How Circular Is the European Policy Landscape?

The European Union (EU) is a frontrunner of the circular economy (CE) and has established an ambitious agenda to achieve increased circularity. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the policies which address circularity at the national level, prior to the implementation of the EU’s new CE Action Plan in 2020. As such, this paper presents the institutional starting point of the pathway towards achieving the circularity goals. The policy overview covers 315 policy initiatives, providing the most extensive overview of policies with an impact on the CE. Each policy initiative is categorized on several parameters (e.g., lifecycle phase addressed, policy instruments used) allowing the identification of dominant policy types. Subsequently, the paper presents a co-occurrence analysis by means of a probabilistic model employing combinatorics to determine whether specific policy aspects co-occur more (or less) often together. The analysis finds that the national policy measures focus on a (too) limited number of lifecycle phases and apply a (too) limited set of different instruments to improve circularity. This calls for holistic policy action plans, expanding the focus beyond recycling. Those action plans should consist of several flanking policies and aim for systemic change and circularity throughout the entire lifecycle to improve resource efficiency.

• National circular policies are currently geared towards recycling and waste phases.

• Combine different policy instruments to simultaneously target multiple lifecycle phases.

• Dominant policy types predominantly target specific lifecycle phases and materials.

• Fiscal and enforceable policies should be applied more broadly, beyond recycling.