In a circular economy, things are made and consumed in a way that minimizes our use of the world’s resources, cuts waste and reduces carbon emissions. Products are kept in use for as long as possible, through repairing, recycling and redesign – so they can be used again and again.At the end of a product’s life, the materials used to make it are kept in the economy and reused wherever possible.

What is the circular economy?

The circular economy is an alternative to traditional linear economies, where we take resources, make things, consume them and throw them away. This way of living uses up finite raw materials and produces vast quantities of waste.For example, the European Union produces more than 2.5 billion tonnes of waste a year.

Why is the circular economy important?

Consumers, businesses, and politicians all need to make changes.<ul><li>Ideas to create less emissions include adopting a plant-based diet and buying food locally, as well as flying less often and sharing vehicles.</li><li>Homes, offices, and other buildings can be designed to have multiple uses. For example, an office space that is also a community centre and night school.</li><li>It should also be easy and affordable to repair products, such as a mobile phone with an old battery.</li></ul>

What changes could make the world more ‘circular’?

Recycling involves converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This process itself uses energy and creates emissions, so can still contribute to global warming.In an ideal circular economy, products are redesigned so they last through several life cycles – rather than being immediately recycled. This can include refurbishing and redistributing products.

Is recycling part of the circular economy?

What it means to live a sustainable lifestyle

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Fashion & Beauty

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Science & Nature

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Travel

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Personal Development

How to Live Sustainably

The circular economy cuts waste, lowers CO2 emissions and uses less of the world’s finite resources, say experts. Here’s how

What is the circular economy and why does it matter?

When an excessive number of tourists visit a popular destination or attraction, it causes damage to the local environment and historical sites and creates a poorer quality of life for residents. Sustainable tourism is a framework for engaging travellers and the travel industry in supporting goals that include protecting the environment, addressing climate change, minimizing plastic consumption, and expanding economic development in communities that are affected by tourism.

Overtourism

A National Geographic survey in the U.S. found that while 42 percent of U.S. travellers would be willing to prioritise sustainable travel in the future, only 15 percent of these travellers are familiar with what sustainable travel actually means. Fifty percent of consumers familiar with sustainable travel are between 18 and 34 years old.

National Geographic survey results

The travel industry is dependent on the health of local communities, environments, and cultures. To achieve sustainable tourism, we need to invest in the resiliency of places affected by overtourism. Storytelling can help by highlighting problems brought on by tourism and providing resources, practical tips, and destination advice for travellers who want to explore the world while leaving behind a lighter footprint.

Building better practices

Most people want to support sustainable tourism, even though the concept remains fuzzy.

What does sustainable travel mean?

In our current economy, we use a linear process where we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste. In a circular economy, we stop producing waste by transitioning to renewable energy and materials. The resilient system is good for business, people and the environment.

Circular economy

The circular economy is a systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design:<ol><li>Eliminate waste and pollution</li><li>Circulate products and materials at their highest value</li><li>Regenerate nature</li></ol>

Three principles of a circular economy

Definition and principles of a circular economy. Find out why it's much more than recycling, how companies are making circular economy products and dig deeper with diagrams, circular economy examples and videos.

What is a circular economy?

The shorter the distance from home you travel, the lower your carbon footprint. <ul><li>Find local adventures, such as walking in unexplored areas of your neighbourhood or visiting museums in your city. Consider driving a few hours to a beach or forest.</li><li>Places with the lightest footprint include Slovenia's cities and towns and Spain's locations.</li><li>More popular tourist destinations. Consider going outside peak months. Stay longer, choose accredited accommodation, and find local activities that give back to residents.</li><li>Visit places that need volunteering and support.</li></ul>

Where to go

<ul><li>Use an eco-friendly booking site for accommodation. Sites should calculate your carbon footprint per night and include eco-friendly ratings.</li><li>Consider using a sustainable travel agent that organises trips and activities for you that consider environmental and social impact. </li><li>Look for a verification system to determine if a business is simply greenwashing.</li><li>Seek out local experiences. </li></ul>

Once you've chosen your destination

If you want to see the world, but also make your trips more sustainable, here are some tips: where to go, what to pack and how you to get there. 

