In recent years, the European Commission has tried to promote the transition to a circular economy with the Circular Economy Action Plan. An important reason for this is that the transition could bring the European Union 7% extra economic growth in 2030 and 170,000 new jobs in 2035. In addition, the transition will substantially reduce the ecological footprint. Nevertheless, the European Commission itself states that a lot of policy is still needed to achieve all the benefits of a circular economy.

In 2015, the European Commission approved an action plan to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Europe. Since then, the Commission has introduced 54 measures to make the life cycle of products circular: from the production and consumption phase to waste management and the market for secondary raw materials. In order to speed up the transition along the entire value chain, five priority sectors have been identified. These are plastics, food waste, essential raw materials, construction and demolition, and biomass and materials of biological origin. The measures emphasise the development of an environment in which investment and innovation can flourish (European Commission, 2019).

Figure 1: differences between the current and a circular scenario in Europe Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015b