumption has more than tripled since 1970, causing increasing environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of materials and products. Decreasing overconsumption, especially in high consuming societies, is critical to ensure that human activities fit within the global capacity of our natural resources.

Use recycled, reused and renewable materials and components

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To keep materials in circulation for as long as possible, it’s just as important to design and produce new products with circular materials as it is to recover parts, recycle or regenerate materials. Closing this material loop is a necessary step toward enabling a circular economy.

Make production more resource efficient

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Current production systems are still using resources inefficiently and generating losses of resources in production processes. Global material productivity needs to be improved far faster than the current trend.

Use products longer

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The lifetime of products can be extended by a combination of durable product design, support services, and consumers' behavioral changes.

Increase the quantity and value of resources recovered at end of use

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End-of-use products, materials or components need to be sorted, collected and processed to obtain as high a material value as possible, and products should be designed to be easily dismantled for reusable components or recycled.