Abstract
Environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA) can be applied to assess the economic and environmental implications of a transition towards a circular economy. In spite of the existence of several such applications, a systematic assessment of the opportunities and limitations of EEIOA to quantify the impacts of circularity strategies is currently missing. This article brings the current state of EEIOA-based studies for assessing circularity interventions up to date and is organised around four categories: residual waste management, closing supply chains, product lifetime extension, and resource efficiency. Our findings show that residual waste management can be modelled by increasing the amount of waste flows absorbed by the waste treatment sector. Closing supply chains can be modelled by adjusting input and output coefficients to reuse and recycling activities and specifying such actions in the EEIOA model if they are not explicitly presented. Product lifetime extension can be modelled by combining an adapted final demand with adjusted input coefficients in production. The impacts of resource efficiency can be modelled by lowering input coefficients for a given output. The major limitation we found was that most EEIOA studies are performed using monetary units, while circularity policies are usually defined in physical units. This problem affects all categories of circularity interventions, but is particularly relevant for residual waste management, due to the disconnect between the monetary and physical value of waste flows. For future research, we therefore suggest the incorporation of physical and hybrid tables in the assessment of circularity interventions when using EEIOA.
Highlights
In the early 1990s, the concept of circular economy was proposed by Pearce and Turner (1990) as a model to transform the traditional open-ended economy into an ongoing closed-loop system from a material perspective
3 Results and Discussion We perform a methodological review of extended input–output analysis (EEIOA)-based studies which assess residual waste management, closing supply chains, product lifetime extension, and resource efficiency
6 Conclusions This article presented a review of EEIOA-based studies that assessed the economic and environmental implications of residual waste management, closing supply chains, product lifetime extension, and resource efficiency interventions
Summary
In the early 1990s, the concept of circular economy was proposed by Pearce and Turner (1990) as a model to transform the traditional open-ended economy into an ongoing closed-loop system from a material perspective. Implementing circularity interventions has become a prominent topic in sustainability policies (McDowall et al 2017). The European Commission presented an action plan for the circular economy in which interventions are related to the design of long-lasting products, material closed-loops at multiple supply chain levels, resource efficiency and sustainable waste management (EC 2015). Another example is that of the Chinese circular economy initiatives of the 1990s, which seek to prolong product lifetime and to enhance resource efficiency (Geng et al 2012, 2016). These and other governments have implemented circularity actions as mechanisms to achieve economic prosperity and environmental sustainability (Andersen 2007; Ghisellini et al 2016; Geissdoerfer et al 2017)
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