Sustainability in the Contemporary Market Economy

Over time, the market economy has undergone many changes caused by the processes underlying its operation, and have focused on the scarcity of resources, interdependencies between economic agents, intensified exchanges, technical and scientific progress and computerization of economic systems. Given the many variables that act and ensure the functionality of the contemporary market economy, it is particularly important that the interdependencies between them be addressed in terms of sustainability. This paper addresses sustainability as a condition for supporting sustainable economic development, starting from the main links that support economic growth, namely production and consumption. Sustainable economic growth must be accompanied by measures to optimize the processes that characterize production and consumption, aiming at reducing resource waste, maximizing the intrinsic value of waste from economic activity and ensuring an infrastructure that makes it possible to move from the linear economy to the circular economy. Starting from the current stage of the steps taken to ensure sustainable economic development, the paper presents the main challenges faced by supply and demand, representing shortcomings in ensuring the road to circularity.