Bio-Economy Contribution to Circular Economy

Abstract

European policies are advocating a transition toward "bio-economy", an economy aiming at reducing the dependence from fossil-based resources, limiting greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts, safeguarding food security and ensuring a sustainable economic growth. Besides, circular economy policies are aiming at closing the loop of resources as much as possible. The application of circular economy principles to bio-economy could represent a valuable contribution to bio-economy performance optimisation. The present paper investigates the contribution of bio-economy to circular economy. It proposes a conceptual framework to assess the potential for circularity for bio-waste and related by-products and it puts forward some considerations on the application of this framework to food waste. However, both bio-economy and circular economy may imply environmental burdens if an integrated assessment encompassing all life cycle stages of production and consumption is missing. Hence, adopting life cycle assessment is crucial to unveil trade-offs and ensuring identifying the best options for bio-economy and circular economy implementation.

Food waste accounting along global and European food supply chains: State of the art and outlook

“…Within the FAO study (2011), for example, only the edible fraction on food is accounted, therefore the results did not capture the potential for valorisation of inedible parts of food. Furthermore, from a circular economy perspective, not all the valorisation pathways have the same value and options increasing the cascading use of resources are, in principle, preferable ( Corrado and Sala, 2018 ). Food discarded along the supply chain and recycled for other purposes, e.g.…”

Towards a territorial definition of a circular economy: exploring the role of territorial factors in closed-loop systems

“…Even if biobased materials also carry an environmental burden, they are key in a circular economy because of their multifunctionality (Corrado and Sala 2018). Unlike inert materials that need to be recovered and used in closed-loops, biotic materials in a biobased economy shall be used in cascades.…”

“…These effects are likely to occur in the future too, particularly if bioenergy cropland expansion remains a major component of climate change mitigation strategies (Hof et al 2018). In general, the technical feasibility and environmental neutrality of transitioning towards a biobased economy still seem far from being assured (Corrado and Sala 2018).…”

Circular economy practices in the leather industry: A practical step towards sustainable development

“…Through the Circularity Gap Report published in 2018, Circle Economy (2018) indicated the current state of CE in the global economy. Corrado and Sala (2018) reported the bio economy contribution to CE. Araujo Galvão et al (2018) demonstrated the potential barriers such as technological, customer, financial and economic, policy and regulatory, managerial, performance indicators, and social to CE.…”