Measuring the regional dimension of the circular economy

Abstract

Finiteness of Earth resources and current level of consumption can not coexist. Since the publication of "The Limits of Growth" in 1967 by the Club of Rome, an increasing number of scientific research have been highlighting the urgency to lower the pressure of human presence on the planet and to find a solution to decouple growth and wellbeing from resource depletion and environmental damages. The idea of a system of production that relies on circularity of resources has been introduced by academic and policy debates as a possible comprehensive solution: repair, reuse, recycling are considered as opportunities to reduce resource depletion and to contribute to the benefit of the communities as well. An efficient transition, which must be led at the political level by governments and international institutions, should be guided and monitored by a proper system of indicators. While at national level many states have already introduced relevant policies frameworks and tools (China, the European Union and member states) literature shows the lack of a measurement systems at the European regional level. The main purpose of this work is to analyse methods and indicators available in the literature and to apply the Rough Sets Theory approach in order to highlight relevant features and to propose a contribution in evaluating the circular economy at regional level.