What Is the Circular Economy and How It Works

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 28 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   Qualified seven statistics that were stated as established facts but are estimates, vendor-reported figures, or hard to verify: the '90% of materials become waste within six months' figure (recast as a widely cited but imprecise estimate); Philips 'light as a service' 50-75% energy savings (company-reported for specific projects, not an independently verified general result); remanufacturing '80-85% less energy' (varies widely by product); the car-sharing '9 to 13 vehicles replaced' figure (corrected the attribution to Rocky Mountain Institute and framed as an estimate that varies with local conditions); 'Apple uses ~15% of world rare-earth supply' (single-company world-supply shares are hard to verify and were qualified); the Nielsen '73% of global consumers' figure (framed as a survey self-report, roughly 70%, not a precise dated result); and the trillion fossil-fuel-subsidy figure (attributed to the IMF and flagged as heavily dependent on how implicit subsidies are valued).

   What the page claimed

   The article presented a 90%/six-month waste figure, Philips 50-75% and remanufacturing 80-85% energy figures, a 'Mountain Institute' 9-13 car-sharing figure, a 15%-of-world-rare-earth Apple figure, a Nielsen 2023 73% figure, and a trillion subsidy figure as established facts.

   What was corrected

   Reframed each as an estimate, vendor figure, or survey self-report, corrected the car-sharing attribution to Rocky Mountain Institute and the subsidy figure to the IMF, and added the appropriate uncertainty caveats.

   Why: The figures come from advocacy, vendor, or survey sources and were stated with more certainty and precision than they support. Corrections qualify them and fix attributions rather than removing the underlying points.

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2. 12 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   Choisy-le-Roi remanufactures on the order of tens of thousands of units annually, not ~17/day.

   Before

   processes around 17 starter motors, gearboxes, and other components per day

   After

   processes tens of thousands of starter motors, gearboxes, and other components per year

   Why: Renault's Choisy-le-Roi remanufacturing plant operates at industrial scale, processing on the order of tens of thousands of units annually, not roughly 17 per day.

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