The constant growth of the population and the increase in the demand for resources in the face of a lack of food, raw materials, and habitat reflect the urgent need to study existing experience in order to find solutions to these problems.Environmental pollution, continuing trends towards increasing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, resulting in climate change, exacerbate the previously noted problems. The urgent tasks of combining economic interests with maintaining the natural balance of the ecological system and rational nature management encourage us to turn to an analysis of the possibilities and barriers to transition to a circular economy model.In this regard, the article studied and analyzed the concept of a circular economy; the positive and negative aspects of the implementation of its principles are shown; the identification of barriers, the emergence of which is due to the process of introducing a closed cycle to the development of the economy, and the features of the implementation of the strategy of the circular economy, depending on the level of socio-economic development, the characteristics of natural and human capital, state support, the level of technology and the innovative capabilities of society, are identified. The effects and barriers that this approach can have on the functioning of organizations and society as a whole, as well as the related opportunities in the field of economy, ecology and society, are studied. Proposals are presented to overcome barriers to a circular economy based on the principles of resource efficiency and non-waste. The conclusion is argued that a detailed consideration of this approach to the organization of economic activity indicates the feasibility of introducing the principles of a circular economy, as it is able to qualitatively transform the production model, promote economic growth, reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions and provide consumers with more durable and innovative products. A number of proposals are given to overcome economic, financial, institutional and technological barriers to the implementation of this concept of sustainable development, among which we can single out the development of a sustainable approach, the introduction of digital technologies, scientific understanding of this issue and the need for state support.