Publication: Squaring the Circle: Policies from Europe’s Circular Economy Transition
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Date
2022
ISSN
Published
2022
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
This report reviews Europe’s
experience in spearheading CE policy. Its aim is not only to
highlight its features and accomplishments, but also
identify existing barriers to future progress and key
measures to overcome them. Its objective is dual:
contributing to CE policy development within the European
Union (EU), while at the same time identifying lessons from
the EU’s CE leadership that can be of benefit to
non-European countries. Europe has made important progress
in achieving material efficiency gains. Over the past two
decades, total material use has decreased by 9.4 percent,
from 6.6 billion to 6.0 billion tons. The share of resources
used derived from recycled waste increased by almost 50
percent between 2000 and 2020. And overall resource
productivity (euro per kg of domestic material consumption)
increased by nearly 35 percent over the same period. These
gains were supported by both exogenous shocks, particularly
the impact of the 2008 crisis on material intensive sectors
such as construction, and structural change leading to an
increasing share of relatively less material-intensive
services in EU total gross value added.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2022. Squaring the Circle: Policies from Europe’s Circular Economy Transition. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38380 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”