Dutch
Circular Value Chains
2
 
KNOWLEDGE MAP Back to overview

Circular Economy

Why a circular economy?

The global demand for resources has tripled since 1970. If the current growth continues, the use of resources is projected to double by 2060! The growth in resource consumption is leading to increasing pressure on the environment. Additionally, there are growing concerns about the availability of specific resources for the Dutch economy. The government is therefore collaborating with the business sector and civil society to manage resources more efficiently and intelligently. The goal: a fully circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050.

Growing Environmental Pressure

The wasteful use of resources is increasingly causing environmental problems and putting various international agreements at risk.

The wasteful way we produce and consume in the Netherlands—with a high use of new resources—is one of the main causes of current environmental issues. The extraction of resources and their processing into materials such as steel and concrete, semi-finished products, and goods is responsible for:

  • approximately 50 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions;
  • about 30 percent of fine particulate matter emissions;
  • over 90 percent of water scarcity and biodiversity loss on land;
  • landscape degradation due to mining, large landfills, and plastic pollution in oceans.

The expected growth in resource use and its associated environmental effects put several international agreements and ambitions at risk, including the climate goals of Paris and the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The increasing environmental pressure also makes it more challenging to achieve other socio-economic goals, including some SDGs. Many socio-economic SDGs require additional resources, such as food to eradicate hunger, building materials for quality homes in rapidly growing cities, and minerals and metals to increase access to electricity.

 

Increasing Supply Risks

Growing concerns about the availability of specific resources for the Dutch economy

It’s not only the growing demand, but also the supply of resources that raises concerns. There are growing worries about the timely availability of specific resources, especially those with significant economic importance labeled as ‘critical.’ This includes critical metals for the energy transition, such as lithium and cobalt. The supply risks are not primarily due to the short-term depletion of resources but are caused by:

  • the long lead times for scaling up existing and opening new mines;
  • concerns about negative socio-economic and environmental effects of mining;
  • the concentration of extraction and processing in a limited number of countries;
  • the long and complicated networks of intermediate deliveries.

Europe is more dependent on resources from other countries than the average. This makes it particularly susceptible to supply risks of resources and products. For example, Europe heavily relies on critical materials from outside the European Union to achieve the energy transition. Due to a changing geopolitical context, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war, attention to supply security has greatly increased.

The Necessity of the Circular Economy

The resource issue requires radical changes in production and consumption

Addressing the outlined resource issue requires radically reducing and efficiently using resources. Producing and consuming with increased circularity is a crucial means to reduce negative environmental impacts and limit future resource crises. This can be achieved in various ways: using fewer resources by abstaining from products or sharing them, extending the lifespan of products and components through reuse and repair, high-quality recycling of materials, and substituting new finite resources with renewable resources—such as bioresources—and resources with less environmental pressure.

To learn more about the six circular strategies, read