research proposal on circular economy

Funding opportunity: Research for a plastics circular economy: full proposal stage

Apply for funding for interdisciplinary research to support a more sustainable overall plastics system and help the UK move towards a circular plastics economy.

You may only submit a full proposal if you have been invited by EPSRC after submitting a successful application at the outline stage.

Projects can be up to £1.75 million at 100% full economic cost. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost.

Project duration can be up to 36 months.

Who can apply

This is the second stage of this opportunity. You may only submit a full proposal if you have been invited to by EPSRC, after submitting a successful application at the outline stage.

Standard UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) eligibility rules apply. Research grants are open to:

• UK higher education institutions
• research council institutes
• UKRI-approved independent research organisations
• eligible public sector research establishments
• NHS bodies with research capacity

Check if your institution is eligible for funding .

Individual eligibility

You can apply if you are a resident in the UK and meet at least 1 of the following conditions:

• are employed at the submitting research organisation at a level equivalent to lecturer or above
• hold a fixed-term contract that extends beyond the duration of the proposed project, and the host research organisation is prepared to give you all the support normal for a permanent employee
• hold an EPSRC, BBSRC, UKRI, Royal Society or Royal Academy of Engineering or similar fellowship
• hold fellowships under other schemes (please contact EPSRC to check eligibility, which is considered on a case-by-case basis)

Holders of postdoctoral level fellowships are not eligible to apply for an EPSRC or BBSRC grant.

You can be the principal investigator on 1 proposal and a co-investigator on 1 additional proposal only. Alternatively, you can be a co-investigator only, on no more than 2 proposals.

Repeatedly unsuccessful applicants policy

Submissions to the full proposal stage of this funding opportunity will count towards the EPSRC repeatedly unsuccessful applicants policy .

If you are currently restricted under the repeatedly unsuccessful applicants policy, you may submit unlimited outlines. However, you will only be able to submit 1 full proposal as principal investigator or co-investigator during the 12-month restricted period.

What we're looking for

This opportunity aims to fund interdisciplinary research to support a more sustainable overall plastics system and a move towards a circular plastics economy through developments in:

• biological sciences
• biotechnology
• engineering
• information and communications technology (ICT)
• mathematical sciences
• physical sciences

Plastics are an essential material within advanced societies. However, their extraction and production can have damaging impacts. Their low cost has led to a culture of disposal following limited use and their durability can be problematic at the end of their use-life.

Aligning to UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) strategic theme of ‘building a greener future’ and the UK’s net zero research and innovation framework, EPSRC and BBSRC are looking to support research into delivering a circular economy for plastics and harness the significant positive economic and environmental impacts it will enable.

The opportunity will directly deliver against EPSRC’s engineering net zero priority ambitions to collaborate across UKRI to deliver whole systems approaches and solutions to:

• reduce resource used
• eliminate pollution
• deliver a sustainable zero carbon future

EPSRC and BBSRC welcome proposals from across the plastics research community. The whole of the product lifecycle is in scope from extraction and novel and conventional production, to maximising the longevity and value achieved while in use and finally to recycling and recovery at the end of life.

Interdisciplinary approach

We want to see interdisciplinary project proposals that commence by addressing a novel challenge relevant to delivering a more sustainable and, where appropriate, circular plastics system in one or more of the following areas:

Plastics research can fall within the remit of any of the research councils and is often interdisciplinary by necessity. For this opportunity proposals must lie primarily within EPSRC’s or BBSRC’s remit, or both. Interdisciplinary projects that in part fall within the remit of other councils are welcome and encouraged. Participation by researchers from other disciplines will be eligible for funding.

Where relevant EPSRC and BBSRC will work with other councils to ensure a representative range of subject expertise is involved in the peer review process. However please note that proposals deemed to have a majority remit within another UKRI council will be rejected. EPSRC and BBSRC reserve the right to make such remit decisions without reference to peer review.

What we expect to see in proposals

Proposals should address research challenges that support a more sustainable overall plastics system and where appropriate, a circular plastics economy. Applications that look towards creating tighter loops and maximising value retention are particularly encouraged.

Your proposal should:

• be adventurous and ambitious with the potential for high impact
• address real-world challenges
• be developed in partnership with relevant stakeholders such as industry or government. Proposals which connect and contribute to local innovation priorities are particularly welcomed

Proposals must present a credible potential translation pathway for the research outputs, demonstrating how the project will likely help deliver a sustainable plastics future through the practical application of the research.

You should consider and engage with wider stakeholders, including policymakers and where appropriate, the public.

