Anita Boros, Gyula Koi (eds): Sustainability and Law
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7. Questions of environmental law and environmental administrations (Anita Boros-Petra Stankovics)
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7.1. Waste management (Anita Boros)
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7.1.2. The relationship between waste management, sustainability and the circular economy

7.1.2. The relationship between waste management, sustainability and the circular economy

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As we have already mentioned before, disposal of waste into the environment can pose serious environmental and health risks. In order to offset these negative effects and minimsze the generation of waste, common strategies, goals, and principles have been developed worldwide.

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Circular economy is one that is often identified with waste management. However, this concept is only partially true: the circular economy has many components or phases,one of which is waste management. In addition to the minimisation of raw materials, the aim of the circular economy is sustainable design, then production and distribution, reuse and repair of the product at the end of the consumption stage, collection of unused items, and sustainable waste management.1 This process then begins again with the start of the new life cycle of the raw materials extracted during waste treatment.

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In this sense, circular economy promotes efficient use and recognising (?)the fundamental links between resource use, waste and emissions.2 According to the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 published by the United Nations,3 waste management can be linked to all sustainable development goals.4

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In 2011, as part of the Europe 2020 strategy, the Roadmap to a Resource-Efficient Europe recommended the circular economy as the best economic transformation concept, taking into account the relationship between increasing energy and material consumption and the environmental impact of economic growth.5 During this period, more than half of the total waste production in the European Union (abbr. EU) was not recycled, so the EU lost a significant amount of potential secondary raw materials.6 Thanks to this, the preparation of the normative regulation of the transition to a circular economy has also begun in the Union. The European Commission’s new circular economy action plan7 focuses on the entire product life cycle, from the design phase of products to the phase where waste generation is prevented.8 In 2008, the Chinese government enacted the basic rules for the transition to a circular economy as part of its national development policy.9

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The main goal of the circular economy model is to enable the transformation of waste into a valuable resource, unlike the traditional linear production process - in which raw materials are extracted, processed, consumed and returned to the environment as waste.10 One of the main principles of this is cradle-to-cradle, which emphasises eco-efficiency.11

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Another significant element of the waste management aspect of circular economy is waste hierarchy. The concept prioritises waste reduction, recycling and reuse over treatment or disposal.12 The concept was included in the EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, partly with the aim of supporting the transition from linear to circular management and keeping materials in use as long as possible. The stages of management represented in the waste hierarchy are prevention, reuse, recycling, recovery and finally disposal. Moving from the first towards the last stage of the hierarchy, the range of energy and resources required for waste management, as well as material and energy losses, increases.13
 
1‘Circular economy: definition, importance and benefits.’ <https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20151201STO05603/circular-economy-definition-importance-and-benefits> (accessed 28 October 2024)
2Mayer, A., Haas, W., Wiedenhofer, D., Krausmann, F., Nuss, Ph., Blengini, G. A. (2019). ‘Measuring progress towards a circular economy: a monitoring framework for economy-wide material loop closing in the EU28.’ Journal of industrial ecology, 23(1) 62-76. DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12809
3

United Nations Environment Program (2024). ‘Global Waste Management Outlook 2024: Beyond an age of

waste – Turning rubbish into a resource. Nairobi.’ <https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/44939> (accessed 28 October 2024)

4 Luttenberger, l. R. (2020). ‘Waste management challenges in transition to circular economy – case of Croatia.’ Journal of Cleaner production, 23(15) Vol. 256 120495. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120495
5

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6Tomić, T., Schneider, D. R. (2020). ‘Circular economy in waste management–Socio-economic effect of changes in waste management system structure.’ (2020) 267. Journal of environmental management, 30(16) Vol. 267. 110564. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110564
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8 D'Adamo, I., Mazzanti, M., Morone, P., Rosa, P. (2022). ‘Assessing the relationship between waste management policies and circular economy goals.’ Waste Management, 33(21) Vol. 154. 27-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2022.09.031
9Su, B., Heshmati, A., Geng, Y., Yu, X. (2013). ‘A review of the circular economy in China: moving from rhetoric to implementation.’ Journal of Cleaner Production, 20(3) Vol. 42. 215-227. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.02
10Chioatto, E., Sospiro, P. (2023). ‘Transition from waste management to circular economy: the European Union roadmap.’ Environment, Development and Sustainability, 25(1) 249-276. DOI: 10.1007/s10668-021-02050-3
11Toxopeus, M. E., de Koeijer, B. L. A., Meij, A. G. G. H. (2015). ‘Cradle to cradle: effective vision vs. efficient practice?‘ Procedia CIRP, 29(215) 384-389. DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2015.02.068; Linder, M., Saraisini, S., van Loon, P. (2017). ‘A metric for quantifying product-level circularity.’ Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(3) 545-558. DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12552
12 Pires, A., Martinho, G. (2019). ‘Waste hierarchy index for circular economy in waste management.’ Waste Management, 95(7) 298-305. DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.06.014
13Loiseau, E., Saikku, L., Antikainen, R., Droste, N., Hansjürgens, B., Pitkänen, K., Leskinen, P., Kuikman, P., Thomsen, M. (2016). ‘Green economy and related concepts: An overview.’ Journal of Cleaner Production, 19(12) Vol. 45. 361-371. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.024
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