Assessing the circularity of regions: Stakes of trade of waste for treatment

Abstract

The degree of circularity of a region describes the proportion of materials recovered and reintroduced in that region of the total materials in that region. Quantifying the degree of circularity of a region is important, to prioritize and adequately implement circular economy (CE) strategies. Besides, regions may import and export waste treatment services. Efficient CE strategies should integrate the circularity embodied in the interregional linkages regarding waste treatment. However, the existing analyses of the degree of circularity of regions do not consider the trade of waste for treatment between regions. We fill this gap by proposing the trade-corrected circularity index and trade-corrected circularity gap index as two novel indicators, including their methodology and application for the case of Belgian regions. We used the multiregional physical supply and use the table we previously developed at the subnational Belgian level for 2011 and focused on Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia. The results show that Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia are 0%, 6.3%, and 8.1% circular, respectively, and when considering the trade of waste for treatment, they are 7.7%, 6%, and 8.5% circular, respectively. Further results include details of the circularity per type of materials (biomass, fossil fuels, metals, and non-metallic minerals) as well as the circularity inherent to the trade of waste between regions. This paper ends with a discussion on the methodological and conceptual findings, the CE policy implications, and the contributions to the debate on measuring the circularity of regions when the trade of waste is at stake. K E Y W O R D Scircular economy, degree of circularity, material flow accounting, physical supply and use tables, subnational analysis | trade of waste INTRODUCTIONEcosystems and human well-being are inextricably linked to production and consumption patterns. The generation of waste and emissions dissipated in the environment through the entropic nature of production processes or the use of products are the results of these patterns (Kneese, Ayres, & d'Arge, 1970). The reduction of the generation of waste and emissions is part of political priorities worldwide (United Nations, 2019). The European Circular Economy Action Plan lays out policies and targets aimed at realizing resource-efficient economies in the European Union that allow the efficient flow of materials, reduce waste generation, and reintroduce by-products in the production processes (EC, 2015).The circular economy (CE) is a concept or framework gaining considerable momentum, especially in the debate about more sustainable produc-

Economic Indicators in Water and Wastewater Sector Contributing to a Circular Economy (CE)

“…In the recent years, some significant progress has been made in the area of the assessment of circularity of products [46][47][48], companies [34,49,50], and regions [51,52]. The CE indicators are created to assess the progress of transformation towards CE at the micro, meso and macro levels.…”

Implementing circular economy in a regional context: A systematic literature review and a research agenda

“…Data availability issues. The issue of a lack of data and challenges in terms of data availability were encountered in several studies (Tazi et al, 2021;Towa et al, 2021;Towa et al, 2021a;Towa et al, 2021b;D'Adamo et al, 2020;Arbolino et al, 2020;Banias et al, 2020;Bianchi et al, 2020;Gardiner and Hajek, 2020;Mihai and Grozavu, 2019;Patricio et al, 2020;Silvestri et al, 2020;Agovino et al, 2019;Christis et al, 2019;Virtanen et al, 2019;Volk et al, 2019;Arbolino et al, 2018;Avdiushchenko, 2018;Sastre et al, 2018). Arbolino et al (2018) pointed out to the fact that the regional level represents a challenging territorial level for analysis, simply due to dearth of data, which was also corroborated by Bianchi et al (2020) and Towa et al (2021b).…”

“…The work of Aranda-Usón et al ( 2018) is pivotal in this regard, where the authors suggest several measures policy-makers can introduce to support the CE transition. Towa et al (2021a) calls for cohesive approach for all CE interventions, taking into regard inputs of resources, outputs of waste and related emissions, therefore ensuring the systemic dynamics are considered and the adoption of any CE practice will not imperil a change of environmental issues.…”

“…Furthermore, Avdiushchenko and Zajaç (2019) refer to the expected rebound effect of the CE transformation, and the support that monitoring procedures can offer to policy-makers in the form of adjusting and revising strategies and actions. Towa et al (2021a) tackled the issue of assessing the circularity of regions and claimed that current studies disregarded the trade of waste for treatment among regions when assessing the regional circularity. Avdiushchenko (2018) took the first step in proposing a CE-based regional development monitoring framework and Avdiushchenko and Zajaç (2019) built upon this conceptual study to suggest a wide range of specific indicators for each of the pillars.…”

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“…Despite stated ambitions at various geographical scales to become more or fully circular, the outcomes fall short of the visions [10, [16][17][18]. We hypothesize that this is rooted in a fundamental problem observable in current practices of decision-making: often, decisions are made based on linear decision-making principles.…”