A Critical Review of EU Key Indicators for the Transition to the Circular Economy

The objective of this paper is to analyze the extent to which the system of indicators that is used in the Monitoring Framework for the transition to the circular economy (CE) is efficient and relevant in their contribution to the sustainable development of European communities. The fundaments of th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2021-08, Vol.18 (16), p.8840
Main Authors: Pacurariu, Roxana Lavinia, Vatca, Sorin Daniel, Lakatos, Elena Simina, Bacali, Laura, Vlad, Mircea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Circular economy
Consumption
Economics
Efficiency
Indicators
Product life cycle
Recyclable materials
Recycling
Review
Scalars
Sustainable development
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The objective of this paper is to analyze the extent to which the system of indicators that is used in the Monitoring Framework for the transition to the circular economy (CE) is efficient and relevant in their contribution to the sustainable development of European communities. The fundaments of the transition framework and the main characteristics of the circularity indicators are presented. A critical review was performed in order to fulfill the objective of analyzing the current indicators. It is concluded that the indicators in the current framework are (as a selection from a very broad range of indicators theoretically proposed and with estimated practical applicability) limited from the perspective of circularity only to waste generation and recycling processes containing recyclable materials, without including important circularity indicators related to the prolonging and extending the life cycle of products and materials. This paper proposes and defines such an indicator, based on the consideration of the fundamental scalars describing economy, mass, energy, time, and value, respectively. The indicator is described and its applicability in all the phases of the economy is estimated.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph18168840