Potentialities and Contradictions of The Circular Economy in A Sustainable Development Perspective: Evidence from Chinese Eco-Industrial Parks

Abstract

This dissertation is intended to analyze the contribution of the circular economy in the accomplishment of a more sustainable growth at China’s meso level. The three pillars of sustainable development – environment, economy, and society – represent the scale of measurement in said analysis. The dissertation is divided into four sections. The first section focuses on Chinese ecological thinking, attempting to retrace the steps of its ethical development, from ancient philosophies to contemporary environmentalism represented by ecological civilization. It finally introduces the topic of circular economy in relation to ecological civilization discourse. The second section aims to illustrate the circular economy’s definitions and conceptual framework, related driver and barrier forces and the most common circular business models with a special focus on industrial symbiosis. The latter indeed represents the prevalent form of circular implementation at the meso level. The third section consists of an overview of China’s experience of circular economy in eco-industrial parks at the meso level, describing the existing political and operational framework and the adopted national indicator systems. A case study is also provided. The fourth and final section first clarifies the relationship between sustainable development and the circular economy; it then aims to identify the potentialities that the circular economy has proved to produce in Chinese eco-industrial parks from an environmental, economic, and social point of view. The final part of this chapter also illustrates the contradictory sides of the circular economy when related to sustainable development.