Environmental issues are widely discussed in all sectors of the economy and actions to reduce the impacts of environmental degradation are still insufficient but over time have been massively diffused, this approach being extended to social issues related to the impacts generated by the companies. Among the actions to change production and consumption patterns, the circular economy brings the proposal of opposition to the linear model "extract, transform, discard", still heavily used today, and which depends on large quantities of materials. The circular model is characterized as an economy that is restorative and regenerative and aims to keep products, components and materials at its highest level of utility and value. Thus, the objective of this article was to present the main concepts of the circular economy and the proposed actions for Brazil, based on bibliographical and documentary research through the publications of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the report of the European Commission for Sustainable Development and documents of lectures held in Brazil. The result shows the circular economy as a process that allows the optimization of production through the elimination of waste, as these can be used as by-products or as a source of energy; and that Brazil presents advances in this sense, verified through the actions that are already being carried out.