Abstract

In studying chemical engineering, students are taught the Mass Balance. In principle it is a simple accounting protocol that gives them the ability to track the inputs and outputs for all the matter in a chemical process, chemical plant, factory or facility. The beauty of this practice lies in its simplicity. From the mass alone a large number of assumptions can be made and ratified. Though it is a simple accounting technique it has far reaching application beyond a typical chemical plant. Herein, the Mass Balance is used as a building block to better understand our global system of materials and resource management. The practice of the Mass Balance can be used to understand our planet, based on the fact that chemical change occurs on a daily basis within a closed loop ecosystem. By applying the Mass Balance technique to the Earth one can quickly move to understand the basic need for the Circular Economy in that we realize materials are not limitless. And to achieve the end goal of a circularized economy one must have the ability to reuse materials in continuous loops, to achieve this a protocol of Chemical Recycling is suggested to be most promising.