DELIVERING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY A TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS

54 • DELIVERING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY – A TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS
listed in Table 1 (in Part 1) and the findings for Denmark listed in Part 3. Thereafter it can
be helpful to reach out to sector stakeholders and experts to refine this overview to
ensure that the mapping covers all relevant opportunities.
As the purpose of the mapping exercise is to create an overview of opportunities by
sector, not to fully detail all these opportunities, the exercise can be conducted relatively
quickly.
2.2.2 Prioritise and detail circular economy opportunities
Objective:
Prioritise and detail opportunities in each focus sector based on
potential impact
End product:
Set of (one to three) prioritised and detailed opportunities per sector.
The systematic screening of opportunities described above can result in a large
number of possible opportunities for each focus sector. To guide further analysis, these
opportunities need to be prioritised. The prioritised opportunities can then in turn
be detailed and assessed in terms of sector-specific impact (Section 2.2.3), barriers
(Section 2.2.4) and policy options (Section 2.2.5).
Prioritising and detailing the opportunities is, together with the two following analyses
(quantifying the value and identifying the barriers in Sections 2.2.3 and 2.2.4), the part
of the methodology that probably entails most involvement of businesses. While the
project team can make proposals based on literature review and international best
practices, only businesses can provide input grounded in local business reality on what
the opportunities could exactly look like.
PRIORITISATION
The expected impact is likely the best guide for an initial prioritisation of opportunities.
A classical impact-feasibility prioritisation approach could also be used, but it can be
easier to only assess potential impact (and not feasibility) at the start of the process,
when the understanding of the opportunities is least advanced. In the Denmark pilot,
for example, it quickly became clear that 3D printing of building modules could have a
significant impact in the construction sector (see Chapter 3.3 for more details). It was
however much harder to assess its feasibility without more detailed analysis.
A simple, qualitative scoring mechanism to rank the circular economy opportunities can
be used. Figure 12 shows an indicative prioritisation based on economic and resource
impact of the different action areas in the ReSOLVE framework for 20 major sectors
in Europe. While this table should not be regarded as the final say on where potential
can be found, it can give a first indication to guide the effort. The Denmark pilot used a
qualitative, five-tiered ranking to prioritise up to three opportunities per sector. Figure
13 shows an example mapping for the Construction & Real Estate sector in the Denmark
pilot.
When ranking the opportunities, it is important to not only consider the action areas as
individual, decoupled parts, but also to keep in mind their systemic effects. In packaging,
for example, focusing on objectives such as light weighting (‘optimise’) using composite/
multi-layered polymer/fibre/metal materials without consideration of the full life-cycle of
the packaging (explicitly at the end of use) can lead to a significantly reduced potential
for recyclability (‘loop’). Impacts can even extend across sectors – for example, wrapping
cucumbers in a plastic film increases the amount of plastic waste, but can increase the
cucumbers’ shelf life from three to 14 days, 61 which is an important lever in avoiding food
waste.
61 According to the Cucumber Growers Association, this requires 1.5 g of packaging. Other studies have found
that shrink-wrapped apple trays reduce wastage by 27%, with similar results for potatoes and grapes. See, for
example, Levitt, S. D. & Dubner, S. J., When to Rob a Bank: A Rogue Economist’s Guide to the World (2015).