The UK Circular Plastics Network (CPN) is willing to suggest relevant potential industrial partners wherever possible. To that end, you should approach CPN to explore possible collaborative opportunities as early as possible.

Before applying, you should:

• read the background for this opportunity in the ‘additional info’ section
• consider the broader context, sectors and plastics system or systems your proposed research outcomes sit within

Research challenges

This opportunity is open to any project addressing a research challenge related to accelerating the transition to a circular plastics economy. EPSRC and BBSRC particularly welcome proposals addressing the following priority areas where significant challenges remain:

• tighter loops of circularity by designing for reuse, disassembly, remanufacture (from molecular to whole product levels), and repair including in-situ (self-healing)
• novel approaches to recycling of the approximately 50 to 55% of plastics which currently are not recovered at the end of life
• recovery and reuse of plastics currently lost to the environment, in particular micro- and nanoparticles and fibres including the use of bioremediation approaches
• strategies for managing the impact of additives in plastics on recycling of plastic products. Additives can complicate or inhibit the bulk recycling of a single plastic type, but additives, including novel or innovative bio-additives could also be used to improve recycling rates without compromising the properties of the materials
• effective tracking, transport, separation or sorting and recycling technologies for harder to tackle polymers
• more efficient recycling technologies that maintain material properties over a greater number of lifecycles
• novel approaches to the analysis of available plastics data, to enable tighter material and product circularity loops including methods for measuring and estimating the embodied or lifecycle carbon emissions of plastic materials and products
• plastics constructed from bio-based and alternative feedstocks to petrochemicals, that contribute to a circular system

Any proposed new plastics, including novel bioplastics, must demonstrably conform to current and planned or anticipated regulatory controls, as well as aligning to the ambitions of the existing and predicted overall plastics system.

The substitution of plastics by other materials is outside the remit of this opportunity.

Proposals addressing plastic packaging are not excluded from this opportunity, but applicants must demonstrate how any project would be complimentary to other investments such as the smart sustainable plastic packaging challenge .

Whole system approach

You should consider the whole system (technological, economic, social, cultural and environmental) within which the proposed research outputs would sit.

You should consider:

• how the different parts of a system, at different scales (material, product and sector) influence each other as a whole
• the relationships and feedback loops between them
• the wider social, legal, regulatory, economic and environmental context

Responsible innovation and environmental sustainability

All projects funded via this opportunity must:

• follow the principles and guidance contained within UKRI’s environmental sustainability strategy (PDF, 1.5MB) , regarding the sustainability of the research methodologies used
• consider the responsible innovation and environmental sustainability aspects of the proposed research approaches, and the associated project outputs and outcomes

A shift to a more circular plastics economy provides an opportunity for the UK to achieve more sustainable and clean economic growth and prosperity. This should involve the consideration of the risks, costs and trade-offs associated with different materials, technologies and approaches and an appropriate degree of application of tools such as life cycle analysis.

Project partners

You should include at least 1 appropriate project partner (industrial, government or third sector), to demonstrate that:

• the project will address a tangible need
• a credible potential translation pathway for the research output is in place

Both sector specific and multi sector proposals are welcomed.

Project partner engagement must demonstrably extend beyond an advisory role, such as by providing:

• a cash contribution to the project, such as a direct investment to support a project research activity
• access to equipment or other resources
• employee time allocated to involvement in research activities

It should be clear that each project partner has a clear interest in the project achieving outcomes and impacts relevant to its business or mission.

You will need to have secured a commitment to collaborate on the proposed project from at least one project partner for the outline stage of your application.

Funding and duration

We have up to £7 million to fund a number of projects.

Your project can be up to £1.75 million at 100% full economic cost. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost.

Projects can be up to 36 months in duration.

Equipment over £10,000 in value (including VAT) is not available through this opportunity.  Smaller items of equipment (individually under £10,000) should be in the ‘Directly Incurred – Other Costs’ heading.

EPSRC approach to equipment funding .

Responsible innovation

You are expected to work within the UKRI frameworks for responsible innovation .

International collaboration

Applicants planning to include international collaborators on their proposal should visit Trusted Research for guidance on getting the most out of international collaboration whilst protecting intellectual property, sensitive research and personal information .

How to apply

Stage 2: full proposal stage.

This opportunity is the second stage of a 2-stage assessment process. Your outline proposal must have been prioritised for submission of a full application, a formal invitation provided by EPSRC to confirm this.

