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  • Glossary item | 18 Mar 2025
Circular economy
Bioeconomy

A circular economy describes an economic system that is based on business models which replace the ‘end-of-life’ concept with reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling and recovering materials in production/distribution and consumption processes, thus operating at the micro level (products, companies, consumers), meso level (eco-industrial parks) and macro level (city, region, nation and beyond), with the aim to accomplish sustainable development, which implies creating environmental quality, economic prosperity and social equity, to the benefit of current and future generations.

Julian Kirchherr, Denise Reike, Marko Hekkert, Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Volume 127, 2017, Pages 221-232, ISSN 0921-3449 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005

Source category: Scientific & Technical Literature

The circular economy is a multi-level resource use system that stipulates the complete closure of all resource loops. Recycling and other means that optimise the scale and direction of resource flows, contribute to the circular economy as supporting practices and activities. In its conceptual perfect form, all resource loops will be fully closed. In its realistic imperfect form, some use of virgin resources is inevitable.

Frank Figge, Andrea Stevenson Thorpe, Melissa Gutberlet, Definitions of the circular economy: Circularity matters, Ecological Economics, Volume 208, 2023, 107823, ISSN 0921-8009, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107823

Source category: Scientific & Technical Literature