Auctions & The Circular Economy

From Auction To… The Repair Loop

The next loop we see is ‘The Repair Loop’. Lower-value items would be more often seen to pass through this loop, before re-entering an auction, but this is not exclusive. In this case, let’s look at used cars. Often  at the end of its first lifecycle, a used car will end up at auction. The winning bidder may choose to repair and refurbish this car before reselling in a retail setting or entering it back into “The Auction Loop” in hopes of a higher valuation. 

From Auction to… The Upcycling Loop

Similar  to ‘The Repair Loop’, ‘The Upcycling Loop’ sees an item of lower value transformed into something of higher potential value, or into a completely different item altogether. This is often seen in the art and design world, where an item bought at auction becomes a piece of art or furniture. However, this loops sits outside the Repair Loop, because its chances of ending up back at auction and staying within the loops are low. The only time an upcycled item from auction has the potential to re-enter ‘The Auction Loop’ would be if it is used to create a piece of art with high-enough value to sell at auction again. Otherwise, these pieces would be sold in another B2C route. Either way, such items that would have otherwise have been wasted and most likely disposed of, have the ability to create more life cycles.

Read more about where we have seen this: https://bidpath.com/banksy-from-heathrow-at-royal-academy/

From Auction to… The Recycling Loop

Finally, at the outermost loop of auction-driven circularity, is the ‘The Recycling/Remanufacturing Loop’, which is more likely to be seen at the Industrial and Commercial sector of the auction industry. Let’s look at machinery or equipment for this example. When a piece of machinery or equipment enters ‘The Auction Loop’, it can either go in and out of this cycle, or it can move outwards towards Recycling and Remanufacturing, before heading back to auction or other modes of resale. In the case of Recycling and Remanufacturing, this piece of machinery would be disassembled and follow down one of two paths; recycling- where disassembled parts will be recycled via an external party for material-use or remanufacturing – where parts are sent to a remanufacturing facility for cleaning, refurbishment and re-assembly to form ‘good-as-new’ machinery. This is the point where the machinery has ability to re-enter ‘The Auction Loop’ or other resale network.