Success of the circular economy will not be measured by the number of initiatives launched, it will be measured by how many become viable, scalable and lasting, Circular Economy Malta CEO Jason Vella has said.
“We know where we want to go. The harder part is getting there.”
He said that the circular economy is no longer a new idea. “The principles are understood, the policies are in place and many of the technologies exist. So why is progress still so slow?”
He suspects it has less to do with technology than many assume, and listed a number of issues.
“Agricultural residues and food waste can become energy, fertilisers and useful products. The technology exists. What is often missing is the economic case, the infrastructure or the scale.” He also said that many promising circular projects across Europe remain isolated experiments. “The harder task is creating the conditions in which a solution that works can be repeated elsewhere.”
Regarding Digital Product Passports, he said they could change how we track products and recover their materials. “But their value will depend on reliable data, interoperability and whether businesses actually use them.”
The CEO added that circular solutions rarely sit within one organisation's remit. “Businesses, authorities, researchers and investors each hold part of the answer. Without coordination, good initiatives stall.”
He also mentioned language issues. “Circular economy vocabulary can be unnecessarily technical. If citizens and businesses are to take part, the concept has to connect with everyday realities and tangible benefits.”
The common thread is that this is not only an environmental or technological challenge. It is an economic, organisational and behavioural one, he explains. “That matters for a small economy like Malta. Limited scale can be an obstacle. But proximity between stakeholders can also be an advantage, because the people who need to coordinate can often be in the same room.”
“Perhaps we should spend less time asking what more we can do, and more time asking what is stopping what we already know from working.”
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