Recommendations

Sweden has transformative potential: by doubling its circularity, it can cut the volume of resources needed to fulfil its societal needs and wants by nearly half. This report lays out a first approximation of how resources are allocated to meet Sweden's needs and wants—and provides a roadmap for how the country can drive its circularity from 3.4% to 7.6%. In doing so, it can cut its material footprint by 42.6%—bringing huge benefits for the climate and biodiversity while cutting pollution and resource depletion. Through the scenarios presented, Sweden has the opportunity to overhaul its economy: moving from material-intensive processes to ones that make the most of materials, design out waste and regenerate natural systems. Although these massive changes result in only a relatively small increase in the Circularity Metric, the outcomes—for resource use, the climate, biodiversity and Swedish society—will be transformational.

Current solutions are grossly inadequate for the scale of the challenges we face today—but circular strategies have transformative potential. Our natural environment will be stretched to its breaking point as global income and population continue to swell. The trajectory of human history has made the link between material use and human well-being clear: extracting resources to transform into the goods we use—generating emissions and generating waste in the process—is largely tied to economic growth and higher living standards.[235[236] Breaking this pattern—and achieving an ecologically safe and socially just space—will require innovation beyond material efficiency. It will require a radical transformation of how Sweden meets the needs of its people that can only be achieved through a restructuring of the current social metabolism—a distinct way of organising material, energy and capital flows. Transitioning to a circular economy isn't a silver bullet—but it is a crucial first step.

All countries are critical change agents. The global economy is just 8.6% circular: linear practices are embedded in societies worldwide. While this report takes a national perspective on circularity, it is important to understand Sweden’s position in the global context. As a nation that embodies all the characteristics of a Shift country—high levels of consumption, extraction and waste, with prosperous living conditions for its residents—Sweden has a particularly strong responsibility to drive circularity and cut its per capita ecological impact. With a wide and diverse pool of resources locally abundant, the nation could shift its consumption to domestically sourced (where beneficial)—and sustainably produced—products, rather than relying on imports with hard-to-control circularity, sustainability and ethics. This also precludes environmental impacts from Swedish consumption being outsourced to other countries. At the same time, as a key global provider of raw materials—such as iron ore—and finished products—from cars to sawn timber—Sweden’s role as an exporter of valuable commodities represents an opportunity for impact that extends far beyond its borders. Ensuring its vast stores of natural resources, from mineral deposits to forests, are managed sustainably, will have a crucial global impact: it’s time for Sweden to leverage this opportunity, balancing and optimising the use of its domestic resources across the global stage. Efforts should also centre on raising the material-use agenda on par with emissions-reductions targets: akin to goals for slashing emissions, the Swedish government may drive circularity by putting material-use reduction targets into play.

Sweden’s climate action must consider circularity. The energy transition and transition to a circular economy are two sides of the same coin—yet trade-offs still exist between them. Decarbonisation, which crucially involves the build-up of renewable energy infrastructure, is inherently material-intensive and requires the extraction of a range of metals to produce solar panels, wind turbines and lithium batteries, among others. Building up our inventories of these products also implies waste-creation further down the road: it’s essential that Sweden applies circular thinking now to maximise the reusability, repairability and recyclability of these goods at their end-of-life. A holistic perspective that considers both emissions and material-reduction is crucial—and efforts towards decarbonisation must avoid the mistakes of the linear economy, with rampant extraction of virgin resources and waste creation.

A huge opportunity for Sweden. The country has a ways to go: it's more linear that it appears on paper, with levels of extraction and consumption beyond what the Earth can provide. But it's also well-positioned to take on the challenge of going circular: it boasts a low-carbon economy (with the significant presence of renewables in its energy mix), the strongest climate ambitions in the EU,[237] and the technical and behavioural capacity for change. Through systematic change permeating governments and businesses, and shifts in individual behaviour, Sweden has the opportunity to become a global leader for circularity.