Have you ever heard of the circular economy? It is a new way of thinking about our future and our relationship with the planet. The model emerged in 1989 with the aim of ensuring economic development with the conscious use of natural resources.

Until then, in the linear economy model, it was believed that economic growth and human well-being were linked to the increasing consumption of new natural resources. That is, these were extracted, processed, consumed and discarded.

In recent decades, a transition has been taking place between the two models. Mindful of environmental issues, Brandili has adopted practices and initiatives for the preservation of natural resources through reuse or recycling.

A practical example of the transformation from linear to circular economy was the change of destination of organic waste (vegetable remains, pasta, grains, breads, eggs and similar), generated during the preparation and consumption of food in the company's cafeteria.

Linear economics

Through a project carried out in 2021, the waste that used to be disposed of in the landfill through municipal waste collection, is now transformed into organic compost and fertilizer for the cultivation of vegetables that, in turn, return to the industrial kitchen and the employees' table.

The transformation of waste into organic compost is a practical example of a circular economy, where it was possible to improve the use of natural resources and recycle the nutrients that make up the organic matter.

Reducers of organic waste

Thus, it is possible to see that in the circular economy, the raw material reuse and transformation cycle is infinite, which allows for minimal waste generation. There is no need to extract new natural resources, as these can always be reinserted into the system.

Circular economy

In addition to reducing the volume of waste sent to landfill, which increases its useful life, another advantage of this initiative is the incentive to disuse the public waste collection system, with a reduction in the volume of waste collected and transported.

The decomposition of organic waste in landfills contributes to the generation of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. In the system adopted, carbon dioxide (another greenhouse gas) was previously removed from the atmosphere by the photosynthesis process of plants.

Vegetable production