Bio-Economy Contribution to Circular
Economy
Sara Corrado and Serenella Sala
Abstract European policies are advocating a transition toward “bio-economy”, an
economy aiming at reducing the dependence from fossil-based resources, limiting
greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts, safeguarding food security
and ensuring a sustainable economic growth. Besides, circular economy policies are
aiming at closing the loop of resources as much as possible. The application of
circular economy principles to bio-economy could represent a valuable contribution
to bio-economy performance optimisation. The present paper investigates the
contribution of bio-economy to circular economy. It proposes a conceptual
framework to assess the potential for circularity for bio-waste and related
by-products and it puts forward some considerations on the application of this
framework to food waste. However, both bio-economy and circular economy may
imply environmental burdens if an integrated assessment encompassing all life
cycle stages of production and consumption is missing. Hence, adopting life cycle
assessment is crucial to unveil trade-offs and ensuring identifying the best options
for bio-economy and circular economy implementation.
1 Introduction
Natural resources provided by the Earth, both biotic and abiotic (i.e. raw materials,
energy, water, air, land and soil as well as biodiversity and ecosystems) represent
crucial economy and life-support elements for human societies worldwide. Indeed,
natural resources are a building block in the supply chain, thus pushing the economic growth, and providing global functions, as in climate regulation. However,
in a globalised world where population is in continuous expansion and the demand
for finite resources continues to increase, the current production and consumption
patterns in developed and developing countries are generating concerns about their
S. Corrado Á S. Sala (&)
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate D-Sustainable Resources,
Bio-Economy Unit, via Enrico Fermi 2749, 21027 I-Ispra, VA, Italy
e-mail: serenella.sala@ec.europa.eu
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_6
49
Economy
Sara Corrado and Serenella Sala
Abstract European policies are advocating a transition toward “bio-economy”, an
economy aiming at reducing the dependence from fossil-based resources, limiting
greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts, safeguarding food security
and ensuring a sustainable economic growth. Besides, circular economy policies are
aiming at closing the loop of resources as much as possible. The application of
circular economy principles to bio-economy could represent a valuable contribution
to bio-economy performance optimisation. The present paper investigates the
contribution of bio-economy to circular economy. It proposes a conceptual
framework to assess the potential for circularity for bio-waste and related
by-products and it puts forward some considerations on the application of this
framework to food waste. However, both bio-economy and circular economy may
imply environmental burdens if an integrated assessment encompassing all life
cycle stages of production and consumption is missing. Hence, adopting life cycle
assessment is crucial to unveil trade-offs and ensuring identifying the best options
for bio-economy and circular economy implementation.
1 Introduction
Natural resources provided by the Earth, both biotic and abiotic (i.e. raw materials,
energy, water, air, land and soil as well as biodiversity and ecosystems) represent
crucial economy and life-support elements for human societies worldwide. Indeed,
natural resources are a building block in the supply chain, thus pushing the economic growth, and providing global functions, as in climate regulation. However,
in a globalised world where population is in continuous expansion and the demand
for finite resources continues to increase, the current production and consumption
patterns in developed and developing countries are generating concerns about their
S. Corrado Á S. Sala (&)
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate D-Sustainable Resources,
Bio-Economy Unit, via Enrico Fermi 2749, 21027 I-Ispra, VA, Italy
e-mail: serenella.sala@ec.europa.eu
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_6
49