Breaking Down the Circular Economy

In recent years, the concept of ‘the circular economy’ has gained traction as both businesses and consumers look for ways to further increase their sustainability, but whilst the term is being used increasingly often, many people do not really know what it means.

In its simplest terms, the circular economy means to maximise the lifecycle of products, components, and materials, whilst also drastically reducing the amount of single-use products and materials in our economy.

To break this down further, it means we must look beyond the traditional view of simply reusing and recycling products to extend their lifecycle and look for ways to make their lifecycles circular, whereby they can be returned to their original state and continually cycled back into the production process.

The key principles of the circular economy are:

• Designing out waste: Products should designed with their lifecycle in mind, where a particular focus is put on their longevity, durability, and recyclability.
• Extending the product lifecycle: Whether it is through repair, refurbishment or remanufacturing, new methods should constantly be sought to extend the lifecycle of existing products and materials.
• Recovering resources: Materials and components should be recovered from end-of-life products and re-introduced into the production process, closing the loop of the circular economy and reducing the demand for virgin, and often finite, resources.

Here at Oil Salvage, we collect waste oil from all over the UK and bring it back to our state-of-the-art vacuum distillation re-refinery. At our re-refinery, the waste oil is treated and processed back into a base oil which is sent on to manufacturers to complete the circular economy.

The process of using re-refined base oils in the manufacturing of new lubricating oils could potentially save up to 900 million barrels of crude oil per year, not only extending the lifecycle of oils already in our economy, but also saving natural resources as well.

Choose Oil Salvage to collect your waste oil and help give every drop a new lease of life!