The Circular Economy: A Critique of the Concept

The circular economy is an increasingly influential school of sustainable economic thinking, dominating recent five-year plans in Chinese policy and regularly featuring the sustainability discourse in the European Union and beyond. It is often said that the history of a concept tells us more about it than the concept itself, so we begin by contextualizing the circular economy through its historical development. We then compare and contrast the two dominant geopolitical versions of the circular economy, the Chinese and Western (European) models, identifying differences and issues in underlying principles. Particular attention is paid to the impact of populist economics and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dual Circulation Strategy of the 14th Five-Year Plan is then examined. In order to explore the current and future prospects for the circular economy, we explore the Earth system, on which, ultimately, our species relies upon. By teasing apart its functionality, two levels of organization emerge: local and global. The chapter ends by exploring the concept of sustainable economics and concludes by identifying the key characteristics of such a concept.