Circular Economy and Sustainable Development Goals: Policy, Legislation and ISO Standards

Abstract

The annual global extraction of materials has been growing significantly from 22 billion tonnes at 7 tonnes per capita extraction in 1970 to 70 billion tonnes at 10 tonnes per capita extraction in 2010. The annual per capita material footprint for the Asia Pacific region, Latin America, the Caribbean and West Asia is between 9 and 10 tonnes, half that of Europe and North America. In contrast, Africa has an average material footprint of below 3 tonnes per capita. Global materials extraction has huge implications for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030, principally SDG targets 8.4 ‘Resource productivity’ and 12.2 ‘Sustainable use of natural resources’. In the linear economy, raw materials are transformed into goods, used and finally turned into waste that is discarded. Circular economy concepts in tandem with the SDGs offer a way forward to address the issues of natural resource extraction, efficiency of resource use and climate change. This coordinated approach has been successful in countries where national legislation and policy frameworks have been developed and established. This study focuses on the role of national legislation, policy instruments and international standards in implementing the concepts of circular economy and sustainable development.