Blog: Tips on how to accelerate circular economy
Do you know how to design a circular economy plant? Planning to acquire one? Save money by avoiding the pitfalls.
There are plans of starting a circular economy plant in your town. That is a great initiative: it will promote recycling, create new business in the area, even jobs.
It will help in recycling materials, efficient use of waste and side streams, and help the environment.
The circular economy has a lot of potential, but there are also security risks associated to the plants. These must be taken into account in all the stages of the plant lifecycle. The risks should be considered as early on as in the plant acquisition planning phase.
What kind of risks are there? Could a plant explode? Learn about the typical risks on the Tukes home page.
As a customer, you should take into account that with brand new technology, there are higher risks associated with the plant. There are differences between the competence of plant suppliers. You should have a risk management assessment carried out by a third party.
Designer, use your competence
Circular economy will mean the introduction of brand new plant concepts. Identify the risks associated with the process of designing a plant.
The circular economy plants are often typical examples of the process industry, but there are also unique risks associated with them: unidentified substances in the material stream, being exposed to harmful substances, fire hazards or lack of safety measures.
Minimising safety risks is much cheaper in the design phase than when the construction work is near to completion or with a plant in operation.
There are expertise and measures available for risk prediction, and it is a good idea to utilise these in the design process.
If you are new to the sector, you have to find out the risks associated with the process. Find out about the available resources: help is available.
This will help the safe accomplishment of the good goals of circular economy.
More information:
Checklist for designing plants (in Finnish)
Manage the safety risks associated with circular economy (in Finnish)
Kirsi Levä
Director of Development
@Kirsi200