Be a More Sustainable Traveler - Travel Guides

Curiosity drives most of us to learn something new. However, turning the desire for knowledge into new capabilities requires a plan that consists of small, clear goals. The most effective strategy for reaching learning goals consists of three main elements. ﻿The 3 x 3 x 3 approach<ol><li>Three clear and immediate goals.</li><li>Three months in which to meet those goals.</li><li>Three other people who are able to support and monitor your progress on goals and hold you accountable.</li></ol>

Learning something new

When setting development goals, focus on only three goals at any time. More may be counterproductive and divide your focus and energy. On the other hand, too few may cause you to miss opportunities to broaden your impact and increase performance. For example, a mid-career professional might want to work on being a better coach for employees, broaden her network of contacts in the industry, and improve her enterprise-wide focus in leadership meetings.

Three goals: The Goldilocks zone.

Setting a limited time helps you understand the importance of building a plan and process to achieve the goal you've set. The ideal time may vary depending on the goal. However, three months is often effective for achieving development goals. <ol><li>Three months is enough "runway" time to make clear progress. The period forces us to be specific in our goals.</li><li>Three months aligns with many natural rhythms, such as quarterly reporting or updates.</li><li>Three months forces us to break down longer-term goals into achievable parts.</li></ol>

Three months

We naturally prefer to keep our goals to ourselves. It prevents embarrassment if we don't achieve those goals. However, involving others in our learning is the most powerful way to reach our goals. For example, people find it easier to lose weight or exercise regularly when they're part of a support network instead of trying on their own. There is no limit to how many people you can enlist to support you. However, try to include at least three people. It creates a healthy discipline in understanding what kind of support you need.

Three people to help with your development goals

The 3x3x3 approach is an effective strategy to continually learn, grow, and achieve development goals.

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Philosophy

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Learning & Education

Intentional learning in practice: A 3x3x3 approach

Recent decades are known for its fast fashion that adds to our overcrowded closets and landfills.
<ul>
<li>Americans discard 85 percent of the clothing they buy - about 15 million tons of textile waste a year.</li>
<li>The average lifetime of clothes is three years.</li>
<li>The clothing industry cause about 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.</li>
</ul>
One eco-conscious solution is to buy thrifted items and upcycle them.

Upcycling as a solution to fast fashion

Type "upcycled clothing" in a search bar, and you'll have thousands of examples, such as skirts made from recycled jeans or lace tablecloths and flannel shirts that become boho dresses. YouTube videos give step-by-step hacks for any type of clothing. Costume designers are experts at turning unwanted items into desiring ones.

Upcycling on the rise

<ul><li>Doilies can be used as appliqués or turned into lace cuffs.</li><li>Outdated men's coats and tweed blazers can be turned into vests and newsboy's caps or cut into flower shapes, which can be used to decorate a plain coat or sweater.</li><li>Men's cotton shirts can be cut up for various purposes. 100 percent cotton shirts can become quilt projects, or shirt collars or sleeves can be replaced with a different style.</li><li>Even limited sewing skills can go a long way. Replacing standard buttons can make a dull jacket special.</li></ul>

Upcycling examples

Environmentally aware brands are finding ways to buy back, repair, recycle and rework the clothing. These companies are hoping to inspire other brands to refresh and replenish old garments. Together with customers, clothing companies want to take up responsibility for the life of their garments.

Large clothing producers embracing upcycling

This new trend in the fashion industry reduces waste and remakes your old clothes into new gems.

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Marketing & Sales

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Money & Investments

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Society, Arts & Culture

Everything You Need to Know About Upcycling

Friend Swiping, or using or managing your friends’ dating profile for prospects, is a fun activity for many young people around the world, hooked in the foggy world of online dating. 
Swiping for friends has an appeal that exceeds the fun of managing one’s own profile.

Friend Swiping

Many young, single people are curious about dating apps but don’t want to display their own moniker to others, afraid of appearing desperate and uncool.
They quell their Dating App FOMO (fear of missing out) and general fascination about online match-making by grabbing their friend's phone and checking out profiles, curious to know more about the kind of people who are attracted to each other.

