Circular Economy Laws as a Means, Not an End: The Case of Sustainable Car Sharing

November 2022
Citation:
52
ELR 10922
Issue
11
Author
Harri Kalimo and Eleanor Mateo

The circular economy has gone mainstream as a goal in the transitions toward a more sustainable society. Often, however, laws that promote a circular economy remain vague or narrowly focused on resource efficiency, obscuring the fact that they have multiple environmental effects and can lead to environmental trade offs. This Article examines how to properly frame circular economy laws for sustainability, focusing on product-service systems generally and the case of car sharing in particular. Its analysis shows that a circular economy is not to be framed as an end, but as a means of striving for environmental sustainability.

Harri Kalimo is a Professor and the Co-Director of the 3E Research Centre at the Brussels School of Governance (BSOG) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and a Professor at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) Law School. Eleanor Mateo is a Joint Ph.D. candidate at the BSOG and Faculty of Law & Criminology at the VUB, and the UEF Law School.

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