scholarly journals POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF THE EU CIRCULAR ECONOMY PACKAGE ON THE UTILIZATION OF SECONDARY RESOURCES

Detritus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Fellner ◽  
David Laner ◽  
Rainer Warrings ◽  
Kerstin Schustereder ◽  
Jakob Lederer
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.V. Ratner

Subject. The article considers the concept of circular economy, which has originated relatively recently in the academic literature, and is now increasingly recognized in many countries at the national level. In the European Union, the transition to circular economy is viewed as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of the European Union, protect businesses from resource shortages and fluctuating prices for raw materials and supplies, and a way to increase employment and innovation. Objectives. The aim of the study is to analyze the incentives developed by the European Commission for moving to circular economy, and to assess their effectiveness on the basis of statistical analysis. Methods. I employ general scientific methods of research. Results. The analysis of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy enabled to conclude that the results of the recent research in circular economy barriers, eco-innovation, technology and infrastructure were successfully integrated into the framework of this document. Understanding the root causes holding back the circular economy development and the balanced combination of economic and administrative incentives strengthened the Action Plan, and it contributed to the circular economy development in the EU. Conclusions. The measures to stimulate the development of the circular economy proposed in the European Action Plan can be viewed as a prototype for designing similar strategies in other countries, including Russia. Meanwhile, a more detailed analysis of barriers to the circular economy at the level of individual countries and regions is needed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 413
Author(s):  
Maximilian Kardung ◽  
Kutay Cingiz ◽  
Ortwin Costenoble ◽  
Roel Delahaye ◽  
Wim Heijman ◽  
...  

The EU’s 2018 Bioeconomy Strategy Update and the European Green Deal recently confirmed that the bioeconomy is high on the political agenda in Europe. Here, we propose a conceptual analysis framework for quantifying and analyzing the development of the EU bioeconomy. The bioeconomy has several related concepts (e.g., bio-based economy, green economy, and circular economy) and there are clear synergies between these concepts, especially between the bioeconomy and circular economy concepts. Analyzing the driving factors provides important information for monitoring activities. We first derive the scope of the bioeconomy framework in terms of bioeconomy sectors and products to be involved, the needed geographical coverage and resolution, and time period. Furthermore, we outline a set of indicators linked to the objectives of the EU’s bioeconomy strategy. In our framework, measuring developments will, in particular, focus on the bio-based sectors within the bioeconomy as biomass and food production is already monitored. The selected indicators commit to the EU Bioeconomy Strategy objectives and conform with findings from previous studies and stakeholder consultation. Additionally, several new indicators have been suggested and they are related to measuring the impact of changes in supply, demand drivers, resource availability, and policies on sustainability goals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4394
Author(s):  
Margarita Ignatyeva ◽  
Vera Yurak ◽  
Alexey Dushin ◽  
Vladimir Strovsky ◽  
Sergey Zavyalov ◽  
...  

Nowadays, circular economy (CE) is on the agenda, however, this concept of closed supply chains originated in the 1960s. The current growing quantity of studies in this area accounts for different discourses except the holistic one, which mixes both approaches—contextual and operating (contextual approach utilizes the thorough examination of the CE theory, stricture of the policy, etc.; the operating one uses any kind of statistical data)—to assess the capacity of circular economy regulatory policy packages (CERPP) in operating raw materials and industrial wastes. This article demonstrates new guidelines for assessing the degree level of capacity (DLC) of CERPPs in the operation of raw materials and industrial wastes by utilizing the apparatus of the fuzzy set theory. It scrupulously surveys current CERPPs in three regions: the EU overall, Finland and Russia; and assesses for eight regions—the EU overall, Finland, Russia, China, Greece, France, the Netherlands and South Korea—the DLC of CERPPs in operating raw materials and industrial wastes. The results show that EU is the best in CE policy and its CERPP is 3R. The following are South Korea and China with the same type of CERPP. Finland, France and the Netherlands have worse results than EU with the type of CERPP called “integrated waste management” because of the absence of a waste hierarchy (reduce, recover, recycle). Russia closes the list with the type of CERPP “basic waste management”.


Author(s):  
Nils Johansson

AbstractA problem for a circular economy, embedded in its policies, tools, technologies and models, is that it is driven by the interests and needs of producers, rather than customers and users. This opinion paper focuses on an alternative form of governance—agreements, which thanks to their bargaining approach brings actors from across the value chain into the policy process. The purpose of this opinion paper is to uncover and analyse the potential of such agreements for a circular economy. Circular agreements aim at increasing the circulation of materials and are an emerging form of political governance within the EU. These agreements have different names, involve different actors and govern in different ways. However, circular agreements seem to work when other types of regulations fail to establish circulation. These agreements bring actors together and offer a platform for negotiating how advantages and disadvantages can be redistributed between actors in a way that is more suitable for a circular economy. However, circular agreements are dependent on other policy instruments to work and can generate a free-rider problem with uninvolved actors. The agreements may also become too detailed and long term, which leads to problem shifting and lock-ins, respectively.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Françoise Bodénan ◽  
Yannick Ménard ◽  
Patrick d'Hugues

