Circling Back: Permaculture and a Conscious Economy

Waste is a human invention. The earth, by contrast, does not know consumption without renewal and regeneration. The natural economy is and always has been circular. Consumerism today is a toxic system that relies on extraction and disposal. It’s a system that places us at ever greater odds with the innate order of things.

We hear a lot these days about the circular economy, which, for those unfamiliar, is essentially just as it sounds. Unlike the traditional linear economy, which follows a ‘take, make, dispose’ model, the circular economy is designed to regenerate by intention. It seeks to keep products, materials, and resources in use for as long as possible to extract maximum value during their lifecycle. Then, it tries to recover and regenerate as much as possible when those lifecycles end. It’s perhaps gained the most traction as a buzzword of the evolving slow fashion movement – hoping to challenge the absurdly wasteful norms of the global fashion industry. But there’s something I find bothering in how it's framed.

Too often, we hear the transition to the circular economy framed as the creation of something new when, really, we owe it to ourselves to understand it as a return to what always has been – to the systems that create and, most importantly, sustain us. In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, William McDonough says, “The transition to a circular economy is not just about recycling; it's about rethinking how we design, produce, and use everything, from clothing to entire systems.” This level of overhaul will require us to draw inspiration from the knowledge already engrained in the natural world. And this is where I feel it necessary to lean into the perhaps more controversial permaculture movement.

Bill Morison coined the term permaculture to describe a design approach for agricultural systems that aims to mirror the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. For me, this definition best captures the ethos of that attitude:

“The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.”

Working with the earth to create more sustainable, more resilient systems is the key to overhauling consumer culture and transforming it into a practice that exists in harmony with the natural world. What might this look like, you ask? Let’s start with just the basics.

Ecosystems maintain cycles of renewal at every level, from the smallest and most local to those global in scope, like the water cycle. Drawing from this, we understand how critical it is to build local resilience – to design independent, self-sufficient food systems on a local level. We must begin producing and consuming on a much smaller level and in doing so, break our reliance on global trade practices that are inherently fragile and unsustainable.

As I began by saying, the earth knows no waste, which means we need to support those working toward ending single-use practices altogether. Though we mainly refer to our collective dependence on single-use plastics here, the principle applies universally. Investing in more durable products with longer lifespans is a great start. Beyond that, we should look to zero-waste initiatives like upscaling, buybacks, and refill programs, supporting companies that are leading the charge toward a waste-free future.

Natural cycles and systems ultimately do not harm themselves. Instead, they nourish and regenerate themselves as a passive consequence of their design. Likewise, true sustainability depends on moving beyond harm reduction to create models that restore the environment. McDonough explains, “Businesses that embrace permaculture principles recognize that sustainability is not about doing less harm, but about creating more good—designing products and processes that contribute positively to the environment and society.”

Consumers have a critical task to play in returning the linear economy back to the circular model we need if we wish to sow the seeds of a sustainable future. Part of that task is to move away from understanding their role as one of consumption, which evokes the notion of waste and disposal, to one of participation, which helps to remind us that we are all in this together. Our actions and choices are part of a greater whole, and the harm caused by our behavior always eventually circles back to us.