The Circular Economy

Chapter One

Getting hold of the circular economy concept

Abstract

With the global worsening of environmental, geopolitical, and socioeconomic conditions, we became more than ever aware that the current economic model, predominantly based on fossil resources, is inherently unsustainable, and its limitations are being widely witnessed including recurrent economic crisis, global warming, huge amounts of wasted resources, and pollution.

In response to such an alarming situation, a general agreement was reached among scientists, industrialists, and actors in the governmental and financial sectors, namely, the necessity to rethink humanity’s wasteful approach of managing resources, and reestablish a nature mimicking, waste recycling, and value ...