Enthusiasm for the Circular Economy (CE) is widespread and overwhelming. However,
confusion around its meaning and purpose still pervades the scientific debate.
Our study has two objectives. The first one is to increase the theoretical clarity and
the scientific relevance of this debate. An important step forward in this direction
is the idea of economy’s circularity, which we introduce following a critical re-visitation
of CE’s notion. The second objective is to study the environmental effects
of circularity. Our notion of economy’s circularity is theoretically rooted in the
materials-energy balance model, and points to the presence of circular matter and
energy flows in the economy. A major strength of this definition is the conceptual
separation of circularity (as an economy’s feature) from the strategies (e.g. recovery,
remanufacturing, reusing...) for its implementation. On one hand, this separation
prompts the construction of a coherent framework, which helps shed light on the
entire debate. On the other hand, it paves the way towards a novel methodology for
studying any type of circularity effect. Circularity effects are indeed the effects of
circularity strategies. Since strategies are constantly evolving, this approach delivers
an immediate result. Circularity effects are unavoidably ambiguous. With reference
to the effects on the environment, we provide evidence for this ambiguity by accurately
selecting and reviewing studies on various circularity strategies. In a policy
perspective, our findings seriously challenge the idea of implementing circularity
for the sake of circularity. Indeed, using circularity as an environmental policy may
prove quite a daunting task.
