Ⅰ. Introduction
1. Research background
o Diverse environmental problems are arising worldwide under the “mass production o consumption o disposal” structure of a linear economy.
o Korea would benefit from a transition to a circular economy because it is a resource-poor country that imports most of its resources and energy from foreign countries. There is a growing concern about resource depletion and market volatility.
o A number of countries, such as the European Union, France, Japan, and China, have already developed circular economy monitoring indicators and used them to identify the status of progress towards a circular economy at the governmental and nongovernmental policy levels.
oIn Korea, monitoring indicators for diagnosing and evaluating the implementation of a circular economy have not yet been established. The Framework Act on Resource Circulation, the current blueprint for a circular economy in Korea, established national resource circulation goals.
o The First Master Plan for Resources Circulation established four indicators for confirming the implementation as a follow-up measure. However, all the indicators are limited to the amount of waste generation. The plan also raises the need to develop indicators for analyzing and managing resource efficiency and circularity.
o It is necessary to develop indicators to monitor the sustainability of resources by broadening the scope to include the resource productivity and recycled materials.
2. Purpose of research
o The aim of this research is to develop the monitoring indicators and to diagnose the progress towards