Poderia a crise pandêmica por COVID-19 estimular práticas de economia circular? Uma breve reflexão / Could the COVID-19 pandemic crisis stimulate circular economy practices? A brief reflection

• Autor(a) principal: Corrêa, Harrison Lourenço
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Corrêa, Daniela Gallon
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Health Review
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.brazilianjournals.com.br/ojs/index.php/BJHR/article/view/9353
• topic: Circular economy; pandemic; polymers; do-it-yourself

The practice of more sustainable actions is essential for maintaining environmental quality in the long term. It is not by chance that governments, the private sector, and the organized civil society discuss aspects associated to the circular economy, which has as one of its pillars the ‘closed’ integration between natural resources and industrial waste in the productive cycle. Circular economy remains far from being a global reality, whether due to the existence of political barriers, or to the lack of interest on the part of private organizations in investing in new manufacturing models. However, crisis scenarios can accelerate innovations in the sector. The worldwide pandemic that started in January, 2020 due to the spread of a coronavirus can be one of those driving forces. Since the fast and worldwide transmissibility of this new type of virus was detected, stocks of PPEs have become scarce, triggering a race to produce hospital masks. Initiatives aimed at proposing alternative methods of manufacturing IPEs have also multiplied to meet the immediate demands of healthcare professionals. Only in the first quarter of the current year, numerous projects for manufacturing face shields and masks have emerged. The present work aims to evaluate, in a preliminary way and in a short period of time, whether the dynamics triggered by the worldwide pandemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome can accelerate circular economy practices that, in a normal situation, could perhaps not exist or take years to happen.