Full proposals invited following a successful outline stage must have the ‘related grant’ field completed in the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system. Please use the option ‘successful outline’.

The full proposal should expand upon the project presented in the outline application, without significant divergence from that. Should a significant divergence be deemed to have occurred, EPSRC reserves the right to reject the full proposal without reference to peer review.

Your full submission counts towards the EPSRC repeatedly unsuccessful applicants policy.

Although proposals may be multi-institutional, only 1 application form should be submitted for each bid.

Applicants should ensure they are aware of and comply with any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.

EPSRC will need to receive invited full proposal applications by 24 January 2023 4:00pm UK time. Please note that this is 1 week later than published at the outline stage.

Applying using Je-S

You must apply using the Je-S system .

We recommend you start your application early. You can save completed details in Je-S at any time and return to continue your application later.

When applying, select ‘new document’ then:

• council: ‘EPSRC’
• document type: standard proposal
• scheme: standard
• on the project details page, select: Sustainable Plastics opportunity full proposals

After completing the application, you must ‘submit document’ which will send your application to your host organisation’s administration.

Your host organisation’s administration is required to complete the submission process. You should allow sufficient time for this between submitting your proposal and the closing date.

You can find advice on completing your application in the Je-S handbook .

Your host organisation will also be able to provide advice and guidance on completing your application.

EPSRC must receive your application by 24 January 2023 4:00pm UK time. Please note that this is 1 week later than published at the outline stage.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Attachments

As well as the Je-S application form, the following documents must be submitted:

• case for support (8 sides of A4, 2 on your track record and 6 on the scientific case which should also show how the proposed research will improve the sustainability of plastics)
• workplan (no more than 1 side of A4)
• justification of resources (up to 2 sides of A4)
• postdoctoral staff and researcher co-investigators (research assistants who have made a substantial contribution to the proposal and will be employed on the project for a significant amount of time)
• visiting researchers
• letters of support from all project partners included in the Je-S form (no page limit). At least 1 project partner is required for this opportunity. Additional project partnerships are welcome. See the EPSRC guidance on project partners letter of support
• technical assessments for facilities listed as requiring one in the Je-S guidance (no page limit)
• host organisation letter of support (up to 2 sides of A4)
• cover letter (optional attachment). There is no page limit for this and it is not seen by peer review

Please note that the overall costing of applications submitted at the full proposal stage is expected to be within 10% of the value recorded at the outline stage.

You should attach your documents as PDFs to avoid errors. They should be completed in single-spaced Arial size 11 font or similar-sized sans serif typeface.

Advice on writing proposals for EPSRC funding .

Ethical information

EPSRC will not fund a project if it believes that there are ethical concerns that have been overlooked or not appropriately accounted for. All relevant parts of the ‘ethical information’ section in Je-S must be completed.

Guidance on completing ethical information on the Je-S form .

How we will assess your application

Assessment process.

Full proposals will undergo internal checks by EPSRC staff to ensure that they meet the opportunity requirements.

Peer review and prioritisation panel

The full proposals will then undergo postal peer review, where they will be assessed by relevant independent experts, identified by EPSRC, who will score the proposal against the assessment criteria and provide comments.

When you submit your proposal, you should nominate 3 reviewers from different organisations with the expertise to review your proposal, see ‘Nominating reviewers’ for detail. We usually select 1 of your nominations as a reviewer (although this isn’t always possible if we identify a conflict of interest or if your nominated reviewers are unavailable).

You will receive a copy of the reviewer comments and be given the opportunity to provide a written response. We reserve the right to reject proposals at this stage if reviews are unsupportive.

A peer review panel will then be formed including a mix of independent academic and industry members, with a range of expertise relevant to this opportunity. We will provide the panel in advance with your full proposal, the reviews of it and your written response to the reviews. The panel will discuss the written reviews and your response to them, subsequently assigning the proposal a numerical score against the assessment criteria. They will then produce a rank ordered list of proposals.

EPSRC and BBSRC will use the rank ordered list to determine priority for funding.

We expect to contact applicants with the outcome of their application within 2 weeks of the prioritisation panel meeting.

Stage 2: assessment criteria

Standard criteria, quality (primary).

