How Circular Are the European Economies? A Taxonomic Analysis Based on the INEC (Index of National Economies’ Circularity)

Abstract

In this paper, the aggregate index of national economies’ circularity (INEC) was proposed and empirically verified. For this purpose, the taxonomic linear ordering method was used, which is a multi-criteria decision-making procedure. This method replaces the analysis of the phenomenon described by a set of indicators with an analysis using one aggregate indicator: the so-called ‘synthetic metric’. Based on 14 circular economy indicators that are available in the Eurostat database, the circularity indexes were constructed for 24 EU countries (including the United Kingdom). This allowed the author, on the one hand, to create a ranking of the countries, and on the other, to assign them to four groups, which were characterized by a similar level of circularity. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: how circular are the European economies? What are the main challenges in achieving circularity in Europe? Taking into account the INEC range [0,1], it should be noted that the level of circularity in the analysed European countries is low (an average of 0.3021). Therefore, the paper indicates the areas requiring improvement in this respect.