Governments like to throw the phrase “circular economy” around quite often these days, purely ironic considering all the policies they are enacting move us totally in the opposite direction. A circular economy is the antithesis of a growth economy, the two are incompatible notions.
What is a circular economy?
An actual circular sustainable economy is one in which everything produced and consumed can be reabsorbed and that requires no external inputs, it can fully provide for itself without needing any resources or supply from elsewhere. Does this sound anything like Toronto, or even remotely the direction Toronto is headed?
It is hard to imagine an actual circular economy because every nation has embraced the growth economy for so long. The closest would be what few hunter-gatherer tribes we have left, because all their inputs come from highly local sources, and their outputs are easily reabsorbed locally. But even then, if their population constantly grows, as opposed to ebbs and flows, it would not qualify as circular.
Highly localized
A circular economy by necessity is highly localized, so there is as little energy needed to produce and distribute goods. Relying on our goods, whether food or products, to come from thousands of kilometres away was never sustainable. Shoring up our local economy will not only benefit residents and employment, it will ensure we do not suffer the kind of supply chain issues we are seeing now.
Manufacturing
We cannot have a circular economy without a return of manufacturing to Toronto. Between “free” trade agreements, globalization and outsourcing, and urban intensification, Toronto has lost most of its previous manufacturing.
We need textile factories, canning and bottling plants, food processing, a vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturer, and many other factories that will make the products to sustain us. We still have industrial lands with space for such things; we must use them for our local economy before these lands are used to build more condos, putting us even further away from a sustainable economy.
External inputs
The material requirements to maintain technology, like the rails our transit runs on, the metals and minerals needed for our engines and batteries, and the paving of our streets, ensure a city of millions like Toronto can never likely become a truly circular economy. We will always need inputs from the outside world, but that does not mean we cannot aim for every need possible supplied from within Toronto.