Dating App Curiosity

Many apps like Tinder are designed and positioned as a game, while not being called so. People who are out of the game seem to quench their thirst about it by looking at how others play it and playing it for them too.
Many dating app users have ‘dating app fatigue’ or ‘swiping fatigue’ and are more than happy to hand the reins over to their trusted friends, who enjoy the proxy match-making.

Dating Apps Are Games In Disguise

Mashable is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company.

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Love & Relationships

Swiping For Friends: Why Managing Others' Dating Apps Is So Damn Fun!

Breakups are hard as it is, but it gets more complicated when we are trying to move on from someone that wasn’t even our romantic partner.
An unrealized relationship is when we put someone on a pedestal, assuming that ours would be a great match. When nothing materializes and life takes a turn, it can be just as heartbreaking as a real romantic relationship and one can feel grief, sadness, rejection and disappointment.

Breaking Up With Someone You Never Dated

One can fall for a friend who is dating someone else and does not share the same feelings. Office infatuation is common, often with people who are unavailable or unapproachable.
<ul>
<li>The first step to heal breakups of pseudo-relationships (or even imaginary ones) is to acknowledge that feeling.</li>
<li>The next step is to stop fantasizing about the other person, getting out of the dream world.</li>
</ul>

The People That We Love

Even if the pain wasn’t logical, it is still pain. The need of the hour is to talk to your support group and cry if the need arises. If you need to go out, have some fun, grieve, sulk and simply express what you feeling, letting your heart out.
If talking isn’t your thing, you can put your feelings and thoughts in a journal, which is a great healing tool. If the person you have fallen for is your friend, you might want to move away from a friendship or take a break to allow your healing.

Breaking Up With Someone You Never Dated: Only The Pain Is Real

Time can heal these feelings of imaginary love or infatuation, which is often unrequited. Such feelings are an indication of our own emptiness, as we try to fill the vacuum by allowing such emotions to take shape.
Professional counselling can help find the root cause of this loneliness that is causing such feelings, especially if it happens often.

Your Own Inner Emptiness

<ol>
<li>Staying busy with your work, or redirecting your energies to a goal that you always wanted to accomplish.</li>
<li>Connecting with friends and loved ones, letting your mind off the constant feeling of rejection or pain.</li>
</ol>

Ways To Fill An Empty Heart

We are all entitled to our feelings. It's possible to feel sadness when you're trying to get over someone you never dated. Read on to gain more insights into this and learn how getting over someone you never dated is just as painful as a breakup.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Health

The Paradox Of Getting Over Someone You Never Dated

And we tend to interpret the pain incorrectly - we connect rejection to our self-worth, which makes us feel worse.
Rejection can benefit you. It can build resilience and help you grow and use the lessons you learn to future setbacks.

Rejection hurts

People often look to external forces to feel validated instead of internal ones. When rejection comes to your dream opportunity, try to remember that your career path is not a straight line. Not every experience will move you forward.
Rejection does not end your goal. Think of rejection as growth. It could guide you to a new path that will eventually lead you to better places, even if it sometimes takes a bit longer to get there.

Rejection and career setbacks

It's very easy to idealize the other person and the relationship while experiencing rejection. Sometimes, a breakup can make you feel inadequate and unworthy. 
List all the traits you didn't appreciate about your partner to help you become aware of how you were incompatible and pinpoint the characteristics you want in the next relationship. When looking for other potential partners, try to ask questions about the values that are vital to you.

Rejection when going through a breakup

Friendship breakups can hurt more than romantic ones. It is necessary to realise that friends come and go. You can use it as an opportunity to ask yourself if this is the type of person you want to be friends with.
After some time has passed and you find yourself missing that friendship, reach out to see if the person wants to get together. Allowing some time to pass can help people approach a friendship with a new perspective.

Rejection when a friendship ended

Family members rejecting each other can be particularly painful. If a family member has rejected you, turn to online forums to connect or reach out to friends to find support from others in a similar situation. See how others effectively handled the situation.
We often assume there's nothing we can do about it, but when you educate yourself, you begin to understand why you feel the way you do.

