rebound effects as per the Jevons’ paradox. Economic features require special
attention for future research in the field for the preceding reason, and also to assess
absolute improvements on both natural resource and pollution reservoir preservation according to the approach presented in this paper.
5 Conclusion
Through this work, we developed a novel bi-dimensional approach to measure the
performance of circular economy beyond the sole objective of resource preservation. It allows a straight forward interpretation of MCI and LCA results revealing
trade-offs between improved material circularity and the risk of burden shifting over
given LCA damages categories. A case study comparing 2 end-of-life tire management CE strategies revealed that re-grooving offers a fully decoupled pathway,
compared to re-treading where trade-offs are identified with the increase of potential
human health and resources damages. In fact, re-treading worse off impacts on
human health by only 2.72%, while improving circularity by 31.1% from the
baseline scenario, we could question the significance of such results. Performing an
uncertainty analysis would help to get fair conclusions on this issue.
To identify resource impact category as one particular environmental reservoir
subset is controversial in the approach we propose. This point definitely requires
further clarifications for which we recommend future research on CE tools to focus
on the connection between micro scale and macro scale assessment. Substantial
improvements should be made on the MCI, as it fails to prevent from any kind of
burden shifting by excluding energy and background flows of its boundaries definition. Although the bi-dimensional analysis provides a good representation of
trade-off issues, it is relative to a baseline scenario whereas absolute values are
preferable, requiring economic features to be included as well.
References
1. Hotelling H, The economics of exhaustible resources, Journal of political Economy, 1931. 39
(2): p. 137–175.
2. Kampelmann S, Mesurer l’économie circulaire à l’échelle territoriale, Revue de l’OFCE, 2016
(1): p. 161–184.
3. Geyer R, et al., Common misconceptions about recycling, Journal of Industrial Ecology,
2015.
4. Bihouix P, L’Âge des low tech. Vers une civilisation techniquement soutenable, Éditions du
Seuil, collection Anthropocène, 2014.
5. Bihouix P, De Guillebon B, Quel futur pour les métaux? raréfaction des métaux: un nouveau
défi pour la société, 2010: EDP sciences.
6. Cooper D.R, Gutowski T.G, The Environmental Impacts of Reuse: A Review, Journal of
Industrial Ecology, 2015.
A Bi-dimensional Assessment to Measure the Performance …
41
attention for future research in the field for the preceding reason, and also to assess
absolute improvements on both natural resource and pollution reservoir preservation according to the approach presented in this paper.
5 Conclusion
Through this work, we developed a novel bi-dimensional approach to measure the
performance of circular economy beyond the sole objective of resource preservation. It allows a straight forward interpretation of MCI and LCA results revealing
trade-offs between improved material circularity and the risk of burden shifting over
given LCA damages categories. A case study comparing 2 end-of-life tire management CE strategies revealed that re-grooving offers a fully decoupled pathway,
compared to re-treading where trade-offs are identified with the increase of potential
human health and resources damages. In fact, re-treading worse off impacts on
human health by only 2.72%, while improving circularity by 31.1% from the
baseline scenario, we could question the significance of such results. Performing an
uncertainty analysis would help to get fair conclusions on this issue.
To identify resource impact category as one particular environmental reservoir
subset is controversial in the approach we propose. This point definitely requires
further clarifications for which we recommend future research on CE tools to focus
on the connection between micro scale and macro scale assessment. Substantial
improvements should be made on the MCI, as it fails to prevent from any kind of
burden shifting by excluding energy and background flows of its boundaries definition. Although the bi-dimensional analysis provides a good representation of
trade-off issues, it is relative to a baseline scenario whereas absolute values are
preferable, requiring economic features to be included as well.
References
1. Hotelling H, The economics of exhaustible resources, Journal of political Economy, 1931. 39
(2): p. 137–175.
2. Kampelmann S, Mesurer l’économie circulaire à l’échelle territoriale, Revue de l’OFCE, 2016
(1): p. 161–184.
3. Geyer R, et al., Common misconceptions about recycling, Journal of Industrial Ecology,
2015.
4. Bihouix P, L’Âge des low tech. Vers une civilisation techniquement soutenable, Éditions du
Seuil, collection Anthropocène, 2014.
5. Bihouix P, De Guillebon B, Quel futur pour les métaux? raréfaction des métaux: un nouveau
défi pour la société, 2010: EDP sciences.
6. Cooper D.R, Gutowski T.G, The Environmental Impacts of Reuse: A Review, Journal of
Industrial Ecology, 2015.
A Bi-dimensional Assessment to Measure the Performance …
41