Resources and circular economy

If you look at the global extraction and processing of natural resources (biomass, fossil fuels, metals and minerals), it accounts for no less than 53 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions and more than 90 percent of global biodiversity loss, according to a report from the UN Environment Organization – UNEP.

We must therefore learn to consume circularly and send our materials into valuable circuits – again, again and again.

We are far from achieving that today – and certainly not in Denmark, which is among the countries with the highest consumption of resources in the world. If everyone lived like us Danes, we would have to use resources equivalent to 4,2 Earths per year. In Denmark, we use 24,5 tonnes per inhabitant per year. In comparison, an EU citizen uses an average of 17,8 tonnes of materials per year, and we need to get down to 8 tonnes per inhabitant if we are to have resource consumption within planetary limits.

We are also at the very bottom when it comes to circularity. The Circularity Gap Report shows that Denmark's economy is only 4 percent circular. This means that only 4 percent of the materials we use come back into circulation and are used again. This places Denmark well below the global average of 7,2 percent and miles away from circular frontrunners such as the Netherlands, which has an economy that is 25 percent circular. Denmark also has the highest municipal waste production per inhabitant in the EU-27 – it amounted to 845 kg/year/inhabitant in 2020. The EU average is 505 kg/year/inhabitant.

Denmark has a long-standing tradition of incinerating waste and has therefore been a laggard in the transition to a more circular waste treatment. Furthermore, so far we have not seen a political effort aimed at waste prevention, where a reduction in our consumption is first and foremost needed, and then a much greater focus on building up recycling systems, where products/materials are used for the same purpose again without first to undergo processing - as we know it from e.g. pawnshops and thrift stores.

Therefore, a far greater and more ambitious political effort is needed. New legislation is needed which can pave the way for building new value chains, establishing new material flows, phasing out chemicals in products, developing new technologies and new behavior on the part of citizens.

In recent years, the EU has really focused on circularity and resource consumption and has announced and adopted several proposals in this area. But we are far from the goal and higher ambitions and increased pace are needed if we are to move towards more circularity and more sustainable consumption – and this applies both in Denmark, in the EU and globally.

Green Transition Denmark thus works to promote a more circular economy, where we consume less, reuse and recycle resources as much as possible. We work for cross-cutting and ambitious strategies, more knowledge, stronger partnerships and new initiatives that can strengthen circularity and reduce resource consumption. We work for greater political ambitions and a faster pace in relation to the transition to a more circular resource economy - both at home and in the EU.