The state of the research on circular economy in the European Union: A bibliometric review

Before 2020, the European Commission adopted several strategies pursuing sustainable development in the European Union (EU). At the core of these strategies, we can find the circular economy (CE) which relies on the 3 R concept: reduce-reuse-recycle. Starting from the unique European regulatory context, the aim of the present review is to determine the degree to which the works published by researchers affiliated with institutions within the EU address the challenges identified at the EU level and respond to EU strategies in the field of the circular economy. A bibliometric analysis based on Scopus was performed using VOSviewer and the bibliometrix package in R. The sample is made up of 13,553 articles published between 2006 and 2023. The results show that there has been an increase in the number of articles and citations during the last years, in line with the adoption of relevant regulations. The co-word analysis generated five domain clusters: sustainable development and life cycle assessment; biomass production and waste valorization; materials and recycling; wastewater treatment and environmental pollution; carbon emissions reduction and energy recovery. Several topics are common to all EU countries, and they are strongly related to EU-wide strategies regarding the circular economy. The study has implications for standard-setters and research agencies, supporting the European Commission to understand the effects of the CE package implementation and what needs to be done in the future.