Moving Toward a Circular Economy
to Solve Water Scarcity

Circular economy is an important concept across many industries, highlighting the need to create sustainable processes where materials and resources are recycled instead of being wasted. WFI Group Cofounder Marc Perlman sat with Cofounder and CEO Ofer Avidan to discuss this important topic that is seeing increased attention with the recent release of a position paper from the World Economic Forum.

As the most important resource worldwide for both individuals and industry, water is a central focus in developing a truly sustainable future. The World Economic Forum has highlighted five key recommendations to develop a truly circular economy for water in the future:

• Establish circular economy for water in leading cities by 2030
• Form a network of additional cities building on that model
• Implement tax breaks and reduced tariffs based on circular economy
• Improve consumer awareness of the importance of circular economy
• Provide funding for cities to progress toward circular economy for water

Even with these recommendations having been made, progress toward a circular economy for water has been slow. According to WFI Group, technological synergy is the route toward developing real value through a water circular economy in terms of developing sustainable communities and industry while improving public health.

A water circular economy will be a major departure from how the industry has always done things. Water has historically been so abundant that no conservation was needed or even imagined. With growing populations, the rise of industry, climate change, and increasing water shortage, the world needs new innovations to solve this problem.

However, innovation is rare. Most developments in industry today are incremental, building piece by piece on existing infrastructure. To face the challenges of the future, entirely new approaches and methods for water treatment will be necessary, beyond the optimization of technologies available today.

WFI Group provides a wide range of high-reuse water treatment processes that take a step closer toward circular economy while meeting public health needs today. Water pollution and contamination are a major threat to populations around the world, and technologies developed by WFI Group help address the need for high-recovery desalination, biological wastewater treatment, and inorganic pollutants removal, deployed in municipal and industrial plants for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes.

Nature has already achieved a circular economy, with ecosystems having the necessary balance to deal with natural contaminants. Today, WFI Group looks to the natural water cycle to find inspiration for solutions to deal with the wide range of contaminants we contend with. Advancements such as WFI Group’s TAYA, MAC, and FR-RO technologies are applying those same principles to water treatment at any scale.

Water reuse is a major focus in the US today. One town is achieving water reuse for self-irrigation using WFI Group’s TAYA technology. The town of Bennett in Colorado US, has implemented TAYA ECO GO as the primary process for their wastewater treatment plant, providing affordable water independence in the isolated and challenging area.

Another example is the Santa Monica town in California US, aiming to be self-sufficient by 2023, using ROTEC’s FR-RO high-recovery technology for increasing water production without increasing the plant’s footprint, maximizing production, saving costs, and preserving the environment.

In a mine located in Chile, WFI managed to remove high concentrations of Perchlorate and Nitrate, which caused significant damage to the water and the fertilizers. The resources were recycled and recovered for reuse, enabling significant cost savings, and converting these into clean fertilizers as a high-value commodity.

Ofer Avidan puts a strong emphasis on the need for society as a whole to focus on achieving a circular economy at zero cost, shifting from savings to growth. While WFI Group continues to work toward developing new technologies, it’s up to individual citizens, water authorities, industrial companies and the leaders who represent them to choose the sustainable option for the future.

WFI Group continues to pioneer new water treatment technologies to help the world progress toward a circular economy for water reuse. You can read the full article here for more insights from WFI Group Cofounder Marc Perlman, and Cofounder and CEO Ofer Avidan.