What does a circular economy actually mean?

Most economies were built around a linear model: extract resources, make products, consume them and discard what is no longer useful. For a long time, the wider costs of this model, from resource scarcity and pollution to biodiversity loss and climate change, were largely left out of the equation.

A circular economy starts from a different idea: creating value while using fewer resources and wasting less. That can mean designing products to last longer, repairing and reusing what already exists, recovering materials, or finding new ways for businesses and industries to use resources more efficiently.

The principle is straightforward. But how countries put it into practice depends very much on where they are starting from.

For a manufacturer, circularity might mean redesigning production to use fewer raw materials. For a city, it might mean keeping food or electronic waste out of landfills. For a country rebuilding after war, it can mean recovering materials from destroyed buildings and reusing them. And for a country seeking closer integration with the European Union, it can mean changing the rules governing what happens to products after consumers have finished using them.

As policymakers, businesses and practitioners meet in Gandhinagar, India, for the World Circular Economy Forum 2026, this diversity matters. The forum will explore how circular solutions can move from promising ideas to wider economic change.

Across Europe and Central Asia, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is already seeing what that transition looks like in very different economic and social contexts.

One region, different starting points

UNDP recently took stock of its circular economy work across Europe and Central Asia. The mapping identified 21 ongoing initiatives worth more than US$60 million, spanning plastics and packaging, buildings and construction, electronic waste, food, textiles and industry. Some focus on changing regulations; others work with businesses and cities, invest in infrastructure, or help change how products are used and discarded.

But what stood out was not simply the scale of this work. It was how differently circularity was taking shape from one place to another. For example, in countries moving closer to the European Union, circularity is partly driven by the need to align with European environmental standards. Elsewhere, the starting point may be industrial competitiveness or pressure on natural resources. In Ukraine, circularity has become part of the immense reconstruction challenge. Across the region, cities, businesses and communities are also testing solutions to local problems.

In the Western Balkans, Moldova and Georgia, the European Union is helping accelerate change

In the Western Balkans and Moldova, closer integration with the European Union is helping drive the transition to a circular economy. In Georgia, the transition to a circular economy is supported by the European Union. Across these countries, this means reducing waste, promoting eco-design and resource efficiency, increasing recycling and recovery rates, and making producers more responsible for the products and packaging they put on the market, including what happens to them after use.

Georgia shows what this can look like in practice. Through an EU-funded programme with UNDP, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Environment Agency Austria, the country is strengthening producer responsibility systems, while improving waste reduction and recycling. The programme covers everything from packaging and electronic waste to batteries, oils, tyres and end-of-life vehicles, and works with businesses, recyclers, communities and public institutions.

This is about more than adopting new rules. It is about building the institutions, markets and practices that allow a circular economy to take root.

In Türkiye and Central Asia, circularity means using resources more efficiently

In Türkiye and parts of Central Asia, the circular economy is increasingly linked to industrial competitiveness. Here, using materials more efficiently can help businesses cut losses, reduce costs and become more resilient to resource and supply-chain pressures.

In Türkiye, this is already part of a broader industrial transformation. Through UNDP’s Shifting to Zero Waste Against Pollution (SWAP) project, including work in Kocaeli, one of the country’s major industrial centres, businesses and cities are exploring ways to prevent waste, use materials more efficiently, integrate circular practices into production systems, and make industrial value chains more sustainable and competitive.

Central Asia offers another variation of this pathway. In Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, a UNDP regional initiative is applying circular economy approaches to tackle plastic pollution in the Caspian Sea. The project combines improved data and monitoring systems with stronger policies, investment, and engagement with businesses and communities to prevent plastic leakage and keep materials in productive use for longer.

Across these countries, the goal is not simply to manage waste better. It is to make economies more efficient and resilient while getting more value from the resources they already use.

In Ukraine, rubble can become a resource

Ukraine shows how dramatically the starting point can change. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has left enormous quantities of debris from damaged and destroyed buildings. Clearing it is essential for people’s safety and for reconstruction. But then comes another question: what happens to all that rubble? UNDP has already helped Ukraine clear more than one million tonnes of debris. Instead of treating everything cleared as waste, materials such as concrete and bricks can be recovered and reused.

Here, the circular economy takes on a very practical meaning. It means looking at what destruction has left behind and asking what can safely become a resource for rebuilding. In Ukraine, circularity is part of recovery itself: clearing debris safely, recovering what can be reused, and reducing the need for new materials as reconstruction moves forward.

In Serbia, circularity is accelerated locally

Circularity does not always gain momentum with national policies or large investments. Sometimes, it accelerates and scales up through a business, a municipality, or a community trying something new. In Serbia, the GEF-supported Circular Communities project is helping turn innovative local ideas into practical solutions. UNDP and the Ministry of Environmental Protection are supporting new circular products and business models through Challenge Calls, pilot investments, and work with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), women entrepreneurs, municipalities, and communities.

What makes this approach interesting is the connection between the local and national levels. Practical experiments can test what works on the ground and help the Serbian Government advance its legislation towards a genuine market unlock and fulfilment of broader circular economy goals.

From local solutions to wider change

These examples point to a broader lesson. Circular economies are more likely to take root when they respond to the realities of the places where they develop. Recent research reviewing 183 peer-reviewed studies of circular economies in lower-income countries reaches a similar conclusion. It found that circular solutions often grow out of local livelihoods, community practices, and existing ways of using resources, rather than following a single model developed elsewhere.

The challenge, then, is not to make every country follow the same path. It is to create the conditions that allow locally relevant solutions to grow.

And that matters in Europe and Central Asia. Circular economy initiatives are expanding across the region, yet 43 percent of countries covered by UNDP’s mapping still lack an adopted circular economy roadmap.

Connecting what works

The next step is to connect these experiences. A solution that works in one country cannot simply be copied into another, but the lessons behind it can travel. Governments can learn from each other. Businesses can adapt ideas tested elsewhere. And successful local experiments can also help shape policies and attract investment.

This is where UNDP can help: connecting countries and practitioners, sharing what works, and bringing together governments, businesses and financing partners to help promising solutions grow.

Europe and Central Asia already have a strong base to build on. The challenge now is to connect that experience across countries and sectors, while leaving room for solutions to adapt to local realities. Many paths may lead to a circular economy. Progress will come from helping more of them go further, faster.