Almost a year ago I undertook and documented with optimism – typical of beginners – bets on the circular economy, I put it to the test with the vacuum cleaner, I even titled a blog«the revenge of the vacuum cleaner«, on the subject with the spirit of a beginner.

However, today after months of pushing with the supplier who was «repairing» it so that the vacuum cleaner would come home «happily repaired with Chinese spare parts offered» and having proven that we can reuse or reuse without having to buy the actual thing, I had a moment of reality – aha! moment some say or rather a «reality check» – I declined the project after being informed that there are no spare parts of that size plus other stories that I don’t believe.

The circular economy is based on the concept that we can reuse, reuse, recycle, thereby minimizing the external resources that are needed with the efficiencies that this generates and this can come from the design; however, the concept of reuse assumes that there is a market for repair, spare parts, and related services that allow such processes to be carried out at an effective cost; Moreover, it is not necessarily a matter of cost, it is a case of accessibility to technology – be it processes, materials, spare parts, techniques, etc. – that allow us to make decisions with the assurance that the operating or business model will be available to support it.

As they say in the world of entrepreneurship, I decided to undertake the odyssey of the vacuum cleaner being willing to fail and fail fast, although this time I had the patience to wait if the vacuum cleaner did its happy revenge and returned home, this was not the case.

This weekend I will receive his remains from the company that offered repaired, and then begin the journey of finding his replacement in the trade.

I don’t know if I documented in the blog the story of the vacuum cleaner with charger that temporarily replaced the initial one, that new one failed and it was not possible to repair it, under warranty they offered an alternative version, but that’s another story for the blog.