Das Versprechen der Zirkularität

Against the backdrop of the recent political dynamics in the EU and in many of its member states regarding the Circular Economy, the present article discusses the impact of the concept so far and the challenges related to its implementation. In particular, it sheds a critical light on the following three aspects: first, the selective reception of the approach by key actors in industry and politics; second, the obvious implementation problems in trade and industry; and third, the underlying, growth-fixated economic model. Results from our own empirical work on the Luxembourg construction industry illustrate the reasoning. The article argues for a holistic and growth-critical understanding of circularity that not only gives space to orientation of efficiency and consistency but above all also to considerations of sufficiency.