Reutilisation-extended material flows and circular economy in China

Circular economy (CE), with its basic principle of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, has been determined as the key strategy for the national development plan by the Chinese government. Given the economy-wide material flow analysis (EW-MFA) that leaves the inner flow of resource reutilisation unidentified, the reutilisation-extended EW-MFA is first introduced to evaluate and analyse the material input, solid waste generation, and reutilisation simultaneously. The total amount of comprehensive reutilisation (CR) is divided into three sub-flows, namely, reutilisation, recycle, and reuse. Thus, this model is used to investigate the resource CR in China from 2000 to 2010. China’s total amount of CR and its sub-flows, as well as the CR rate, remain to have a general upward trend. By the year 2010, about 60% of the overall solid waste generation had already been reutilised, and more than 20% of the total resource requirement was reutilised resource. Moreover, the growth patterns of the CR sub flows show different characteristics.Interpretations of resource reutilisation-related laws and regulations of CE and the corresponding policy suggestions are proposed based on the results.