Stacks of missed opportunity—until circular thinking flips the model. Unsplash

For much of the industrial era, the global economy has operated on a deceptively simple model: extract resources, produce goods and dispose of the rest. This linear system, known as “take-make-waste,” thrived under the illusion that resources were abundant, cheap and endlessly available. That era is over. The numbers are striking: global annual material consumption surpassed 100 billion tons in 2023, yet only 7.2 percent of that is cycled back into the economy. Municipal solid waste is projected to nearly double to 3.8 billion tons by 2050. This inefficiency isn’t just an environmental crisis; it’s a market failure. But within that failure lies a historic opportunity. Circular business models, which design out waste and keep materials in use, are emerging as the next great engine of value creation.

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Volatility in commodity markets is making it harder to rely on linear supply chains. Lithium prices, for example, rose by more than 1,000 percent between 2020 and late 2022, before dropping 86 percent as oversupply hit the market. That level of price fluctuation creates serious challenges for companies dependent on raw materials. It’s prompting a strategic rethink: increasingly, businesses are turning to circular solutions like integrating battery recycling directly into manufacturing operations. What was once viewed........

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