Circular economy practices and their impact on healthcare costs and health outcomes: Evidence for the European Union

The circular economy (CE) plays a central role in the European Union’s sustainable development agenda by promoting resource efficiency and waste recovery. However, the empirical link between CE practices and public health outcomes remains insufficiently explored. This study examines the effects of CE practices on healthcare expenditures and life expectancy in 27 EU countries over the period 2013–2022, employing a panel ARDL–PMG framework to distinguish short- and long-run effects while controlling for key environmental and socioeconomic factors. The results show that improvements in waste management performance and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are associated with lower healthcare expenditures in the long run. By contrast, CE-related waste flows do not translate into long-term gains in life expectancy, suggesting that the expected health benefits of circular waste processes may not materialize without effective environmental risk mitigation. These findings highlight the need to redesign CE policies with explicit consideration of their long-run health implications and to prioritize region-specific strategies tailored to the heterogeneous conditions of EU member states to reduce health risks and strengthen public-health outcomes.