Recommendations

Conclusions and call to action

1. Leverage data to inform circular solutions

This report represents the first analysis of an economy from a circular value perspective. In doing so, it has revealed several key needs to make future assessments more accurate, consistent, and actionable—specifically regarding nomenclature, data, and methods.

2. Expand value definitions and address market failures

This study adopts an economic framing of value in a linear versus circular economy, offering new insights into market failures and how to address them. It demonstrates that economic value creation is often concentrated in the least materially intensive stages of the value chain. By contrast, resource extraction and manufacturing—stages with high material throughput—generate comparatively lower economic value. This misalignment between material intensity and value creation is a key barrier to advancing a circular economy.

Current economic metrics often overlook the broader environmental, social, and systemic value embedded in production and consumption. As a result, many positive and negative sustainability impacts go unaccounted for, narrowing economic analyses and reducing their relevance for policymaking. This means that material-intensive processes may be labelled as ‘low economic value’, even though they can generate significant non-monetised benefits. At the same time, conventional economic models tend to prioritise consumption over alternative ways of fulfilling societal needs, undervaluing practices such as sharing, repair, maintenance, and service-based business models.

These gaps result in market failures, where circular opportunities are not implemented despite their potential. Both the public and private sectors must act to create a level playing field for circular solutions and address systemic misalignments across sectors.

3. Move towards cross-sectoral collaboration

When analysing value chains in isolation, we risk overlooking opportunities that emerge from a broader value network perspective. In a circular economy, resources often move between different value chains—for example, through market actors that collect, test, and resell materials. Industrial and urban symbiosis provides a clear illustration, where materials as well as energy resources like heat, steam, or cooling are shared more efficiently across networks. Similarly, scrapyards and material brokers create circular opportunities by redistributing resources. Expanding these resource intermediaries—such as symbiosis catalysts or collaboration platforms—on a larger, more coordinated scale could unlock further value.

Circular economy value networks are interconnected systems in which businesses, and sometimes other actors, collaborate to maintain the value of products, components, and materials throughout their lifecycle, minimising waste and maximising resource use. Unlike traditional linear value chains, these networks emphasise loops, feedback, and multi-directional flows of resources, materials, and information. They are essential for enabling business models such as take-back schemes, repair and refurbishment, remanufacturing, and product-as-a-service.

A defining feature of circular value ecosystems is the need for a shared customer value proposition across the network. This requires deliberate and sometimes complex decisions about how value is created and distributed among participating actors.

This study focused on value chains independently to identify Value Gaps in the six priority sectors. However, as Sweden moves toward a more circular economy, cross-sectoral symbiosis will become increasingly important. Mapping and leveraging interactions between sectors will be critical for capturing and retaining economic value, ensuring that opportunities are not missed by examining sectors in isolation.

4. Promote a shift in mindset toward needs-based consumption

Sweden’s high consumption levels highlight the need to better understand consumer behaviour, particularly the concept of value. Our study shows that significant value losses occur during the use phase of materials and products. While these losses are not solely a ‘consumer problem’—and solutions at the macro and micro levels have been discussed—consumers play an important role in advancing a value-preserving circular economy. By choosing circular products and services, and making deliberate decisions at the end-of-life phase, consumers can drive circular solutions. In many cases, these choices are also cost-effective, helping individuals save money while reducing waste.

Consumer understanding of the distinction between price and value is essential. Our research highlights patterns of overconsumption, such as underutilised living space, excessive food intake, and the use of oversized vehicles. These behaviours reveal a weak link between consumption and actual utility, even though perceived value varies across individuals. Similar considerations apply across a wide range of products.

Moving forward, broader conversations and actions are needed to challenge consumption habits and encourage sufficiency. Stakeholders should foster a value-driven mindset—one that prioritises function, longevity, and shared use over accumulation.