Abstract Summary
Resource scarcity and rapid urbanisation both in the light of rapidly changing demographics, power shifts and climate change create a snowballing challenge of sustainable development. In the recent years the transition towards a circular economy has been seen as a new paradigm that solves two major problems in one shot: the burden of waste and the scarcity of resources. Fascinated by the opportunities, a number of cities, countries and regions (with Amsterdam as a frontrunner) have started setting ambitious transition goals and building monitoring mechanisms. Those monitoring mechanisms are expected to rely on the existing statistics. However, the regulations of waste statistics are relicts of the still linear economy. Therefore, in her PhD research, Rusne Sileryte has been asking: how can the current European Waste Statistics be used to monitor and advance the transition? Is it enough to inform our decisions? And which challenges do we need to solve first when it comes to circular economy monitoring?
