THEORETICAL PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF CORRELATION BETWEEN CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND WASTE LEGISLATION

Abstract

Recently, the idea of the circular economy has received increasing attention in socio-legal discourse and is currently widely discussed in the context of public policy making, public life, and science. Commitments were made at the EU level to achieve a circular economy, which has been declared as a basis for public welfare. However, a number of problematic aspects that require scientific research still exist on both theoretical and practical levels. This article summarises the concepts of the circular economy elaborated on in various pieces of research, provides an analysis of its implementation in legislation, and reveals the problems of correlation between theoretical postulates of the circular economy and the actual legal regulation of waste management with regard to waste management issues. Legal regulation of the transition to a circular economy is not yet complete and, given the ambitious goals for implementing the circular economy, should be further enhanced in light of the intense development of the circular economy in both science and practice.

Keywords

• circular economy
• waste management legislation
• waste hierarchy