Recourse to the Circular Economy: The Path Ahead

Advancements in science and technology have raised our understanding regarding the levels and types of unsustainability to a greater degree. The world is facing formidable challenges in laying down a path towards a sustainable economy. Undoubtedly, several supply-side factors are crucial in sustainability discourse. However, the demand-side factors have a critical role to play in determining—how long-term sustainability would unfold? Globally, the concept of the circular economy (CE) is being advocated as an effective means of ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns in the times ahead. In this backdrop, this chapter provides a review of the conceptual foundations of the CE as was first proposed by Pearce and Turner, and analyses the scope and methodological framework of CE in terms of its inter-linkages with other fields such as industrial ecology and ecological economics. It further provides an overview of the recent initiatives of the Government of India towards the adoption of CE. Finally, it puts forth an economic perspective towards CE and highlights some potential hindrances in its mainstreaming from the economic methodology point of view in the realm of the neoclassical economic paradigm. It concludes that there is an urgent need to move beyond the techno-centric and business-oriented understanding of CE to a framework that attempts to integrate with the socio-economic realities and development priorities of the developing economies.