GLOBAL TENDENCIES IN WASTE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERING CIRCULAR ECONOMY PRINCIPLES

Resumen

With a growing urban population, that consumes an ever increasing amount of raw materials, the approach of the circular economy has gained interest from academia and decision-makers as a promising solution to urban challenges. This review aims to find out in how far the circular economy is reflected as a guiding principle of waste management in the academic literature during the past ten years. A selection of 28 full-text papers dealing with specific case studies have been analysed regarding their geographical scale (international, national, municipal, industrial) and the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. The results indicate a stronger consideration of the recycling and reuse principles on the national and municipal levels, as well as a strong research representation of the European Union and China. Furthermore, a number of technical papers dealing with the recover principle on the industrial scale have been identified. While the strong arguments for a move towards a circular economy are broadly confirmed, issues of social participation and technological progress are identified as future challenges.