How Far Away Are World Economies from Circularity: Assessing the Capacity of Circular Economy Policy Packages in the Operation of Raw Materials and Industrial Wastes

Margarita Ignatyeva, Vera Yurak, Alexey Dushin, Vladimir Strovsky, Sergey Zavyalov, Alexander Malyshev and Polina Karimova
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Margarita Ignatyeva: Research Laboratory of Disturbed Lands and Technogenic Objects Reclamation, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Vera Yurak: Research Laboratory of Disturbed Lands and Technogenic Objects Reclamation, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Alexey Dushin: Research Laboratory of Disturbed Lands and Technogenic Objects Reclamation, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Vladimir Strovsky: Department of Economics and Management, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Sergey Zavyalov: Research Laboratory of Disturbed Lands and Technogenic Objects Reclamation, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Alexander Malyshev: Research Laboratory of Disturbed Lands and Technogenic Objects Reclamation, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Polina Karimova: Research Laboratory of Disturbed Lands and Technogenic Objects Reclamation, Ural State Mining University, 620144 Yekaterinburg, Russia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Nowadays, circular economy (CE) is on the agenda, however, this concept of closed supply chains originated in the 1960s. The current growing quantity of studies in this area accounts for different discourses except the holistic one, which mixes both approaches—contextual and operating (contextual approach utilizes the thorough examination of the CE theory, stricture of the policy, etc.; the operating one uses any kind of statistical data)—to assess the capacity of circular economy regulatory policy packages (CERPP) in operating raw materials and industrial wastes. This article demonstrates new guidelines for assessing the degree level of capacity (DLC) of CERPPs in the operation of raw materials and industrial wastes by utilizing the apparatus of the fuzzy set theory. It scrupulously surveys current CERPPs in three regions: the EU overall, Finland and Russia; and assesses for eight regions—the EU overall, Finland, Russia, China, Greece, France, the Netherlands and South Korea—the DLC of CERPPs in operating raw materials and industrial wastes. The results show that EU is the best in CE policy and its CERPP is 3R. The following are South Korea and China with the same type of CERPP. Finland, France and the Netherlands have worse results than EU with the type of CERPP called “integrated waste management” because of the absence of a waste hierarchy (reduce, recover, recycle). Russia closes the list with the type of CERPP “basic waste management”.

Keywords: circular economy (CE); circular economy regulatory policy packages (CERPP); raw materials (RM); wastes; human-made mineral deposits (artificial deposits); industrial wastes; guidelines; capacity; fuzzy set theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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