The circular economy is emerging as a key global agenda as an important means of achieving carbon neutrality. It is mainstreamed into climate, industrial, and trade policies. In the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Strategy released at the end of 2020, the Korean government presented the circular economy as one of the 10 core tasks. The K-Circular Economy Implementation Plan released in December 2021 outlines measures to improve resource use efficiency and circularity throughout the life cycle of products. The government's national task is also to complete the circular economy through recycling, and a legal foundation will be established to support the circular economy policy, including the Circular Economy Social Transformation Promotion Act.

KEI has conducted various studies on the circular economy. In particular, through the "Circular Economy Policy Roadmap Study," we derived step-by-step strategies and key issues such as resource life cycle management, strengthening the circularity of core items, spreading the implementation of the circular economy, monitoring indicators, and implementation inspection. The study proposed a system improvement plan to promote "sustainable product design" in terms of circular economy implementation. The study suggests that the future circular economy needs to be viewed from an integrated perspective of environmental and consumer policies.

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