- Firm
- Provisional
- Coming soon
- Revised
- Firm
- Provisional
- Coming soon
- Revised
How well are we doing?
Editor's note: We have recently refreshed and updated our data for all countries on the platform, as we revised the 21 policies we cover.
A circular economy is essential to a green economy, providing the foundation for circular business models, ambitious standards for reuse, sustainable public procurement, and measurable progress toward higher circular material use across the whole economy.
National policies here generally fall around the mid-to-high range with all countries showing at least some form of national planning on circularity policy even if limited or still in the proposal phase.
Showcasing strong leadership are Australia, Brazil, Germany, France and Sweden which all demonstrate strong national commitment to advancing circular economy through various frameworks, strategies or roadmaps such as Brazil’s 2025 National Circular Economy Strategy (ENEC) or France’s 2018 Circular Economy Roadmap (FREC). Some concrete measures of this are exemplified through Germany’s “Circularity Made in Germany” seal for certified circular enterprise and Sweden’s introduction of tax reductions on repair services (electronics, bikes, clothes) and a right-to-repair initiative well ahead of EU legislation. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is demonstrating strong commitment. Despite still lacking explicit CMUR targets and consumer repair rights, it has shown great strides with the UAE Circular Economy Policy launched in 2021 and the newly restructured Circular Economy Council that oversees implementation of 22 national policies including textile recycling and aluminium reuse initiatives.
Countries facing greater challenges in this area and demonstrating limited or ad-hoc planning on circularity include Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Zambia. Senegal, for example, has shown ambition with some policies and pilot programmes such as its Zero Waste Programme & Law on Plastic Waste, but still lacks an economy-wide roadmap or action plan with binding targets.
If we could build an economy that would use things rather than use them up, we could build a future.
About this policy
Circularity, material reuse, and waste reduction are core parts of the green economy - with public, private, and third sector actors jumping on board to elevate and mainstream the agenda in recent years. Whether it is plastic waste in rivers and human bodies, electrical waste leeching into waste dumps, or critical minerals being wasted rather than re-used in in clean-tech - closing the loop in creating a circular flow in the material economy has a huge range of economic, social, and environmental benefits.
Many governments are linking together circular economy initiatives covering waste, product standards and materials into action plans or economy roadmaps - with targets for public bodies in procurement and incentives for new circular business models that create and repair consumer products. There is a divergent view of circular economy, viewed from industrial and emerging economies. On the one hand, high-tech, formal, and regulatory; and on the other low-tech, practical and informal. The modern circular economy bridges both waste-pickers recovering copper at scale, and custom-manufactured consumer goods with life-time guarantees.
The strongest policy approaches are using a broad range of tools to improve circularity and minimise waste, targeting sustained increases in economy-wide circular material use rates. The sticks and carrots for businesses to get on board include subsidies and procurement opportunities, and higher requirements for consumer repair rights - favouring less disposable products. As ever, a mix of high level and intermediate targets in a roadmap provide a clear way to distinguish paper plans from serious commitments. As does the level of attention to addressing the just transition aspects of fairly incorperating high skill, informal sector workers and practices into circular value chains.