Interrogating the circular economy: the moral economy of resource recovery in the EU

Abstract

The concept of the circular economy has gained increasing prominence in academic, practitioner and policy circles and is linked to greening economies and sustainable development. However, the idea is more often celebrated than critically interrogated. Analysis shows the concept circulates as an idea and ideal, exemplified by industrial symbiosis and extended product life. Yet, its actual enactment is limited and fragile. Instead, circular economies are achieved mostly through global recycling networks which are the primary means by which wastes are recovered as resources. European policies eschew these circuits. Resource recovery through global recycling networks is regarded as a dirty and illegal trade. In its place, EU circular economies attempt to transform wastes into resources within the boundaries of the EU. Through an analysis of two case studies of resource recovery in the United Kingdom, we highlight the challenges that confront making circular economies within the EU, showing that these are borne of a conjuncture of politically created markets, material properties and morally defined materials circuits. We show resource recovery in the EU to be framed by moral economies, driven by discourses of ecological modernization, environmental justice and resource (in)security, the last of which connects to China's resource-intensive development.

Keywords:

• circular economies
• recycling
• resource recovery
• anaerobic digestion
• waste

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ray Hudson, Paul Langley and Colin McFarlane for comments on earlier versions and to the journal’s Editorial Board for encouraging a reframing of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Until 2014, W(aste) R(esources) A(ction) P(rogramme) was a UK-based not-for-profit company supported by funding from Defra (the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and charged with promoting sustainable waste management by creating stable, efficient markets for recycled materials and products. Defra is the lead government department for waste policy in England and Wales.

2. Anaerobic digestion is ‘a process of controlled decomposition of biodegradable materials under managed conditions where free oxygen is absent … that convert[s] the inputs to biogas and whole digestate’ (BSI, 2010, 3.2).

3. The case studies are based on interviews conducted in 2011/2012 with 16 facilities, of varying scale and size, spread equally across both sectors, and analysis of policy documents and the trade press from 2011 to 2014.

4. The most high-profile case of odour ‘overflow’ in the UK AD sector is Biffa’s Cannock plant, which was forced by the EA to undertake £800k of odour abatement measures in 2012, just one year after opening.

5. PAS 110 is a Publicly Available Standard, designed as a fast-track precursor to a potential future British standard (BSI, 2010). It is ‘a voluntary, industry-led specification (which) sets out the minimum quality required for whole digestate, separated liquor and separated fibre which may be used as a fertiliser or soil improver’ (BSI, 2010, p. 0.2).

Additional information

Funding

Research for this paper was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) [grant number RES 000-23-0007] (The Waste of the World) and by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Council (EPSRC) ‘Bridging the Gap’ [grant number EP/J501323/1].

This research was conducted at Durham University, where Fuller and Holmes were employed under the ESRC and EPSRC grants acknowledged at the end of the paper.

Notes on contributors

Nicky Gregson

Nicky Gregson is a Professor of Human Geography at Durham University. She led the ESRC-funded Waste of the World programme and has published extensively on waste and recycling in economies.

Mike Crang

Mike Crang is a Professor of Geography at Durham University who has worked on waste, cultural values and landscape. He has published several books and is currently finishing Unbecoming things, with Nicky Gregson, and a work on Wastescapes in photography.

Sara Fuller

Helen Holmes is a Research Assistant at the University of Sheffield, currently working on the EPSRC-funded interdisciplinary project ‘Solar Energy for Future Societies’. As the project's ethnographer, Helen's role builds upon her interest in practice by exploring interdisciplinary practices among the research team.

Helen Holmes

Sara Fuller is a Lecturer in the Department of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University, Australia. Her research explores concepts and practices of justice and democracy in the field of environment, with empirical focus on grassroots, community and activist responses to climate change. Prior to joining Macquarie, she worked and conducted research in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.