Chapter 1The End of Business as Usual
Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future!
— Niels Bohr
1.1 THE TRILLION‐DOLLAR QUESTION
This is a book about circular economy (CE) and the fourth industrial revolution (IND 4.0) and about their interlinkage and the way their interaction will determine the future of our planet, as the authors of this book assert. Despite the many ongoing discussions on both the circular economy and IND 4.0, rarely is it recognized that they are deeply interconnected, and in real life they cannot be discussed separately, and should not be considered to be mutually exclusive.
In spite of the widespread discussion and countless policy initiatives regarding circular economy, it is usually ignored the fact that IND 4.0 provides the technological, economic, and social framework in which a circular economy will flourish or fail. As an example, a well‐referenced report [1] estimated that the implementation of the circular economy in the European Union ...
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