Circular Economy Policies in China and Europe: A Systematic Literature Review

Many governments have developed policies to drive the much-needed transition to a circular economy (CE). This systematic literature review covers CE policy progress and the state-of-the-art research in China and Europe. Combining content analysis and contingency analysis, we analyze 119 journal articles to identify the main policy interventions in China and Europe, challenges, outcomes, and their interrelationships. Our review shows that China diligently enforces “cleaner production” policies through a top-down approach, while Europe focuses more on “sustainable product” policies such as ecodesign and extended producer responsibility, relying more on a bottom-up approach. The two economies face some common challenges in policy development. The most prominent challenges lie in the difficulty in formulating consistent, coherent, and stable policies, difficulty in formulating sector- and region-specific policies, and difficulty in formulating comprehensive policies. Research in policy outcome is scant, especially in the social dimension. Our findings suggest that policymakers must consider integrated policy bundles in policy design, ensure consistency, coherence, and stability in policy development and implementation, incorporate the social dimension into CE policies, and customize CE policies for different contexts. Based on the identified knowledge gaps, we call for comparative studies across regions and shifting research focus from recycling to the higher tiers of the waste hierarchy. More attention is also required in secondary resource markets, policy design tailored to specific product sectors and regions, policy implementation challenges, and policy outcomes.