<p>Whereas there are growing needs for mineral resources (metals for the energy and digital transitions<br>and construction materials), the mining industry must produce them from poorer, more<br>heterogeneous and more complex deposits. Therefore, volumes of mine waste produced (including<br>tailings) are also increasing and add up to waste from mining legacy. For example in Europe (x27): 732<br>Mtons of extractive waste are generated per year and more than 1.2 Btons of legacy waste are stored<br>all over the European territory. The localisation (and potential hazards) are well known and covered<br>by the inventories carried out in EU countries under the Mining Waste Directive.<br>At the same time, Europe is implementing the circular economy approach and put a lot of emphasis<br>on the resource efficiency concept. In this context, reprocessing operation to recover both metals and<br>mineral fraction is studied with the objective of combing waste management (reducing final waste<br>storage and long-term impact) and material production from secondary resources.<br>Numerous industrial experiences of reprocessing of mine waste and tailings exist all over the world to<br>recover metals such as copper, gold or critical raw materials - CRM They concern mainly active mine<br>where both primary and secondary resources are considered in profitable operations; for example in<br>Chile, South Africa, Australia. Mineral fraction recovery is often not considered which still leaves the<br>industry with a high volume of residual minerals to store and manage.<br>In addition, legacy mining waste are potentially available for reprocessing. In this case, numerous<br>mining liabilities issues need to be managed. Some of the European legacy mining waste have residual<br>valuable metals that could be recovered but some of them have very low metal contents. In Europe,<br>classical rehabilitation operations – usually at the charge of member states and local authorities – is<br>the priority and concern the reduction of instabilities and impacts to the environment including heap<br>remodelling, covering and water management with long-term treatment. Completing this risk<br>management approach by a circular economy one is a very active R&D subject in EU27.<br>This presentation will give an overview of EU research projects which tackled the legacy mining waste<br>challenge from inventory to process development. Several process flowsheets to recover metals were<br>designed and tested on several case studies with CRM – REE, Co, W, Sb, etc. Initiatives to reuse mineral<br>fraction are also underway and should be ready for commercialisation in the coming years.<br>Resources efficiency concept and the circular economy implementation starts on mining sites. In order<br>to facilitate the implementation of this approach, the technical solutions will need to be included in<br>innovative global initiatives covering also legal (liability management), environmental (Life Cycle<br>Analysis approaches) and social (acceptance) questions.</p>


Resources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Nestor Shpak ◽  
Oleh Kuzmin ◽  
Olga Melnyk ◽  
Mariana Ruda ◽  
Włodzimierz Sroka

The current model of resource management mainly contributes to mass short-term consumption, which creates an unstable and extremely critical situation on the planet. Going beyond the traditional industrial model of Take-Make-Waste, the circular economy aims to reduce waste (and therefore minimize costs) and to redefine sustainable development. This entails a gradual separation of economic activity from the consumption of scarce resources and the removal of waste from the system. In order to foreground the principles of a circular economy in Ukraine, this study analyzes its benefits based on the relevant experience of the EU. The paper also presents the results of research and content analysis on the situation of waste management in Ukraine and compares the trends using key indicators. The core of the paper is developing a conceptual model of making and coordinating management decisions on the implementation of business projects in the context of a circular economy in Ukraine. A multifactor model (the Farrar–Glauber method was further developed) has been built by identification of the main factors, i.e., the volume of generated waste from economic activity per unit of GDP at constant prices, emissions of pollutants, and capital investments for the protection of the environment. Factor coefficients indicate how many units will change the resultant trait Y, measured in thousand tonnes, if one of them changes by 1 (each in units of measure). It means that if the volume of waste generated from economic activity per unit of GDP at constant 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP) prices decreases by 1 kg/$1000, waste management of I–IV classes will be reduced by 952,737 thousand tonnes. The approbated model can be used to analyze the situation with recycling in the EU countries, considering the amount of capital investment in environmental protection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 983-1003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Fitch-Roy ◽  
David Benson ◽  
David Monciardini
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9011
Author(s):  
Alexandra Barón ◽  
Rudi de Castro ◽  
Gerusa Giménez

The Eurobarometer report from December 2019 revealed that 80% of European Union (EU) citizens believe that industry is doing too little to protect the environment and that more work needs to be done to help companies transition to a more sustainable economic model. In recent years, the EU has made the Circular Economy (CE) a priority, and an environmental management system based on the EMAS Regulation can help companies achieve this goal by assisting them in analysing and measuring an efficient and sustainable use of resources. Thus, this study analyses EMAS companies’ environmental statements in order to identify and quantify the CE practices they have implemented. Findings identify 23 circular practices and show that the majority of companies focus their efforts on reducing emissions by optimizing the materials cycle and improving internal production processes. Eco-design stands out as the main driver amongst the circular transformation practices. This study has also detected a lack of uniformity in the way companies quantify the various circular practices currently operating, or how they communicate this information. These results may be useful to companies, professionals and administrations responsible for promoting the CE, and it can also provide guidance on what information to include in future environmental statements.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zofia Wysokińska

This paper analyses the evolution of the new environmental policy of the European Union in the context of the efforts undertaken to moderate the negative effects of climate change. It describes all the activities in the European Union designed to implement new tools of the EU environmental policy, such as low carbon economy technologies, tools that improve the efficiency of managing the limited natural resources, the environmentally friendly transport package, etc. All of them are aimed at laying the foundations of the circular economy, which may also be referred to as a closed-loop economy, i.e., an economy that does not generate excessive waste and whereby any waste becomes a resource.


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