Below you see the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s “butterfly diagram”. The Diagram illustrates the concept behind a Circular Economy model, and highlights the continuous flow of biological and technical materials through the “value circle”. In this course we will focus on the right side of the Diagram, which shows the closing of the technical cycle.

You will see sections of the technical cycle of the butterfly diagram throughout the whole course, as we will refer to it in order to explain the Circular Economy concept. It will also be handy when discussing the possibilities for closing the technical materials loops through the reuse, repair, remanufacture or recycling of products.