Abstract
In this paper, we have analysed the level of advancement in circular economy (CE) in the EU-28 countries. First, we used a synthetic measure to examine CE advancement in EU countries in each of the Eurostat CE distinguished areas, i.e., production and consumption, waste management, secondary raw materials, and competitiveness and innovation. For the empirical analysis, we applied 17 Eurostat indicators to the CE areas. To find the synthetic measure in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016, we used multidimensional comparative analysis, i.e., a zero unitarisation method. Second, based on the synthetic measures of the CE areas, we created a general synthetic measure of the CE advancement of the EU-28 countries as well as the countries’ rankings. Third, we classified the countries into groups according to their level of advancement in CE, i.e., high level, medium–high level, medium–low level and low level groups. Finally, we applied a similarity measure to evaluate the correlation between obtained rankings in two most extreme moments in the period of analysis (2010, 2016). Our analysis covers all EU member states, as well as “old” and “new” EU countries separately. Our results confirm that highly developed Benelux countries, i.e., Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, have the highest CE advancement level. Malta, Cyprus, Estonia and Greece are the least advanced in CE practice. Apart from that, on average, there is some progress in CE implementation, significant disproportions between the EU countries were observed, especially among the “new” member states.
Highlights
Current environmental, economic and social observations of the continued exhaustion of natural resources reveal the need for humans, companies and governments to change their attitudes towards the natural environment
circular economy (CE) has recently attained the status of a key option of economic growth and development for many regions in the world, including the European Union (EU)
The well-being of contemporary generations depends on economic development directly linked to CE, which assumes no space for wastefulness, ineffectiveness or destruction of the natural environment
Summary
Economic and social observations of the continued exhaustion of natural resources reveal the need for humans, companies and governments to change their attitudes towards the natural environment. Stahel [30] reported the problem with CE measurement He argued that the concept of CE has not yet reached any universal implementation stage, because policy-makers and economic actors know neither the basic principles of CE nor their impact on the economy. The main purpose of this paper is to perform a statistical evaluation of the level of CE advancement in the EU-28 countries We expressed this level with the use of a general synthetic measure based on the synthetic measures calculated for each of the distinguished Eurostat CE area, i.e., production and consumption, waste management, secondary raw materials and competitiveness and innovation [25,31]. The paper closes with a discussion and conclusions section which quotes the results obtained, presents conclusions and formulates recommendations and guidelines for decision-makers dealing with the implementation of policies fostering CE development in the EU
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