The circular economy was first proposed as a “cradle to cradle” concept at the start of the 1990s.
The notion was built on the understanding that resource use and traditional(liner) manufacturing processes were becoming environmentally unsustainable.
The European Commission, the government body of the EU, proposed a wide ranging Circular Economy Package in 2015,
and leaders have refined and developed the policy suite to a point where it looks set to be adopted into European law in 2018 through a series of directives and plans.
For electronics recycling stakeholders, Europe’s policy evolution serves as a fascinating case study on how one of the world’s largest economic regions is looking to reframe its approach to waste as a whole.
EU leaders argue for a transition to a circular economy by laying out some compelling statistics. The European Commission is estimating that waste prevention,
eco-design and reuse measures will bring in net savings in the region of 600billion euros for EU businesses and will also create 2 million jobs by 2030.
There are no doubt commercial headwinds that have not been dealt with here that will complicate implementation of a circular economy further.
We all know that successfully recovering materials and moving them back to market requires balance on number of levels and we need to talk about goal of a circular economy.
https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2018/06/26/squaring-the-circle/
