Monitoring a sustainable circular economy: from the systems level to actors and organizations

Wiedenhofer, Dominik; Pauliuk, Stefan; Mayer, Andreas; Virág, Doris; Haas, Willi

doi:10.4337/9781788972727.00022

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…CE is supposed to provide an alternative to the largely linear model that currently shapes our global biophysical economy (Schöggl et al, 2020). As a systemic sustainability approach, CE encompasses identifying potentials for slower, narrower, and more circular material use patterns, effectively reducing the scale of resource use, waste, and emissions (Haas et al, 2020;Korhonen et al, 2018;Wiedenhofer et al, 2020). CE is also part of a concerted strategy within the Green Deal of the European Union (EU), which strives for a climate neutral, resource efficient, and competitive economy (European Commission, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also growing acknowledgement of the lack of systemic assessments of CE, as most studies focus only on specific materials, substances, or products, each with its own relative indicator or rate (Pauliuk, 2018). Only few studies assess CE on a more systemic level (e.g., Haas et al, 2020;Haupt et al, 2017;Mayer et al, 2019;Nuss et al, 2017;Wiedenhofer et al, 2020). We are not aware of any study that systematically analyzes scale and circularity of a complete island economy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The sociometabolic transition of a small Greek island: Assessing stock dynamics, resource flows, and material circularity from 1929 to 2019

Noll

Lauk

Haas

et al. 2021

J of Industrial Ecology

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Their geomorphological characteristics make island systems special focal points for sustainability challenges. The Circular Economy (CE) Action Plan of the European Union foresees tailored solution sets for Europe's outermost regions and islands to tackle region‐specific sustainability challenges. We address the question of how islands can achieve more sustainable resource use by utilizing the socioeconomic metabolism (SEM) framework to assess and explore CE strategies for the Greek island of Samothraki. For this purpose, we apply material and energy flow analysis on a regional level and derive, as one of the first studies, a complete time series from 1929 to 2019 for socioeconomic biophysical stocks and flows according to mass‐balance principles for an island economy. Results show that in the past 90 years Samothraki's material stocks grew fivefold, domestic material consumption threefold, and solid waste generation fivefold. Samothraki transitioned from an almost entirely circular biophysical economy toward one in which 40% of input materials and 30% of output materials are estimated as non‐circular. This transition resulted in an accumulated solid waste stock on the island almost half the size of current material stocks in use. With this study we aim at providing ideas and opportunities for achieving more sustainable and circular material use on small islands. The published SEM database aims at supporting the public and the private sector and the island community at large with information key to establishing more sustainable material and energy use patterns on Samothraki. This article met the requirements for a Gold–Gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sociometabolic transition of a small Greek island: Assessing stock dynamics, resource flows, and material circularity from 1929 to 2019

Noll

Lauk

Haas

et al. 2021

J of Industrial Ecology

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“…We find that in the past, recycling increasingly shifted from domestic recycling within the USA to the global economy. The resource impact of this shift is not well understood and needs to be monitored and assessed (Graedel et al., 2019; Wiedenhofer et al., 2020). The recent restrictions on scrap imports of China (e.g., plastics, copper; Di et al., 2021; Gorman & Dzombak, 2020), and the need to deal with large flows of bulk construction and demolition waste, might point toward domestic recycling becoming more important for managing EoL outflows in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of socio‐economic material stocks for natural resource use in the United States of America from 1870 to 2100

Streeck

Dammerer

Wiedenhofer

et al. 2021

J of Industrial Ecology

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Globally, more than half of all extracted materials are used to build and maintain material stocks. The United States of America (USA) is one of the largest global consumers of these materials. To assess the role of stocks for long‐term material use in an affluent industrialized economy, we present an analysis of material use and stock accumulation for the USA from 1870 to 2100. On the basis of the dynamics of stocks and resulting end‐of‐life (EoL) outflows, we investigate stock‐building material demand, waste management, and circular economy potentials and present two prospective scenarios until 2100 to highlight the long‐term effect of stock‐flow dynamics. From 1870 to 2017, we found continuous stock growth, which strongly decelerated after the 2007 crisis. Overall, 40% of historical domestic material consumption was used to build and maintain stocks. EoL outflows from stocks increased until 2017, about half of which were discarded as final waste. In both prospective scenarios to 2100, stock build‐up and maintenance require material inputs larger than those used over the whole historical period. Stabilizing stocks near the current level could mitigate 23% of material demand compared to a return to pre‐2007 stock growth. Stabilized stocks also result in stable EoL outflows after 2050, whereas ongoing stock growth makes outflows grow until 2080. Increased recycling of these EoL outflows could potentially cover for large parts of material requirements for maintaining stable future stocks. Limiting demand for stocks and increasing recycling will require targeted demand‐side policies, adjustments to EoL management, and the establishment of recycling industries within the USA. This article met the requirements for a gold–gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

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“…The CE aims to combine sustainability and economic growth (European Commission, 2014, 2020. A fundamental shift of the economic function from the predominant "linear" economy to a CE also implies the challenge of assessing this new type of economy (Harris et al, 2021;Moraga et al, 2019;Wiedenhofer et al, 2020). Often, the results of such assessments are presented as so-called indicators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…-Mainly, the methods to compute indicators, such as the Material Flow Analysis (MFA), do not include the material stocks and use phases in the monitors (Harris et al, 2021). In general, the frameworks, i.a., the MFA by Brunner and Rechberger (2016) or the Input/Output-Circularity framework by Wiedenhofer et al (2020), yield macro monitors with a very recycling-centric perspective distracting the focus away from the higher Rstrategies (Schoenmakere et al, 2019). -Also, monitors with a single circularity metric that claims to summarize the entire circularity will never capture all CE aspects and circular strategies within an economy (Corona et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to measure a circular economy: A holistic method compiling policy monitors

Reich

Vermeyen²,

Alaerts³

et al. 2023

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

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Monitoring a sustainable circular economy: from the systems level to actors and organizations

Cited by 5 publications

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The sociometabolic transition of a small Greek island: Assessing stock dynamics, resource flows, and material circularity from 1929 to 2019

The sociometabolic transition of a small Greek island: Assessing stock dynamics, resource flows, and material circularity from 1929 to 2019

The role of socio‐economic material stocks for natural resource use in the United States of America from 1870 to 2100

How to measure a circular economy: A holistic method compiling policy monitors

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