The Contribution of the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy to Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Economically Vulnerable Regions in Greece | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Case Report The Contribution of the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy to Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Economically Vulnerable Regions in Greece Athanasios Panayiotopoulos This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7898500/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Greece, following a long-standing Economic and Political Crisis, unfortunately presents evidence of deficiencies in strategy and policy for sustainability. This study explores the role of the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy in promoting Sustainable Development, with particular emphasis on the economically weak regions of Greece. The analysis of the international literature and the quantitative analysis of secondary data, establish that the implementation of circular and bioeconomy strategies can enhance local development, create new jobs and improve the quality of life, when there is a multi-level approach in each sector separately. Otherwise, even well-intentioned ecological initiatives may generate distortions within the socio-economic system, ultimately leading to policy failure. The correlation of population changes with socio-economic indicators, such as income, unemployment and poverty levels, highlights the relationship between inequalities and demographic decline, in relation to sustainability. The work concludes with recommendations and strategies that will practically improve the existing situation as well as for the field of research at the level of meta-analysis offered through the findings of the study. Agricultural Economics & Policy Environmental Policy Agroecology Sustainable development Circular Economy Bioeconomy Economically Vulnerable Regions socio-economic indicators Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7898500","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Case Report","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":531863127,"identity":"28b96814-2302-4aaa-8d38-4188ec86a709","order_by":0,"name":"Athanasios Panayiotopoulos","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYNACAyj9gIFBDkQfeECEFgkwncDAYAzWkkCEPXAtiQ1QBk5gzn724GeeAps6funmYxIJFXbp88MOPwTaYien24Bdi2VPXrI0j0GahOScY2kSCWeSczfeTjMAakk2NjuAwxcHcgyAWg5LGNzIMZNIbDuQu3F2AkjLgcRtuLScf2P8G1lLuuHs9A/4tQBVotiSIC+dg98WyxlvzCznGKRJzpxzLNkC6BfDDdI5BQcSDHD7xZw/x/jGmz82/MAQO3jjQ4WdvPzs9M0fgAw5nN4HYiYeEEsCHiAwcRwAJMX4A1mLfANu1aNgFIyCUTAyAQCgb1/CZYLYbQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6618-4389","institution":"DEMOCRITUS UNIVERSITY OF THRACE","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Athanasios","middleName":"","lastName":"Panayiotopoulos","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-19 12:30:25","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7898500/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7898500/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":93981722,"identity":"f25f98e5-56f9-4003-922e-e2b1acf8878e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 03:05:03","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":561194,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SDCEBIOEHELLAS.docx.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/532ffd4732ca9699e8cf6871.docx"},{"id":93980881,"identity":"eaea6a06-9b1b-4c5c-b382-971d62ab9171","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":342,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"rs7898500.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/cd57919f349a220843cdde43.json"},{"id":93980882,"identity":"7bac6d62-de02-4685-9d12-d7fb9af32d8e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"xml","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":88671,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"rs78985000enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/9d79a1159555b25647e27f84.xml"},{"id":93981613,"identity":"e679c451-5721-4734-8c46-29850c57bc67","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:57:03","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":240526,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/0a5ddef782d09ab8ab8ecbd1.png"},{"id":93980891,"identity":"05d90e01-8b14-4855-9af3-d8578ae1e302","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":220308,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/4b64abe920ec3cf7f981136a.png"},{"id":93980883,"identity":"a3fafe2a-cb36-4ae2-bafe-bd36eab3414a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"emf","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":44616,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/dc6be8fadb9ea0d1c1dc6f05.emf"},{"id":93981610,"identity":"a9421bff-3670-4840-bab4-285034e84cd9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:57:03","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":32490,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/ca48537c91a1d05eb4e1e1b3.png"},{"id":93982263,"identity":"b50407e5-c91f-4667-9420-5bd32459713c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 03:13:03","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":88386,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/75a09c3481243380e1074c37.png"},{"id":93980886,"identity":"1967946c-60c4-480a-8e95-44233f446f0a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":77069,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/a9f785a9f242377884f3db9c.png"},{"id":93980889,"identity":"7e76053d-83ca-49d5-9dc1-a7963ab8299d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"png","order_by":9,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":30818,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/1b691d0adbc6df1c973852a7.png"},{"id":93980888,"identity":"8bda0496-5172-4e0d-8b17-f9bd4b0c48ea","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":9362,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/2c550ab09b5c2090ef1c408e.png"},{"id":93980893,"identity":"b56948c8-e1d3-4f22-81e2-32b131ab5a1b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:04","extension":"xml","order_by":11,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":87632,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"rs78985000structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/f421ba0936cdd2f796b9742c.xml"},{"id":93980892,"identity":"45f69deb-7497-43c9-ba86-36bc328fd34b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 02:49:03","extension":"html","order_by":12,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":101746,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1/cff7e6279517c8be0bd17abd.html"},{"id":93982348,"identity":"9f3c6ea0-7775-43c1-ab5f-6f9c39a56549","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 03:21:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":696602,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SDCEBIOEHELLAS.docx.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7898500/v1_covered_d6173517-0a83-478e-ac93-9858934407a0.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eThe Contribution of the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy to Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Economically Vulnerable Regions in Greece\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Democritus University of Thrace","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"
[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Sustainable development, Circular Economy, Bioeconomy, Economically Vulnerable Regions, socio-economic indicators","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7898500/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7898500/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eGreece, following a long-standing Economic and Political Crisis, unfortunately presents evidence of deficiencies in strategy and policy for sustainability. This study explores the role of the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy in promoting Sustainable Development, with particular emphasis on the economically weak regions of Greece. The analysis of the international literature and the quantitative analysis of secondary data, establish that the implementation of circular and bioeconomy strategies can enhance local development, create new jobs and improve the quality of life, when there is a multi-level approach in each sector separately. Otherwise, even well-intentioned ecological initiatives may generate distortions within the socio-economic system, ultimately leading to policy failure. The correlation of population changes with socio-economic indicators, such as income, unemployment and poverty levels, highlights the relationship between inequalities and demographic decline, in relation to sustainability. The work concludes with recommendations and strategies that will practically improve the existing situation as well as for the field of research at the level of meta-analysis offered through the findings of the study.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Contribution of the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy to Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Economically Vulnerable Regions in Greece","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-21 02:48:59","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7898500/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"
[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"66630f4c-452e-4397-a301-614054257ce0","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 21st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":56542343,"name":"Agricultural Economics \u0026 Policy"},{"id":56542344,"name":"Environmental Policy"},{"id":56542345,"name":"Agroecology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-21T02:48:59+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-21 02:48:59","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7898500","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7898500","identity":"rs-7898500","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}
Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below.
Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure
cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can
have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy
(via DOI)
is the canonical version.