* Corresponding author: Cecilia Matasci email: cecilia.matasci@empa.ch Detritus / Volume 14 - 2021 / pages 25-31 https://doi.org/10.31025/2611-4135/2021.14057 © 2020 Cisa Publisher. Open access article under CC BY-NC-ND license HOW TO INCREASE CIRCULARITY IN THE SWISS ECONOMY? Cecilia Matasci *, Marcel Gauch and Heinz Böni Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Technology and Society Laboratory - Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland Article Info: Received: 3 July 2020 Revised: 15 October 2020 Accepted: 25 November 2020 Available online: 26 February 2021 Keywords: Circular economy Life cycle assessment Material fow analysis Climate change Domestic material consumption WEEE ABSTRACT Environmental threats are triggered by the overconsumption of raw materials. It is therefore necessary to move towards a society that both reduces extraction and keeps the majority of the extracted raw materials in the socio-economic system. Circular economy is a key strategy to reach these goals. To implement it effectively, it is necessary to understand and monitor material fows and to defne hotspots, i.e. materials that need to be tackled with the highest priority. This paper is aimed at determining how to increase circularity in the Swiss economy by means of a Material Flow Analysis coupled with a simplifed Life Cycle Assessment. After having char- acterized material fows, we analyzed two types of hotspots: i) Raw materials con- sumed and/or disposed at high level, and ii) Raw materials whose extraction and pro- duction generates high environmental impacts. The Material Flow Analysis shows that each year 119 Mt of raw materials enter the Swiss economy. Therefrom, 15 Mt are derived from recycled waste inside the country; 67 Mt leave the system yearly; 27 Mt towards disposal. Out of the disposed materials, 56% are recycled and re-enter the socio-economic system as secondary materials. Looking at hotspots; concrete, asphalt, gravel and sand are among materials that are consumed and disposed at high level. Yet, looking at greenhouse gas emissions generated during extraction and production, metals - including the ones in electrical and electronic equipment - as well as textiles are among the categories that carry the biggest burden on the envi- ronment per unit of material. 1. INTRODUCTION The publication of the Planetary Boundaries concept in 2009 (Rockström et al., 2009) and its update in 2015 (Steffen et al., 2015) showed that global-scale alteration of biogeochemical fows, biosphere integrity, land-system change and climate change are the major environmental threats that humanity is facing nowadays. These threats are a consequence of human overconsumption of natural resources (O’Neill et al. 2018). It is therefore essential to understand factors that drive raw material consumption and the fows of materials that this generates. This allows tackling hotspots and developing pathways to reach a 'safe operating space for humanity' (Heijungs et al., 2014; O’Neill et al. 2018), for example by reducing extraction and keep- ing the majority of the extracted raw materials in the so- cio-economic system. Broken down the Swiss economy, we see a need for quantifying fows of materials and energy with their related environmental impacts. Studies exist assessing the mate- rial input and the environmental consequences (Jungbluth et al., 2011; Frischknecht et al., 2014; Frischknecht et al., 2018), or the environmental consequences of resource and energy recovery in waste management systems (Haupt, 2018). However, to our knowledge there are no studies focusing on the material inputs and outputs of the entire economic system, including considerations about the recy- cling effciencies and losses (incineration, landflling). This paper aims at determining how to increase circu- larity of raw materials in the Swiss economy. It does so by: i) Characterizing mass fows, ii) Assessing the environ- mental impacts generated by these fows, and iii) Defning which raw materials are hotspots, i.e. are either consumed and/or disposed at high level or their extraction and pro- duction generates high environmental impacts. The result of this research is meant to support the Swiss government in taking decisions for moving towards more circularity in material management. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 Material fows of Swiss economy To address the circularity of the Swiss economy and to answer the research question of this paper, we carried out a static Material Flow Analysis (MFA) covering the mate- rial metabolism within the Swiss economy and coupled it