When a family member cuts you out

Sometimes we think we're being rejected when that is not true. Not getting a lot of likes on a post or seeing your friends having fun without you can make you feel inadequate.
But you can use social media in a positive way.
<ul>
<li>Use social media for conversations. Send direct messages to friends or comment on friends' posts.</li>
<li>Follow people and connect to people in real life that make you feel like you belong.</li>
<li>Most importantly, remind yourself of all the positive people in your life that you are grateful for.</li>
</ul>

Social media and self-esteem

Here's how to deal with rejection whether it relates to love, friends or a job.

The Secrets to Dealing With Rejection, According to Experts

The history of Valentine's Day can be traced back to ancient Rome.
From 13 to 15 February, ancient Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. Roman men sacrificed goats before using their skins to whip women, believing this would make them fertile.

Valentine's Day Is Not a Modern Idea

At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I declared 14 February to be Valentine's Day. He attempted to reclaim the festival of the Romans and Christianise it.
It is not certain which St Valentine this day was initially dedicated to. Both saints were martyred in Rome: Valentine of Terni around AD 197 and Valentine of Rome around AD 496.

Valentine's Day Becomes Christianized

In 1382, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his poem Parlement of Foules. The poem contains the first recorded instance of St Valentine's Day being linked to romantic love.
"For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery foul comyth there to chese his make."
Some argue that Chaucer was talking of May time when birds are more likely to mate in England. This coincides with the feast of St Valentine of Genoa that falls in May.

Valentine's Day Linked to Love

<ul>
<li>In the 15th century, 14 February became an annual feast day in France. Banquets with singing and dancing were held to celebrate romantic love.</li>
<li>During this time, a Frenchman, imprisoned in the Tower of London, wrote the earliest surviving Valentine's greeting to his wife. "I am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine."</li>
<li>By the 17th century, Shakespeare mentions Valentine's Day in Hamlet. "To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine."</li>
<li>In the 18th century, the most famous Valentine's poem was found in a collection of nursery rhymes. "The rose is red, the violet's blue, The honey's sweet, and so are you."</li>
</ul>

The First Valentine's Greetings

The first Valentine's day cards were sent in the 18th century.
Initially, it was handmade cards. Lovers would decorate paper with romantic symbols like flowers and love knots. It often included puzzles and lines of poetry. These cards were then slipped secretly under a door, or tied to a door-knocker. Pre-printed cards initially appeared in Georgian Britain, although they only became popular later on.

The First Valentine’s Cards

In the early 19th-century, the industrialisation of Britain brought with it advances in printing and manufacturing technologies. Mass-produced Valentine's cards became very popular.
A collection of over 1,700 cards is still held at the Museum of London. Cards feature elaborate paper lacework, embossing, and other intricate designs. Typical imagery includes flowers, love knots, and cupid. Hearts were sometimes used, but the Victorian cards did not feature red hearts like they do today.

Victorian Valentines

The less loved-up bought 'Vinegar Valentines' to use as an insult. These cards typically poke fun at a man's profession or a woman's appearance.
One example is a card that features a cartoon of a woman with a large nose. It reads:
"On account of your talk of others’ affairs At most dances you sit warming the chairs. Because of the care with which you attend To all others’ business you haven’t a friend."

Not All Victorian Valentine's Cards Were Romantic

In the mid-19th century, Valentine's cards gained popularity in America, where they were first advertised as a British fashion.
In 1913, Hallmark Cards produced their own Valentin's card, representing a key development in Valentine's Day's commercialisation. Today Valentine's Day also includes buying flowers, jewellery, perfume, and chocolates.

The Commercialization of Valentine’s Day

A history of Valentine's Day celebrations – from fertility festivals to the first cards.

Behind the commercialisation of Valentine's Day lies a fascinating history that can be traced back to ancient Rome

What is the circular economy and why does it matter?

What does sustainable travel mean?

What is a circular economy?

Be a More Sustainable Traveler - Travel Guides

Intentional learning in practice: A 3x3x3 approach

Carlos B.