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Title Development and integrated assessment of the circular economy in the European Union: the outranking approach
ID_Doc 1071
Authors Usas, J; Balezentis, T; Streimikiene, D
Title Development and integrated assessment of the circular economy in the European Union: the outranking approach
Year 2021
Published
DOI 10.1108/JEIM-11-2020-0440
Abstract Purpose The Green Deal strategy of the European Union (EU) as well as the increasing concerns over resource scarcity worldwide has put forward such concepts as the circular economy. This paper seeks to compare the progress of the development of the circular economy across the EU Member States. Such analysis is helpful in guiding the circular economy support policies. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops a quantitative framework for analysis of the implementation of the circular economy objectives in the EU Member States. The framework proposed includes three multi-criteria decision making methods representing reference point and outranking approaches. The use of multiple methods allows exploiting the differences in the underlying aggregation principles. Findings Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands appear as the most advanced in the sense of circular economy development. The results indicate that the water-locked small countries and the new EU Member States are among the lowest performing ones. The flows of the waste need to be monitored more tightly in order to increase the circularity. The development of recycling facilities can also increase circularity irrespectively of the economic development level (e.g. the case of Bulgaria). Originality/value The paper contributes to the discussion regarding the circular economy by proposing an indicator system and the multi-criteria analysis framework. The proposed indicator system covers input use (circularity), trade flows and recycling processes. The proposed framework can be applied to track the progress of different countries in implementing the targets of the circular economy.
Author Keywords Circular economy; Sustainability; Multi-criteria decision making; European Union
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000639389700001
WoS Category Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications; Information Science & Library Science; Management
Research Area Computer Science; Information Science & Library Science; Business & Economics
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