On 19 November 2015 I had the pleasure to present my views on the manner to regulate the circular economy and EU initiatives taken in the domain so far at the annual meeting of the Norwegian Steel Association.
The very first report ordered by the European Commission on the circular economy was delivered in 1976 * building on works done by
Walter Stahel on the concepts of
"cradle to cradle" and
"closed loop". Meanwhile, it is only in the
years 2010 that the
first EU policy and regulatory initiatives referring directly to the concept have taken form, in relation to the
Resource Efficient Europe flagship intiative, itself related to
Europe 2020 Strategy. After a first proposal adopted in 2014 by the former European Commission, which mostly focused on the review of the waste management legislation, the new Commission decided to withdraw the legislative proposal and submit a new and more ambitious one. The
new proposal is announced for
December 2015, focusing on the
"whole circle", i.e. the whole value chain.
Reference: C. Banet, "EU: sirkulær økonomi - Konsept og konsekvenser for gjenbruk og resirkulering av produkter og byggevarer", Ståldagen 2015, http://norskstaldag.no/
* W.R. Stahel and G. Reday-Mulvey "The Potential for Substituting Manpower for Energy" (1976)
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