At the beginning of June, Circle Economy and Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) released the Circularity Gap Report Austria, which makes Austria the first nation to measure the Circularity Gap. This landmark report paves the way for nations to lead the transition from a linear economy of Take-Make-Waste to a circular economy.
 
The analysis, commissioned by ARA, found a circularity rate for Austria of 9.7%, ahead of the  figure of 9.1% in Circle Economy’s Global Circularity Gap report published in January 2019. The Austria report will enable political and business leaders to identify and monitor the best interventions to boost the circularity rate, the proportion of materials that are recycled, re-used and re-manufactured in the Austrian economy.

Main results

1. Domestic extraction of resources (metals, minerals, biomass, fossil fuels): 164 Mt, out of which 10.7% stem from recycling
2. Austria’s entire resource consumption: 434 Mt, out of which 260 Mt (55%) stem from imports. 51% of the resource consumption go to export articles and export services.
3. Net domestic resource consumption: 206 Mt with a recycling rate of 9.7 %

Closing Austria’s circularity gap
The report estimates the improvements to be gained from four courses of action:

1. Shifting from fossil fuels to renewable resources (boosting circularity to 9.9%)
2. Recycling of all recyclable waste (18.8%)
3. Maintaining current buildings and infrastructure by sourcing all construction materials from demolition of old building stocks (11.6%)
4. Prioritising imports with a higher proportion of secondary content (20.1%).

Combined, these four actions could boost Austria’s circularity rate to an estimated 37.4%.

Access the Austria Circularity Gap Report from our Knowledge database