Assessment of national circular economy performance using super-efficiency dual data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index: Case study of 27 European countries

The global commitment toward carbon neutrality and net zero emissions has substantially pressed the needs for all countries to accelerate the adoption of the circular economy paradigm. Tracking the national progress in terms of circular economy performance would provide valuable insights that could aid the effective design of improvement strategies toward sustainability. The current research proposes the combination of super-efficiency dual Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist productivity index to provide a full ranking and measure productivity changes in terms of circular economy of 27 European countries. The assessment involved six circular economy indicators encompassing waste generation per capita, waste intensity of the economy, recycling rate of waste in both overall and specific types of waste, i.e., packaging waste and biowaste, and circular material use rate. Our study indicates about one-half of the European countries were efficient in terms of circularity in 2018, where Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Belgium were the front runner. The proposed approach suggests the European countries enhance their overall circular economy performance by prioritizing improvements strategies through promoting the recycling of biowaste and the circular material use rate. The MPI results over 2012–2018 indicate that Luxembourg exhibited the highest circularity advancement by 6%. Overall, the European countries have slightly enhanced their progression towards circular economy around 0.2% improvement. This suggests the European countries strengthen their policy and regulatory frameworks in support of the transition towards circular economy and encourage progressive movements in such a collaborative manner with the relevant stakeholders to build the momentum for change.