RPS Health & Social Impact Director co-authors new World Health Organisation (WHO) report

The Circular Economy (CE) is a concept of moving the use of resources from a linear model, of extract-use-discard, to a circular model, of reuse-recycle-recover. It reduces the use of new resources and minimises disposal. The waste management hierarchy is fundamental to CE delivery. In order of preference, it is: prevention of waste > re-use, recycle and energy recovery > disposal, if no other option.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a process used to systematically judge the potential and sometimes unintended effects of proposals on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population.

There are win-win synergies between the CE and health. Population health risks are lower further up the waste management hierarchy, and accrues wider benefits.

Through a literature review and six international case studies, we found:

• The CE benefits to public health are not only environmental but also social, behavioural, economic, and institutional. These are ‘wider determinants of health’.
• Benefits include a healthier, more productive society, through reduced direct hazards, skilled jobs, and new markets. These promote economic prosperity, an environment that promotes physical activity and mental wellbeing, and reduced healthcare demand.
• This assumes the adoption of well-designed, operated and maintained modern waste management practices.
• HIA can make a strong case for shifting up the waste management hierarchy, away from disposal.
• The ability of HIA to influence the CE transition depends on taking a wider determinant of health approach, particularly where integrated forms of impact assessment are used.
• Critically, strategic level HIA and decision-making need to create a policy context that limits the project level options to those that are high on the waste managing hierarchy, i.e. avoiding disposal.