Preference for circular economy: an EU-Centric perspective

Abstract

Circular Economy (CE) is a new paradigm that changes the linear model, replacing the end-of-life concept with R CE strategies, such as recover, repair, reuse and recycle. The EU citizens' support for CE will be analysed in the current study with the Standard Eurobarometer 99 (EB99) dataset, which included 26,415 respondents from the 27 Member States of the European Union. The endogenous variable measuring the CE support will be obtained from a list of 12 objectives of the European Green Deal. An ample set of potential CE support drivers and barriers was analysed using fifteen latent and twenty categorical variables. The effects were studied with an ordered probit model. The results show that the EU CE citizens' support is heterogeneous and depends on multiple factors. Interesting insights are discussed regarding how policymakers can focus on the drivers, addressing the main barriers to designing educational campaigns that leverage CE business models.