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Circular economy definition What does Circular economy mean? In legal practice, the circular economy describes business and regulatory approaches that keep products, components and materials in circulation for longer through sharing, leasing, reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacture and recycling, so that products are designed to last and waste is minimised across the life cycle. The term is largely descriptive rather than a defined legal term in England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it informs waste, product and procurement law. It underpins measures such as extended producer responsibility, take‑back schemes, deposit return schemes, resource efficiency and eco‑design requirements, secondary materials markets and “end‑of‑waste” determinations. In Ireland, the Circular...
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Circular economy and resource efficiency: concepts, EU and domestic policy and legislation, extended producer responsibility, plastics, waste targets, Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, critical minerals, and devolved implementation
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Practice notes
Meaning of a ‘circular economy’
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) explains that circularity reshapes our throwaway economy into one that cuts out waste, keeps materials in circulation, and embraces nature-positive, low carbon, resource-efficient practices and systems. It is set out as an alternative to the traditional linear economy. The idea recognises the intrinsic value in waste, treating it as a resource rather than something to discard. Returning materials to productive use through re-use, recycling, or recovery operations markedly reduces the environmental burden of resource consumption. The circular economy is inseparable from ecodesign: products must be conceived from the start to remain in use, be repaired, re-used, and, in the end, recycled. Without ecodesign, a circular economy cannot operate in reality. For more on ecodesign, see Practice Note: GB Ecodesign of products—lifecycle assessment. For guidance on the waste hierarchy and on waste recovery, see Practice Notes: Meaning of waste—waste hierarchy and Meaning of waste—recovery operations.
Origins of the concept
The expression circular economy was introduced by British environmental economists David W. Pearce and R. Kerry turner in Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment (1989), published by Johns Hopkins university Press, as set out in that publication in 1989...
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