Social acceptance is growing about the need for moving from a linear to a more circular use of resources. This allows for lowering raw material consumption and waste generation, while reducing the EU resource and energy dependence from abroad, which has become economically and geo-strategically important. The EU circular economy could further expand by fostering waste prevention and preparing for re-use. Despite recent improvements in waste management capacity, the EU circularity could also benefit from enlarging secondary markets by feeding back more secondary raw materials into the economy. However, materials’ specific features and/or economic and technological constraints might limit recycling capacities. Therefore, understanding the economic drivers of recycling is key for defining effective and efficient policy measures. These range from regulation (e.g. specific technological or performance standards including waste collection/sorting methods and eco-design) to market-based instruments, whether price- (e.g. taxes and charges, subsidies and public facilities) or quantity-based (e.g. cap-and-trade), or both. The optimal policy mix design may nevertheless vary according to a range of economic, social, cultural, political and institutional factors. Specific policy interventions promoting recycling encompass a possible review of the EU waste hierarchy, a broader eco-design and a harmonised waste legislation, data definition and collection.
Authors
Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission, Vergano, Lucia
- Catalogue number
- KC-BD-23-026-EN-N
- Citation
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and Vergano, L., Circular economy – Main features and key determinants of the EU secondary markets for materials , Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2765/903804
- DOI
- https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2765/903804
- ISBN
- 978-92-68-01827-9
- ISSN
- 2443-8022
- Pages
- 48
- Published in
- Belgium
- Themes
- Environment — Ecology , Economy — Finance
Table of Contents
- Note_CE_DP_FINAL.pdf -1
- Introduction -1
- 1. Recycling and the circular economy -1
- 2. Recycling and the eu waste hierarchy -1
- 3. Recycling and the eu circular economy: overview -1
- 4. the economics of Recycling -1
- 4.1 the economic drivers of recycling -1
- 4.2 main policy instruments to support recycling -1
- 5. the eu secondary markets for materials/ products -1
- 5.1 main features of selected eu secondary markets for materials/products -1
- 5.2 main barriers to the eu secondary markets for materials/products -1
- 6. policy conclusions -1
- REFERENCES -1
- Ma X., Chen M., Zheng Z., Bullen D., Wang J., Harrison C., Gratz E., Lin Y., Yang Z., Zhang Y., Wang F., Robertson D., Son S.-B., Wen J., Ge M., Xiao X., Lee W.-K., Tang M., Wang Q., Wang Y. (2021), Recycled cathode materials enabled superior perform... -1
- Gislev M., Grohol M., Mathieux, F., Ardente, F., Bobba, S., Nuss, P., Blengini, G., Alves Dias, P., Blagoeva, D., Torres De Matos, C., Wittmer, D., Pavel, C., Hamor, T., Saveyn, H., Gawlik, B., Orveillon, G., Huygens, D., Garbarino, E., Tzimas, E., Bo... -1
- ANNEX I – Recyling and the EU circular economy: selected secondary markets -1
- ANNEX II – eu quantitative targets for the circular economy -1
- Blank Page -1
- DP_index_en.pdf -1
- EUROPEAN EconomY DISCUSSION PAPERS 45
- Blank Page 46
- Note_CE_FIN_final_uk spell_lt as Discussion Paper_after CAB_clean.pdf -1
- Introduction -1
- 1. Recycling and the circular economy -1
- 2. Recycling and the eu waste hierarchy -1
- 3. Recycling and the eu circular economy: overview -1
