Circular Economy and Circular Bioeconomy as pillars of the ecological transition for a worldwide enhanced sustainability

Résumé

We are currently experiencing a worldwide crisis that is unprecedented, a complicated and perplexing scenario that is full of challenges, symbolized by environmental, social and economic emergencies. Ecological challenges, such as the worldwide climate crisis, the expanding global population, the significant demand on natural resources, the over-extraction of primary materials, and overall pressures and impacts on the environment that humans are experiencing, are interconnected and require urgent and effective actions. Along with environmental ones, social and economic inequities are growing. The increasing use of natural resources, together with the production of waste and pollution, has caused humans to breach critical planetary boundaries. For the sake of the environment and global justice, it has to be favored the severe enforcement of reduction for emissions, pollutants, and resources (i.e., energy, raw materials, water, land, etc.) consumption and utilization. Three keywords can be declared and disseminated in any context, at urban and national policy, at the industrial level, and in common life: efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency. The efficiency notion is referred to an optimization of the processes, to produce the best results, and connected to optimization in energy consumption and in the utilization of resources. It is necessary to refer to the idea of eco-efficiency, which entails minimizing the negative effects of any process on the environment by lengthening the lifespan of the products, promoting material recycling, and boosting the use of renewable resources. Consistency, in general, is the attempt to incorporate the material and production cycles into the natural cycles as well. It represents an integrated constructive approach creating closed-loop material flows, and a more widespread circular economy, with attentive regard to the bioeconomy. Being satisfied with less material commodities and more intangible social and collective goods is what sufficiency ultimately entails. The sufficiency principle, also known as enoughness or strong sustainable consumption, should be incorporated into materials and resources management policies and plans in order to dissociate the concepts of life satisfaction from materialism, to decouple human development and prosperity from resources consumption and depletion. The concept of environmental sustainability falls within the constraints of the resource-limited growth ecological economic framework. According to this definition, environmental sustainability also refers to a set of restrictions on two essential activities—the use of renewable and non-renewable resources on the source side and the assimilation of pollution and waste on the outcome—that govern the scales of the human economic subsystem. Another definition of environmental sustainability emphasizes its bio-geophysical components. The maintenance or improvement of the systems that support our life is referred to as biophysical sustainability. Providing opportunities for economic and social advancement for present and future generations within the context of cultural variety, while preserving the biosphere's biological diversity and biogeochemical integrity through resource conservation and sensible use, is part of this. Environmental sustainability and development are inextricably linked to the idea of the ecosystem and the natural processes that sustain life on our planet, such as the ozone layer in the stratosphere, the climate, the hydrological or biogeochemical cycles, mineral resources, water and oceans, the land on the surface, and the space below and above the Earth. The most crucial component of the environmental framework and a fundamental prerequisite for human life is biodiversity. Taking care of nature itself, the world's ecosystems, and biodiversity entails taking care of the goods and services that nature offers. A more fundamental change is required in order to stay within the limits of the planet: a shift to an economy where prosperity is no longer predicated on the consumption of natural resources. The “circular economy” conceptual framework addresses resource use-related social and environmental challenges, mainly focusing on efficiency and consistency, complemented by the principles of sufficiency. The circular economy proposes a new paradigm in production and consumption, a different model to transform waste in resources and to redesign materials flows. In order to realize the European Commission's vision of a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy that can lead our society to a decarbonized and pollutant-free future, it must be accompanied by initiatives to prevent waste, promote sufficiency, and decouple the concepts of well-being from consumerism and the depletion of natural resources. Reducing, reusing, and recycling are the cornerstones of the circular economy idea, that has to be restorative and regenerative by intention and design. Based on the principles of a circular economy, with a focus on the use of renewable biological resources, the circular bioeconomy refers basically to an economic system food, energy, and other biomaterials creation oriented, entailing the sustainable use and management of natural resources, including forests, fisheries, and agricultural land. A bioeconomy must be sustainable in order to address issues of the environment and society. It is encouraged to employ renewable resources, produce sustainable biomass feedstock, and create goods and conversion methods using biomass. By incorporating circular economy ideas into the bioeconomy, a circular bioeconomy is easily seen as a more effective resource management of bio-based renewable resources. It can help restore the Earth's biodiversity and natural capital while significantly lowering the negative consequences of resource extraction and utilization on the environment. It should also avoid the loss of natural resources by encouraging the reuse and recycling of wastes, byproducts, losses, and other materials. To assess the environmental, economic, and social issues related to any activity, a life-cycle perspective can be adopted. The Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is a development of life cycle thinking for evaluating how a product, process, or service will affect the environment and society over the course of its full life cycle, from the extraction and processing of raw materials to disposal or recycling. It considers the complete spectrum of environmental, economic, and social impacts, including resource use, energy use, emissions, waste production, and socioeconomic implications. It provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating the sustainability of products or processes, taking into account both the positive