Program on the Environment

Economic growth and environmental sustainability are often seen to be at ends with one another. However, the principles of sustainable development suggest that the environment and the economy can be lifted up together with the right care and effort. The intended purpose of this study was to ask how a tool sharing library can be used as an example of how circular economies can contribute to sustainable development. My internship was with Seattle REconomy where I worked at their NE Seattle and Shoreline Tool libraries and helped with budgeting for their planned REuse Commons sustainable mall. Through this internship and a thorough literature review, I looked at how circular economies work in practice and what broader structures prevent the model from being a larger piece of the economy. The key principle of a circular economy is improving natural resource efficiency by reusing and repairing rather than throwing away. This means that an item or product will cycle through the economy multiple times rather than just once and produce more economic value than it would in a purchase to landfill linear economy. While government funding is going into helping sustainable businesses to grow, public funding is limited and more private sector investment is required to make these businesses truly competitive. Businesses that support circular economies have the potential to uplift their local communities and environments, but a crucial disadvantage in funding compared to more short-term profitable ventures currently holds them back.