Current Status of Circular Economy Research in Finland

Abstract

Circular economy has emerged as a sustainable alternative to the traditional, linear, extract-produce-use-dump economy. The scientific society, practitioners, policymakers, and business sectors are all actively taking part in driving the transition toward circular economy in their own sectors. Every sector is striving to address the environmental issues of their own area, and to find solutions to the problem of resource scarcity. However, there is a lack of comprehensive studies on the general status of circular economy research and applied projects. Finland aims to be a global pioneer in this field, which is why there is a tremendous boost in research in various fields of sustainable materials management. Therefore, there is a need to have a better perspective of the research society’s efforts to accelerate the transition to circular economy. The objective of this paper is to review scientific research and practices of circular economy transition in Finland, in order to categorize and analyze them. The paper aims to give an insight into the current status and provide a comprehensive understanding of the trend changes during the past 20 years. The analysis shows that there is growing attention to circular economy in many research fields, researchers and practitioners in all fields have responded to the need of the society. However, the recycling-based ‘end-of-pipe’ interpretation of circular economy is still more dominant than developing and implementing strategies for circular product design, dematerializing society, and developing service-based business models. It is important to bear in mind that circular economy is about much more than improved resource flows and waste management practices. Achieving a circular economy needs the engagement of the society, it needs invention and innovation and it also requires the creation of new technologies, products, services, and business models. This study gives a comprehensive perspective at the national level and addresses the key actions and sectors which require more investment and attention from the scientific community to boost the transition toward circular economy. There are some limitation in this study derived from the method of data collection and selection of databases. Due to this, there may be valuable works that were not published, or only in the Finnish language and were, therefore, not identified in this study.

Leveraging the Entrepreneurial Method as a Tool for the Circular Economy: The Case of Wood Waste

“…Urbinati et al [14] noted that a circular economy has a process that includes reducing, repurposing, remanufacturing, and recycling, which is quite similar to the 3M philosophy. Early work in the circular economy often focused on the forest and wood products industry [15,16], for example, new technologies such as Licella's Cat-HTR™ (https://www.licella.com/news/) (accessed on 16 December 2021) process, which reprocesses forest and wood waste streams into biocrude that can be refined into fuels and chemicals. However, like the challenge 3M faced decades ago, organisations attempting to engage as an actor in the circular economy must consider how they can remanufacture unavoidable waste streams into commercially viable products for existing or new markets [8,17,18].…”

Smart drainage management to limit summer drought damage in Nordic agriculture under the circular economy concept

“…Circular Economy (CE) is a mindset that intends to move away from the end‐of‐pipe systems and linear approaches towards restorative and regenerative business models by intention and design (MacArthur, 2013). In the European Union (EU), the Nordic region is no exception to this trend where political actions have received much attention in the past years to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy (Hosseinian et al, 2021; Rodríguez‐Antón et al, 2021). The Finnish Roadmap to circular economy from 2016, for instance, highlights sustainable food systems as one of the four focus areas and stresses the need for utilizing recycled fertilizers (Hosseinian et al, 2021).…”

“…In the European Union (EU), the Nordic region is no exception to this trend where political actions have received much attention in the past years to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy (Hosseinian et al, 2021; Rodríguez‐Antón et al, 2021). The Finnish Roadmap to circular economy from 2016, for instance, highlights sustainable food systems as one of the four focus areas and stresses the need for utilizing recycled fertilizers (Hosseinian et al, 2021). Changing the management of drainage waters from linear to circular systems and thus taking advantage of the embedded fertilizers in the drainage water for fertigation purposes (fertilizing with irrigation water) may promote technological loops that reduce waste, enhance reuse and result in stable crop yields in light of climate change.…”

Smart drainage management to limit summer drought damage in Nordic agriculture under the circular economy concept

“…Circular Economy (CE) is a mindset that intends to move away from the end-of-pipe systems and linear approaches towards restorative and regenerative business models by intention and design (MacArthur, 2013). In the European Union (EU), the Nordic region is no exception to this trend where political actions have received much attention in the past years to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy (Hosseinian et al, 2021;Rodríguez-Ant on et al, 2021).…”