and negative impacts of each stage of their life cycle. Objectives The main objective of this doctoral dissertation has been a deep description of the state of the art of the worldwide ecological crisis and the identification of possible solutions, promoting circular economy and circular bioeconomy perspectives. The importance of integrating ecological and socio-economic issues by adopting a life-cycle thinking perspective, to assess the environmental, economic, and social consequences in some sectors, has been highlighted. In particular, in the first part of the research, the buildings and construction sector has been explored, because of its importance both in terms of economic and environmental impacts. Building and construction is a very resource-intensive industry on a global scale and it must transition to a circular economy in order to lessen its effects on the environment and safeguard our finite resources. As stated in the first paper (annex 1), it is well acknowledged that the built environment has a significant impact on the environment globally. This industry is in charge of producing about 50% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and it consumes up to 40% of all the raw materials taken from the lithosphere. Along the entire chain from construction to destruction, passing through utilization and maintenance, buildings and construction are responsible for a significant portion of the overall energy consumption (approximately 40%) and carbon emissions (36%).. It is important to emphasize the significance of a product's "green design," which must be focused on a decrease in the consumption of raw materials and waste prevention along the full life cycle of products. The European strategy for a Sustainably Built Environment will promote circularity principles of construction over a building's lifespan, beginning with an update in the Construction Product Regulation, also adopting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach in public procurement. In addition, it was investigated how Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment, as essential tools for sustainability, Eco-design, an innovative approach to building and construction, and appropriate and efficient recycling procedures for Construction and Demolition Waste, with a focus on concrete recycling in line with the case studies examined, can support circular economy in building and construction. Finally, Circular Economy principles state that implementing energy efficiency is anticipated by optimizing lifecycle performance and extending the lifespan of historically significant construction. For this purpose, and as a fundamental goal of the study activities, the second paper (annex 2) presents a case study involving the application of the LCA approach to building restoration and emphasizes the significance of LCA-based methods in the assessment and selection of materials in the field of conservation and repair of historical buildings, which account for a sizable portion of the building stock, particularly in Europe. Subsequently, the main goal of the thesis' second section was to concentrate on the fundamentals of a circular bio-economy, the importance of protecting biodiversity, the use of renewable biological resources, and the proper and efficient treatment of organic waste. The sustainability of the bioeconomy could be threatened by a number of environmental and socioeconomic risks, including rising land-use competition between food and fuel crops, direct and indirect changes in land use, marginal land use with detrimental effects on biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions, among others. In this context, an overview of organic waste management, with a particular focus on some emerging economies or developing countries has been conducted. According to papers 3 and 4 (see both corresponding annexes), one of the largest portions of the global waste management system is made up of organic waste. It will be analysed different strategies at the European level, as well as researches carried on in the context of South and central America, shows that in the area there are many bio-based infrastructures, including biogas recovery systems, composting facilities, and bioremediation techniques The Middle East, and particularly the Occupied Palestinian Territories, are experiencing increasing environmental degradation due to a lack of water resources, the dramatic effects of climate change, destructive land use, and poor waste management practices. This degradation has been made worse by years of conflict. The objective of the study, in this context, will be to implement a pilot project to optimize organic waste collection and composting for local agriculture. Finally, as the last objective related to Paper 5, it was significant to highlight how, in terms of biodiversity, the Central America area, represents a "hotspot", rich in flora and fauna species. It contains over 7% of the world's biological diversity despite covering only 1% of the planet's area. Additionally, according to the United Nations, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean are the regions with the highest forest cover (25% each). In Central America, this percentage is roughly 38% of its surface. According to certain projections, 300 million hectares of land could be made available by 2050 for the development of bioeconomy-related industries. The protection of biodiversity must also be a shared goal for Central America and the region can move toward a bio-based and circular economy with an environmentally friendly approach, given current technology and Central America's potential for biodiversity. On the same subjects, the last step in the comparison between the European Union and Central America is represented by the issue of “Biocapacity and governance”. The research is on the way to being published, concentrating on the livestock trade sector and utilizing the environmental tools and policies available in both the European Union and the Central American Region. The EU's ecological footprint has surpassed environmental limits, as indicated in the paper, and it is now a net importer of biocapacity. Outside of the EU's boundaries, 31% of the continent's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 42% of its water footprint are produced. The EU adopted the Communication on Trade, Growth, and World Affairs in 2010, which emphasizes that the EU trade policy should continue to support green growth and climate change objectives as well as to support and promote various areas around the world, in terms of energy, resource efficiency, and biodiversity protection. The last objective of this work plan will be to consider economic factors and environmental sustainability as a crucial component of good European governance should be one of the main results of this commitment to support green growth and improve sustainability in the planet.