CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.

Monica Cocconi

Abstract: The new paradigm of the circular economy surpasses the boundaries of the administrative action of mere waste management to protect the environment to include, in a holistic way, the whole industrial process of designing and producing goods and the associated social and training profiles; it is, therefore, an instrument of industrial policy, capable of guiding and attracting investment, generating value; it is therefore a model which cannot be confined to the shadow of environmental protection but which necessarily includes social profiles, This is why we have tabled an amendment to this effect. The efficient use of resources must indeed be seen not only as an environmental objective but also as an objective of industrial competitiveness. On the side of the instruments, the adoption of direct regulatory measures is accompanied by the use of economic and financial instruments (grants, certifications, tax incentives, Green Public procurement) aimed at influencing the willingness of companies to carry out production processes with a lower environmental impact in a differently calibrated balance of command and control and market instruments.

1. Towards a new development paradigm. 2. Origin and characters of the circular economy model. 3. The European framework on the new economic paradigm. 3.1 The new Package of Directives on the Circular Economy: the missing link to a completed circularity model. 3.2 The take-off of the circular economy by supplying raw materials. 3.3. The contribution to the circular economy of the use of biological resources and the instruments of market regulation 4. The challenges posed to the European Union by the emergence of the new economic model. 5. Some conclusive observations.