Circular economics (CE) is increasingly discussed among researchers, practitioners, and politicians. The discussions between the parties and the confusion about the concept cause the issue to remain on the agenda. According to the general view, CE is the slowing, shrinking, and closing of the welding flow to increase the welding efficiency. However, little attention has been devoted to measuring the CE level of a given economic system. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the emergence and development process of CE, and also to show how the CE level of any economic system can be measured. In this context, it is important for developing countries to interest with the issue but not in practice. To put this into perspective, the study examined Turkey's economic system. Turkey's economic, environmental, and social indicators examined were found to have a remote structure of the CE principle. It is expected that the results of the study will lead to a positive social change and become a framework for increasing the contribution of developing economies to the sustainable world.
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Today, there is widespread agreement that current consumption and production practices have a detrimental effect on environmental quality, social equity and long-term economic stability (Millar et al., 2019). Undoubtedly, the growth pressure on enterprises has a big share in the emergence of this negative condition. As long as economic growth is an important performance criterion for both business and state administration, destruction on the environment and society seems to continue. The interesting part of the issue is that businesses and governments that have caused environmental and social destruction are trying to develop a variety of policies to prevent this destruction. The conception of the 21st century global economy is similar to an indefinite journey through which destruction and construction proceed together. Developed countries seem to be aware of the issue and are trying to establish a sustainable economic system by developing a number of regulatory policies. Developing countries continue to grow economically without considering environmental and social problems, as they perceive economic development as yet to consume more. There is a need for a paradigm shift that will soon give up this approach that would compromise the ability for future generations to meet their needs. In this way, it is possible to reach the limits of the “take-make-dispose” economic model and to develop alternative economic models. (Jørgensen & Remmen, 2018). In this context, in order to achieve sustainable development goals, the circular economy must be turned into an indisputable economic policy by the states. Otherwise, sustainable development targets will only continue to create normative pressure on enterprises resulting in more sustainability challenges.
The linear economy causes both environmental impacts such as pollution and social impacts such as exploitative and violent behavior. In modern times, extreme inequalities, population growth, urban sprawl, diseases of outbreaks, public and personal debts, psychological stress and depression, over-eating, overwork, unemployment, excessive alcohol use, tobacco and other drugs, suicides, retirement systems, it is observed that various elements such as taxes, materialism, alienation, mistrust, refugees, civil liberties, military occupations and terrorism are related to each other. Therefore, the long-term future crisis of humanity must be taken into consideration (Greyson, 2007). However, widespread concerns about resource security, greenhouse gas reduction and ethics are developing the approach to seeing resources as assets that need to be protected rather than continuously consumed (Stahel, 2016). According to Cullen (2017), it is tempting to think of a completely circular economy (CE) as a practical reality. Thus, an economy that does not contain waste, is closed to material cycles and is recycled, and is continuously returned without any consumed source input is considered as the future of CE. In this respect, CE also aims to contribute to higher regional competitiveness and equal economic growth and welfare distribution. At a theoretical level, the CE model focuses on the relationship between industrial development and the environment (Geng et al., 2009).
Industrialization has developed rapidly in recent years in the European Union (EU) candidate Turkey should regulate economic policies of resource utilization and considering the environmental issues. In this context, identification of gaps between the current state of the CE principles of Turkey's economy, will be a guide for the development of the economies of developing countries, said the policy. It is obvious that similar economic models have similar problems. Therefore, developing countries can learn a lot from each other's problem solving methods. Thus, it can eliminate legal, technical and social barriers associated with the CE.