Dame Ellen tells the world's rich businesspeople

Ex-sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur, has told businesspeople meeting in Davos that moving to a closed loop economy would save the world $700bn per year.

Dame Ellen, who became the youngest person and the fastest woman to sail solo around the world, is inspiring companies such as Marks & Spencer's, Unilever and DSM to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and commit to achieving a closed loop system for themselves.A laser engraving machine can be thought of as three main parts: a laser, a controller, and a surface.

A closed loop, or circular, economy is one where what is now regarded as waste becomes an input for another manufacturing process, and products and the manufacturing process are redesigned to facilitate re-use and re-manufacturing.

Speaking from Davos, she said: "I think the main difference between recycling and the circular economy is that if you take a washing machine today, it's not designed to be recycled and have its materials recovered at the end of its life."

The record-breaking sailor, who said it was a trip to the Atlantic island of South Georgia that made her acutely aware of the challenges facing the planet, says that products should be designed for disassembly, especially since the cost of resources is going through the roof, and three billion more consumers are entering the market and needs to be satisfied.

Her report, "Towards the circular economy", launched at Davos, Switzerland, this week,Our selection of solar garden light includes models and styles perfect for any taste and budget. where the world's top businessmen are meeting, contains product- and country-level analyses and examples in the food, beverages, textiles, and packaging sectors.This is how a skystream captures energy from the wind.

In household food waste alone, an income stream of $1.5bn could be generated per year from municipalities and investors by collecting household food waste in the UK separately and using it to generate biogas and return nutrients to the soils. This would give towns and cities a new source of revenue.

With textiles, a revenue of $1,975 per tonne of old clothing collected could be generated in the UK if it was sold at current prices.Our most compact solar charger yet fits easily in any bag.

And with beer bottles, a cost reduction of 20% in the price of beer would be possible in the UK by shifting from disposable to re-usable glass beer bottles, which would also lower the cost of packaging, processing and distribution.

Staying with beer,Perfect pendant lamp is critical to creating a modern home. an additional profit of up to 2 dollars per hectolitre of beer produced could be created in Brazil on top of the margin by selling the biggest waste products, the spent grains, to farmers in the fish farming or livestock sectors, or again, using it to generate biogas.

The report estimates the total material value of fast-moving consumer goods at $3.2tn. Currently just 20% of this material is recovered, largely through decomposition and recycling. This is not particularly efficient, as much value is lost. The report says that recovering this lost value represents a huge opportunity.

Plenty of case studies are available on the foundation's website.

The charity also supports schools and teachers in using the framework of a circular economy to present a real alternative for students to discuss and debate.