You're listening to European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on the new circular economy package.

If we maintain our current growth and consumption levels, we may need two planets' worth of resources by 2030, as this is obviously not possible.

We're left with two choices, to consume less or to shift towards a circular economy

as the European Commission proposes and the European Parliament supports. But what does this

mean? Stay with us and we'll explain the new circular economy package to you.

In a traditional linear economic model, things work like this. A company produces a good, say a mobile phone or a hairdryer.

We buy it, we use it, and when we don't need it anymore, we throw it away.

This model assumes that resources are abundant, available and cheap to dispose of,

so it bases itself on a take, make, consume, throwaway pattern.

In sharp contrast to this, a circular economy is based on sharing, reusing, repairing,

refurbishing and recycling in an almost closed loop.

In this alternative model, products and the materials they contain are kept within the economy

for as long as possible, reducing waste to a minimum a minimum and actually the amount of waste generated in the EU

is already declining. Yes, but what would we do if we would need a mobile phone or a hairdryer?

Well, we can always buy a new one, but we would first consider repairing our old one or buying

it second hand, or even buying services instead of products. Moving towards a more circular economy

has an environmental, social and

economic rationale. It would reduce pressure on the environment, enhance the security of supply

raw materials, increase competitiveness and innovation, and create additional growth and jobs.

But how much are we talking about? Well, it's estimated that improved resource efficiency could reduce

net spending in the EU by 600 billion euros annually by 2030. And once multiplier effects are

accounted for, the total benefits could shoot up to 1.8 trillion euros per year. The idea is

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