Establishing a new balance: a fair marriage between global and local value chains

Global value chains can improve their efficiency by linking with local and regional value chains and the circular economy. As increasing globalization may bring additional adaptation pressures on local levels, it must be recognized that the globalization process is complex in nature and should take place in connection with local or regional places, avoiding demeaning attributions such as ‘weak’ or ‘small’ for regional, and ‘strong’ for global. Regardless of whether value chains are global or local, they must be imbibed with circular economy principles. Global value chains that exemplify the principles of circular economy can be an immense asset in promoting circularity, putting it on the global agenda, and accelerating the closure of global and local circularity gaps.