- 4. the economics of Recycling -1
- 4.1 the economic drivers of recycling -1
- 4.2 main policy instruments to support recycling -1
- 5. the eu secondary markets for materials/ products -1
- 5.1 main features of selected eu secondary markets for materials/products -1
- 5.2 main barriers to the eu secondary markets for materials/products -1
- 6. policy conclusions -1
- REFERENCES -1
- Ma X., Chen M., Zheng Z., Bullen D., Wang J., Harrison C., Gratz E., Lin Y., Yang Z., Zhang Y., Wang F., Robertson D., Son S.-B., Wen J., Ge M., Xiao X., Lee W.-K., Tang M., Wang Q., Wang Y. (2021), Recycled cathode materials enabled superior perform... -1
- Gislev M., Grohol M., Mathieux, F., Ardente, F., Bobba, S., Nuss, P., Blengini, G., Alves Dias, P., Blagoeva, D., Torres De Matos, C., Wittmer, D., Pavel, C., Hamor, T., Saveyn, H., Gawlik, B., Orveillon, G., Huygens, D., Garbarino, E., Tzimas, E., Bo... -1
- ANNEX I – Recyling and the EU circular economy: selected secondary markets -1
- ANNEX II – eu quantitative targets for the circular economy -1
- Note_CE_FIN_final_uk spell_lt as Discussion Paper_after CAB_clean.pdf -1
- Introduction -1
- 1. Recycling and the circular economy -1
- 2. Recycling and the eu waste hierarchy -1
- 3. Recycling and the eu circular economy: overview -1
- 4. the economics of Recycling -1
- 4.1 the economic drivers of recycling -1
- 4.2 main policy instruments to support recycling -1
- 5. the eu secondary markets for materials/ products -1
- 5.1 main features of selected eu secondary markets for materials/products -1
- 5.2 main barriers to the eu secondary markets for materials/products -1
- 6. policy conclusions -1
- REFERENCES -1
- Ma X., Chen M., Zheng Z., Bullen D., Wang J., Harrison C., Gratz E., Lin Y., Yang Z., Zhang Y., Wang F., Robertson D., Son S.-B., Wen J., Ge M., Xiao X., Lee W.-K., Tang M., Wang Q., Wang Y. (2021), Recycled cathode materials enabled superior perform... -1
- Gislev M., Grohol M., Mathieux, F., Ardente, F., Bobba, S., Nuss, P., Blengini, G., Alves Dias, P., Blagoeva, D., Torres De Matos, C., Wittmer, D., Pavel, C., Hamor, T., Saveyn, H., Gawlik, B., Orveillon, G., Huygens, D., Garbarino, E., Tzimas, E., Bo... -1
- ANNEX I – Recyling and the EU circular economy: selected secondary markets -1
- ANNEX II – eu quantitative targets for the circular economy -1
- Blank Page -1
- Note_CE_FIN_final_uk spell_lt as Discussion Paper_after CAB_clean_LV.pdf -1
- Introduction 5
- 1. Recycling and the circular economy 5
- 2. Recycling and the eu waste hierarchy 7
- 3. Recycling and the eu circular economy: overview 9
- 4. the economics of Recycling 14
- 4.1 the economic drivers of recycling 14
- 4.2 main policy instruments to support recycling 16
- 5. the eu secondary markets for materials/ products 17
- 5.1 main features of selected eu secondary markets for materials/products 17
- 5.2 main barriers to the eu secondary markets for materials/products 19
- 6. policy conclusions 24
- REFERENCES 26
- Ma X., Chen M., Zheng Z., Bullen D., Wang J., Harrison C., Gratz E., Lin Y., Yang Z., Zhang Y., Wang F., Robertson D., Son S.-B., Wen J., Ge M., Xiao X., Lee W.-K., Tang M., Wang Q., Wang Y. (2021), Recycled cathode materials enabled superior perform... 28
- Gislev M., Grohol M., Mathieux, F., Ardente, F., Bobba, S., Nuss, P., Blengini, G., Alves Dias, P., Blagoeva, D., Torres De Matos, C., Wittmer, D., Pavel, C., Hamor, T., Saveyn, H., Gawlik, B., Orveillon, G., Huygens, D., Garbarino, E., Tzimas, E., Bo... 28
- ANNEX I – Recyling and the EU circular economy: selected secondary markets 29
- ANNEX II – eu quantitative targets for the circular economy 41
