Circular Economy Performance across EU Member States: A Cluster Analysis

This study has the scope to identify circular economy performance patterns across EU states using a multivariate clustering approach. The analysis is based on secondary data from Eurostat for the year 2022 and includes four key indicators, circular material use rate, recycling rate of municipal waste, recycling rate of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and recycling rate of packaging waste. After standardization of the variables through Z-scores, the cluster analysis was performed through Ward and Euclidean method. The optimal number of clusters was determined through agglomeration coefficients and dendrogram inspection. Cluster robustness was assessed through distance beteen clusters analysis and ANOVA. The results reveal three distinct circular economy performance, a high, low and transitional performing clusters Municipal and packaging waste recycling are the strongest differentiators between clusters, highlighting the important role of waste management infrastructures in this field. To improve circular economy, the findings of this research recommned adapted policy approaches to the caracteristcs of each group of countries.