Circular Economy Facts for Kids – 5 Cool Facts about the Circular Economy

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Updated on: Educator Review By: Michelle Connolly

One of the amazing ways to save the planet from climate change is circular economy. Let’s learn five cool circular economy facts for kids.

Circular Economy Facts for Kids Fact Number 1: The Circular Economy Can Help Save The Planet

The economy is how we spend and make money and it impacts all different parts of our lives. The current model of the economy is a linear one but if we change to a circular economy we could really help the planet. Our linear economy takes natural resources, makes them into things, uses them, then throws them away. The problem with this is that resources are limited and throwing things away can cause chemicals and gases to leak into the environment.

A circular economy is designed to reduce, reuse, and recycle in every part of the economy. This means creating less unnecessary things, reusing things as much as we can, and recycling things once they are no longer useful.

Circular Economy Facts for Kids

Circular Economy Facts for Kids Fact Number 2: The Circular Economy Changes How We Design New Products

When we make new things like phones, cars, TVs, and machines we use a lot of different materials. This can make these things hard to recycle as it takes a lot of time and effort to separate each material. In a circular economy we would think about how the item will be recycled while we build it so that we make it easier from the start.

Circular Economy Facts for Kids LearningMole
Engineers in cars factory

Circular Economy Facts for Kids Fact Number 3: You Can Rent The Clothes You Want in a Circular Economy

Clothing is a big cause of wasted materials and it takes a lot of resources to make new clothes. 80% of the clothes we buy end up being thrown out after a year because they are no longer trendy or we have too many. Making all these new clothes is the 2nd biggest cause of pollution in the whole world. So, if you need a new outfit for a special occasion maybe try renting it.

Lots of companies just let you rent clothes then send them back when you don’t need them so someone else can enjoy them. This is especially good for kids’ clothes because we grow out of them so fast!

You can also buy your clothes second hand which prevents them going to landfill and is usually cheaper too. So you can save money and the planet at the same time.

Circular Economy Facts for Kids
Woman holding different kinds of coats

Circular Economy Facts for Kids Fact Number 4: You Can Use Re-useable Cutlery Instead of Disposable Ones

Lots of disposable items are made from plastic, like forks, packages, and wrappings. These are all single use plastics which are terrible for the environment. These plastics are only used once and stay in the oceans or landfill for around 500 years. To tackle this we are developing new technology that lets us avoid plastic when making disposable things. Lots of companies use bamboo which grows much faster than trees and is biodegradable, bamboo is a great alternative for disposable or re-useable cutlery.

One company is even developing a type of plastic made from mushrooms for packaging that completely biodegrades.

Circular Economy Facts for Kids Fact Number 5: We Can Make our Food System Circular Too by Composting Food Waste

Food waste is very bad for the planet as it creates methane gas, methane is a greenhouse gas that increases the temperature of the atmosphere. It is a major cause of global warming. When we compost our food into fertilizing much less methane is made and the fertilizer is great for growing new crops. Instead of the nutrients in the food being lost they are given to the soil to grow even more food. A great example of a circular economy.

Circular Economy Facts for Kids

We hope you enjoyed learning more things about circular economy as much as we loved teaching you about it. Now that you know how important this circular economy is to our planet Earth, you can move on to learn more about our environment like: Environmental Sustainability, Fast Fashion and Rewilding.

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