marine ecosystem, environmental damage, natural resources, anthropogenic input, recycle manner, fertilization, rapid urbanisation, wastes and chemical toxic pollutants

CE, circular economy; CC, carrying capacity; CPS, cyber-physical systems; IoT, internet of things; ICT, information and communications technology; EA, enterprise architecture; EI, enterprise integration

Sustainable ecosystem management

According to Elliot¹ the 10 tenets of sustainable marine management are shown in Table 1. One of them is economically viable.¹ This tenet is equitable to Circular Economy (CE) which also presents 10 principles in its application. It is necessary to have substantial and enough funding to preserve and improve our sustainable natural resources from the marine ecosystem. Without such funding, the prevention of environmental damage and its ecosystem recovery is almost becoming a big challenge or impossible. We need to plan to manage our marine ecosystem sustainably before it is too late. This economically viable principle is related to CE in the aspect of the economic Carrying Capacity (CC). The economic CC is well related to ecological CC based on the ecosystem concept. Once the CC is exceeded in both economics and ecosystem, stress would be triggered at the early stage and this is the time when good ecosystem management needs to be fully implemented before it is too late.² It has become our goal to ensure that the marine system will continue to deliver our economic needs in future. The economic aspects should encompass the price to be paid for monitoring the cause and effect of anthropogenic input into our marine ecosystem.³

In eutrophicated marine ecosystems, the economic considerations include the cost of preserving, improving and restoring the polluted ecosystem due to industrial discharges and anthropogenic factors. Reduction of fertilization on the crop could reduce crop production. The benefit is that this can prevent catchment run-off. In summary, it is needed to consider both economic costs and benefits when the application of the preventive measure is implemented.⁴

Circular economy

According to Acciona⁵ there are ten principles that define how CE should work (Table 1). It is basically built on three major principles including a) Designing out waste and pollution, b) Keeping products and materials in use, and c) Regenerating natural systems. The industrial processes that reduce waste generation besides recycling and reusing natural resources efficiently and in a recycle manner, have been the basis of CE. The approach of CE to resource efficiency is simply an integration of cleaner production and zero-waste technology. This involves manufacturing industrial companies to support resource optimisation⁶ with a goal of waste reduction or even zero waste reduction. It moves and strengthens the transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources, with a mission to create wealth using CE integrating capitals of environment, social and economics.¹

Industry 4.0

According to the Industrial Internet Consortium,⁷ Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is defined as “the integration of complex physical machinery and devices with networked sensors and software, used to predict, control and plan for better business and societal outcomes”. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Enterprise Architecture (EA), and Enterprise Integration (EI), are components which are relevant to I4.0.⁸ The I4.0 can simply continue using the components of automation and machinery from the Third Industrial Revolution and improve in further through smart systems. This smart system works efficiently by using big data and CPS, ending with high productivity and low wastage.⁹ This is the principle of CE that is connected to I4.0, as it is expected to be affected in ASEAN countries,¹⁰ and has impacted on the business strategy of the value chain Hungary.¹¹

According to Hermann et al.,⁹ the four design principles in I4.0 (interconnection, information transparency, technical assistance and decentralized decisions) (Table 1) are comparable to the principles of sustainable marine management¹ and CE.⁵ Basically, the I4.0 focuses on environmentally sustainable manufacturing such as green products and recyclable products, which is comparable to the principles of CE (Table 1).

The connection between Circular Economy and Industry 4.0

According to the most recent review by Dev et al.,¹² the relationships between CE and I4.0 were addressed by the case-based model. This model could affect the outputs of the economy. They stated the need to stay focused on the overall costs of the socially prompted operations. Fedotova et al.¹³ suggested that the elementary ways of public regulation of the informatization processes in Russian society have provided a space to amend some target indicators to full digitalization transformation in the future of all sectors of the Russian economy, operating based on the philosophy of I4.0. Rajput and Singh¹⁴ pinpointed CE, and others (such as Service and Policy Framework) were the sizable enablers of connecting CE and I4.0.

The close relationship between CE and I4.0 should be able to create awareness amongst the public consumers, policymakers and company executives.¹⁵ According to UNEP (2017), the use of these materials almost tripled from 1970 (26.7 billion tonnes) to 2017 (84.7 billion tonnes). Demands for non-renewable resources and energy (minerals, ores, biomass, and fuels) continue to expand in line with the momentum of rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and enhanced economic growth in developing countries. The consumed resources and energy could end up as wastes and chemical toxic pollutants. Consequently, this uncontrolled mismanagement of chemical wastes would negatively impact economic growth (MITI, 2018). The CE relating to circular ecosystem should go together with implementing I4.0, with a goal of zero waste production. In a CE system, material and nutrient losses can be reduced through landfills. The CE generates new opportunities and needs for business.^16,17

In conclusion, the closeness and similarity of principles between sustainable marine ecosystems and CE do bring a notion that CE is related to the sustainability of resources that would empower the creation of a good economy for a nation. It is no doubt the gross domestic products of a country are highly dependent on the CE which is linked to I4.0. We need an economy that can circulate like the cycling of nutrients in an ecosystem. We can get the recycled nutrients necessary to sustain the resource marine ecosystem, which is the economic capital needed for wealth creation in a country. Predictably, the governance, policy-makers and industrial executives are playing a decisive role in the future of CE in connection with I4.0 in sustaining the marine resourceful coastal ecosystem, especially in developing countries. However, the differences in such a connection between developed and developing countries merit further investigations in the future.

None.

The author declares there is no conflict of interest.

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