The authors of the working paper “The Elephant in the Boardroom: Why Unchecked Consumption Is Not an Option in Tomorrow´s Markets”[6] present 3 scenarios describing the impact of companies´ strategies to react to the challenges presented by climate change, resource scarcity and changing consumer behaviours. These scenarios can also be seen as three steps for a business on the path to becoming more circular.

In recent years, we have witnessed a rising number of initiatives promoting a circular economy. Several of them have gathered stakeholders representing the public sector, academia, companies, and NGOs, declaring voluntary commitments to take action towards a circular economy.

„The European Commission adopted an ambitious Circular Economy Package (furthermore: CEP), which includes measures that will help stimulate Europe's transition towards a circular economy, boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs.”

Protection of environment, as well as public health, belongs to the central pillars [1] of the European Union Policies. Dating back to the 1970s, the European environmental policy, resting on the principles of precaution, prevention and rectifying pollution at source, and on the ‘polluter pays’ principle, has achieved some of the highest world´s environmental standards.

Although, there is no doubt that existing EU legislation has enforced an increase in collection and recycling rates of common, predominantly consumer induced waste streams (waste packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators), the recent studies show that EPR fail to meet the expectations and do not provide incentives to support better product design for better resource management in line with the Circular Economy legislative package.