JULY - AUGUST 20258IN MY OPINIONBY JULIE OWST, HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, BIDFOOD UKPURSUING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN FOODSERVICE Closing the Loop: Building a Circular Future in Food and DrinkWe're often reminded that the food and drink industry is responsible for many negative environmental impacts: plastic packaging, carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation, food waste and soil degradation being the most often quoted. The nature of our consumption patterns mean that we're distanced from these impacts ­ most of us live in cities in the global north, several layers removed from the land and growers of much of what we eat and most of us don't have to think about the lifecycle of waste beyond the nearest bin. We live in a convenience-driven culture and none of us want to reduce our living standards, but it means that the environmental trajectory we're currently on isn't a positive one, so it's clear that systemic change is needed at scale. A transition to a more circular economy is often hailed as one way in which to ideally achieve the holy grail of decoupling economic growth from consumption and addressing so many of those negative impacts listed above, so in this article, we examine what a circular economy might look like within this sector and some of the key barriers and enablers to achieving change. First of all, what does a circular economy mean?It's arguably best understood by contrasting it with its opposite type ­ a linear economy. In our current (linear) system, we extract raw materials, we process and consume them, then dispose of as waste. It's a linear process. In contrast, the circular economy is one where we use minimal inputs (reduce), we make resources last as long as possible (reuse, refurbish, repurpose, Julie has led Bidfood sustainability programme for 6 years and recently completed an MSc in sustainability at Cranfield University; her thesis and work-based project focused on driving circularity in foodservice. A natural communicator, she enjoys learning from others as well as sharing her own experience in trying to drive positive change for both people and planet. Julie Owst
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