The Development of Circular Economy in China’s Coal Industry: Facing Challenges of Inefficiency in the Waste Recycling Process

This paper innovatively constructs a comprehensive material cycle network framework for the circular economy system of the coal industry and evaluates the circular economy efficiency of China’s provincial coal industry from 2011 to 2021 using a comprehensive evaluation model that integrates emergy analysis and dynamic network data envelopment analysis (DEA). The research delves into the evolutionary characteristics of the coal industry’s circular economy and identifies the underlying causes of inefficiency. The results reveal that the circular economy in China’s coal industry has gone through three stages: the transformation period, the reinforcement period, and the growth period, with the inefficiency of waste reutilization being the key factor restricting the overall improvement in efficiency. The circular economy model in the production phase is gradually shifting from an extensive linear model to a clean, closed-loop model, while a significant gap remains between the high-emission linear model and the low-pollution closed-loop model in the utilization phase. Furthermore, regional heterogeneity mainly arises from imbalances in the operational efficiency of the circular economy system. This study not only reveals the deep-seated reasons for the low efficiency of circular economy in China’s coal industry but also provides strategies and directions for achieving a more efficient circular economy and carbon mitigation goals.