Reclaiming Water in The Circular Economy

There is no doubt that the last two decades have seen an incredible leap in awareness of our industrial, agricultural and consumer impact on earth.  From the plastic island, to climate change to water scarcity in the Mediterranean, we have begun to rethink our earth’s impact on a global scale.  One area of great introspection has been The Circular Economy and our ability to rethink our use and reuse of some of the planets greatest resources.  In particular, The Circular Economy is challenging everyone from manufacturers to designers to think early in the process about a product’s end of life and how reuse and recycle materials into new items. This concept of the Circular Economy has had such an impact that the EU plans to spend $10 B in investments on innovation in this area.

The Circular Economy does a great job of looking at agricultural waste, our use of plastics, and the metals we pull from the ground, as a planet. Yet we are very slow to bring our greatest misused resource into view, a resource that is the common denominator in our efforts to save this planet. Our commercial and consumer use of water.

Water is vital to a global economy.  In manufacturing it is used in multiple steps in the manufacturing process, before it is then finally filtered and returned to our eco-system by one standard or another.  Water is critical to our agricultural system, but the byproducts in agricultural wastewater are changing waterways.  And water is critical to our daily lives. Although, it is not readily available in places like Sao Paulo, Brazil, Cape Town, South Africa and ¼ of Americans are consuming drinking water does not meet safety standards.

There are no easy solutions to the global water problem.  Manufacturing isn’t going away nor is the use of chemicals in agriculture.  And the more we grow, as the human race, the more water we need available to consume.

So how do we move forward? The answer: innovation and alternative thinking about water, the water industry, its use and reuse.

At Glanris, we believe it all starts with water. From your faucet to the factory, we are quickly running toward a future where the water we draw from this planet must be filtered, recycled back down to its purest, drinkable state and then reused. We are going to have to invest in new technologies for water desalinization, industrial wastewater treatment, and municipal water delivery.  We are going to have to grow a personal taste for consuming recycled water and at the same time set new standards for the water we consume.

Our focus as the company is bringing this new reality to the forefront of The Circular Economy conversations and realistically designing and building a sustainable future.  On this blog, we are going to explore new ideas and innovations, expose some of the new science behind Glanris and water filtration, cross industries to show the potential for change today, and introduce you to some of the leaders in these efforts to prevent water scarcity.  We hope you join us for the ride as we make our efforts to bring innovation to the water industry and to the planet.