This report is authored by Matthew Fraser, Laxmi Haigh, Alvaro Conde Soria and others.

Report name

The Circularity Gap Report 2023

Who wrote this report?

Circle Economy is a global impact organisation with an international team of passionate experts based in Amsterdam. They empower businesses, cities and nations with practical and scalable solutions to put the circular economy into action. Their vision is an economic system that ensures the planet and all people can thrive. To avoid climate breakdown, their goal is to double global circularity by 2032.

The first Circularity Gap Report presented the alarming statistic that the globe’s economy was only 9.1% circular, leaving a massive circularity gap. The report, launched in January 2018 during the World Economic Forum in Davos, has since been updated and published every year. This iteration marks the sixth edition.

The reports provide high-level insights into the globe’s material flows and key levers for transitioning to circularity. They also support decision-makers with clear metrics, global data and a measurement of the circular economy to guide their action.

For the first time, Circle Economy partnered with Deloitte.

Best quote

The challenge of the 21st century must be to regain balance between satisfying people’s needs and planetary health. Excessive and wasteful consumption is outdated—the planet is humanity’s life support system and it should be treated as such. The circular economy offers a deep pool of solutions that are key to solving this challenge—using fewer materials where possible and squeezing out as much value as possible from the materials we use. Achieving more with less.

Key takeaways:

  • Today the global economy is only 7.2% circular. The world is getting less circular year after year due to rising material extraction and use.
  • Currently, five of the nine ‘planetary boundaries’—which measure holistic planetary health—have been surpassed. The circular strategies of narrowing (using less), slowing (using longer), regenerating (make clean) and cycling (use again) can reverse this.
  • We can fulfil society’s needs with 70% of what we currently use. Circular solutions in just four global systems can combat environmental breakdown and limit global warming temperatures to within 2 degrees by lowering material use to sustainable levels.

What’s in this report?

The goal of the annual Circularity Gap Report is to quantify the current circular state of the world. Today, the global economy is only 7.2% circular, meaning only 7.2% of what we currently consume is cycled back into the economy. In addition to updating the Circularity Metric, this report takes stock of a range of other crucial indicators concerning global material flows. It also identifies circular solutions within key systems that are based on the needs of society and impactful on a range of planetary boundaries for healthy air, water and land.

The report demonstrates the power that a circular economy can have in reversing the overshoot on multiple planetary boundaries, and illustrates which circular solutions are most suitable for different country profiles, based on economic, social and environmental differences.

Why should you read this report?

In 2018, the global economy was 9.1% circular. It has now fallen to 7.2%. Comparing these figures can be difficult, however, it is clear that circularity decreases as global material extraction increases. A circular economy focused on cycling alone cannot keep up with exponential growth and virgin material use—we cannot recycle our way out of this one.

Where this report differs from previous editions is in its discussion of the Planetary Boundaries framework. Our current economic model is smashing through the planet’s safe limits. Today, five of the nine key ‘planetary boundaries’ that measure environmental health have been broken—largely due to the impacts of the linear ‘take-make-waste’ economy. It is, therefore, critical that we transform our relationship with materials.

Ultimately, this study finds that implementing 16 solutions across four key sectors could not only reverse the planetary overshoot and prevent 2-degree global warming, but could slash the global need for material extraction by about one-third.

Who is this report for?

The Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative empowers key decision-makers from around the world in both government and business to coordinate action in accelerating the circular transition. National governments can enable the transition by promoting legislations that favour a circular economy in their own countries and support other countries in the transition.

Businesses can implement circular design in their business models and support research and development of new solutions and technologies for a circular economy. The report facilitates this by bringing together stakeholders from businesses, governments, academia and NGOs; and showcases successful case studies, collaborations and solutions.

🔗 Read the full report here. 🔗

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