Potentials and Challenges for a Circular Economy in Mexico

This chapter deals with the potentials and challenges – the strengths and weaknesses – of Mexico in moving towards a circular economy. In answering this question, the chapter does not look at reduction, reuse and recycling of waste in a narrow sense but approaches the topic from a wide and systemic perspective inspired by the concept of national innovation systems. The authors first provide some key data with respect to the current handling and management of waste in Mexico and then present in a conceptual way their systemic view on a circular economy. Subsequently they explore the potentials and challenges for Mexico, revising the following elements of their conceptual model: “market trends and conditions”; “competitiveness and productivity”; “the political and regulatory framework”; “education, training and knowledge transfer”; and “learning culture”. They finish off with some conclusions concerning the potentials and challenges of Mexico in moving towards a circular economy.