This white paper presents 10 insights into the circular economy from the field of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology is a scientific field that takes a systems perspective to explore the society-wide use of materials and energy and address the related impacts on the natural environment. The circular economy is a framework for sustainable resource management that shapes government policy (McDowall et al. 2017), business model innovation (Lüdeke-Freund, Gold, and Bocken 2019) and public research agendas (Leipold et al. 2022).