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Circular or vicious loops? : gauging the persistence of EU waste law against the circular economy transition
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0952-8873; 1464-374X
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Journal of environmental law, 2025, Art. eqaf016, OnlineFirst
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TSIATSIANIS, Dimitrios, Circular or vicious loops? : gauging the persistence of EU waste law against the circular economy transition, Journal of environmental law, 2025, Art. eqaf016, OnlineFirst - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/92851
Abstract
Against unsustainable patterns of resource consumption, EU waste law has committed to a Circular Economy (CE) transition. Although the CE model promotes material circulation through waste prevention and recovery, it is impeded if product rules do not anticipate waste-related risks of non-virgin materials for humans and the environment. Therefore, institutional actors of EU waste law shall complement product law by advancing knowledge about the chemical substances of non-virgin materials, or else adopt a substance-based approach. Through a Historical Institutionalism (HI) lens, the article gauges the implications of older and persistent institutional forces against the substance-based approach, in the field of by-product rules. More specifically, the Commission and the EU judiciary have persistently exercised their agency to maintain the prominence of an action-based approach, where the safety of by-products is contingent on human actions assigning value to them. This persistent approach obstructs safe waste prevention as the highest CE pillar.
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Published online: 20 June 2025