Global Circularity Gap Report 2026
The Value Gap: €25.4 trillion in annual economic loss
The global economy loses an estimated €25.4 trillion in value annually to linear economy practices. This figure, equivalent to 31% of global GDP, represents avoidable economic losses embedded in wasteful patterns of production and consumption. The Global Circularity Gap Report 2026, developed by Circle Economy in collaboration with Deloitte, quantifies this loss, revealing a critical blind spot in how economic performance is measured and managed.
Five pathways of value loss
Value loss manifests through five interlinked pathways that capture both immediate inefficiencies and longer-term asset erosion.
Why this matters for Malta
This report provides Maltese businesses with a business case for circular value creation. The Value Gap shows that value retention is not just a sustainability initiative, it is a financial imperative that strengthens resilience and competitiveness in an increasingly resource-constrained world.
- Antoine Fenech, Strategy & Transactions leader, Deloitte Malta
Malta faces acute resource constraints and high import dependency, making circular economy practices essential for economic resilience. The island’s limited natural resources and geographic isolation amplify exposure to supply chain disruptions and volatile input costs. The report demonstrates that circular strategies such as extending asset lifetimes, reducing processing losses, and recovering end-of-life value can directly translate into cost savings and competitive advantage. For Malta's businesses and policymakers, the opportunity exists to view circularity as a means to both enhance resource efficiency while also advancing waste reduction and sustainability objectives.
The opportunity
Closing the gap requires coordinated action across businesses, financiers, and policymakers. Businesses must build holistic business cases for circular value creation, systematically identifying and quantifying value losses to uncover opportunities delivering financial, strategic, and risk-related benefits. Circular business models, from product-as-a-service arrangements to material leasing and take-back schemes, can decouple value creation from material consumption.
Financiers could integrate resource-use maximisation into investment decisions, recognising that durable, recoverable, and retained assets represent economically stronger positions. Policymakers could support target-setting for resource extraction and consumption, examine mechanisms to reflect true pricing of externalities, and orient tax systems toward reducing value loss.
Malta’s transition to a circular economy depends on understanding that value preservation is a shared responsibility with a shared benefit. Stakeholders across the market must align on making circular practices the most profitable choice
- Ylenia Caruana, Senior Manager, Sustainability Advisory, Deloitte Malta
The value gap shifts focus from how much the economy produces to how well it converts economic activity into value. A high gap indicates that a large share of economic effort is dissipated rather than translated into sustained prosperity. Reducing it requires redesigning how materials are sourced, used, retained, and circulated.
This is a fundamental reorientation of economic logic toward value retention, resilience, and long-term well-being.
Action for key stakeholders
Achieving circularity at scale requires collaboration among businesses, policymakers, and financiers to help address systemic value loss and unlock opportunities. Closing the Value Gap is a shared opportunity to help strengthen economic resilience.
Read the full report to explore the findings and learn how your organisation can help close the gap on the Circle Economy Foundation webpage.
2025 Status
The 2025 report explored the state of global circularity, revealing that it had fallen further, from 7.2% to 6.9%. This means that only 6.9% of the materials entering the global economy were secondary raw materials.
Despite some bright spots—such as improvements in secondary material use—challenges remained in areas such as rising raw materials extraction, biomass consumption, and stock build-up. The report examined how businesses can take action to help close this gap.
Read the 2025 report on the Circle Economy Foundation webpage.
2024 Status
The 2024 report revealed a decline in global circularity, falling to just 7.2%, placing pressure on the planet’s key systems. The report emphasised that food, the built environment, manufactured goods, and mobility were the primary drivers for a more circular world.
It explored how circularity, by way of support from governments, financial actors, businesses and citizens alike, can positively affect human well-being within the constraints of planetary boundaries.
Read the 2024 report on the Circle Economy Foundation webpage.