The research excellence of the proposal, making reference to:

• the novelty, relationship to the context, timeliness and relevance to identified stakeholders
• the ambition, adventure, transformative aspects or potential outcomes
• the suitability of the proposed methodology and the appropriateness of the approach to achieving impact

National importance (secondary major)

How the research:

• contributes to or helps maintain the health of other disciplines
• contributes to addressing key UK societal challenges
• contributes to future UK economic success and development of emerging industry or industries
• meets national needs by establishing or maintaining a unique world-leading activity
• complements other UK research funded in the area, including any relationship to the EPSRC or BBSRC portfolio
• plans for dissemination and knowledge exchange with potential beneficiaries of the research

Applicant and partnerships (secondary)

The ability to deliver the proposed project, making reference to:

• appropriateness of the track record of the applicant or applicants
• balance of skills of the project team, including collaborators

Resources and management (secondary)

The effectiveness of the proposed planning and management and whether the requested resources are appropriate and have been fully justified, making reference to:

• any equipment requested, or the viability of the arrangements described to access equipment needed for this project, and particularly on any university or third-party contribution
• any resources requested for activities to either increase impact, for public engagement or to support responsible innovation

Opportunity specific criteria

Fit to opportunity (secondary major).

Alignment of the research programme to the aims and scope of the opportunity, including whether it:

• undertakes novel, ambitious, adventurous and timely bioscience, biotechnology, engineering, information and communications technology, mathematical sciences or physical sciences research to support a more sustainable plastics system and move towards a circular plastics economy
• addresses a real-world challenge using a suitable methodology, developed in partnership with relevant stakeholders such as industry or government and with the potential for high impact
• presents a credible potential translation pathway for the research outputs
• takes an appropriately interdisciplinary approach, considering the whole system in which the proposed research outcomes will exist

Nominating reviewers

As part of the full proposal application process you will be invited to nominate up to 3 potential reviewers who you feel have the expertise to assess your proposal.

Please ensure that any nominations meet the EPSRC policy on conflicts of interest .

See more information about the reviewer selection process .

Guidance for reviewers

When completing your assessment, please use the section marked ‘call specific criteria’ to address the fit to opportunity criterion, as defined in the assessment criteria.

For more information, refer to the:

• reviewer guides forms and guidance notes
• guidance for reviewing standard grants

For interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary proposals, reviewers should state which aspects of the proposal they feel qualified to assess.

Feedback on the full proposal is provided by the reviewer’s comments. Unless sifted prior to the meeting, the rank order list information is published on the EPSRC’s Grant on the Web (GOW) . Information is published on GOW shortly after the meeting.

Contact details

Get help with developing your proposal.

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

Ask about this funding opportunity

Mark tarplee, senior portfolio manager, manufacturing and circular economy theme.

Email: [email protected]

Rebecca Cheesbrough, Portfolio Manager, manufacturing and circular economy theme

Email: [email protected]

Rachel Harris, Senior Portfolio Manager, industrial biotechnology

Email: [email protected]

Include ‘Research for a Plastics Circular Economy’ in the subject line

Get help with applying through Je-S

Any queries regarding the submission of proposals through Je-S should be directed to the Je-S helpdesk.

[email protected]

01793 444164

Opening times

Je-S helpdesk opening times

Additional info

Plastics are an essential material within advanced societies. Worldwide, approximately 370 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year.

In 2025, plastic production is expected to reach over 600 million tonnes per year ( Plastic Atlas, facts and figures about the world of synthetic polymers ). Primarily developed from fossil fuel feedstocks, they have a broad range of applications from preserving food to lightweighting of components to improve energy efficiency of advanced technologies.

Plastics are cheap to produce, have often unrivalled functional properties and are durable. However, their extraction and production can have damaging impacts, their low cost has led to a culture of disposal and their durability can be problematic at the end of their use-life. A circular economy for plastics could help:

• reduce resource use and the damage this causes
• reduce waste
• improve recycling and recovery processes

Plastics recycling is a flourishing industry globally, but it is focused primarily on solid packaging. Approximately 50 to 55% of unwanted plastic products are incinerated (energy from waste), go to landfill or become fugitive in the environment.

Where options do exist current recycling technologies also vary in efficiency and effectiveness. For instance pure polyethylene terephthalate waste can be recycled repeatedly without markedly impacting on the properties of the material.

However for many polymers current approaches to recycling degrade the material over time. Current methods for recycling of plastics can also be very energy intensive and limited in their ability to process mixed materials.

The UK and devolved administrations have a number of policies of relevance to the area setting out a number of ambitions over the coming decades. These include:

• 25 year environment plan (GOV.UK)
• resources and waste strategy for England (GOV.UK)
• developing Scotland’s circular economy (GOV.SCOT)
• beyond recycling (GOV.WALES)
• waste management strategy (daera.NI.GOV.UK)
• introduction of plastic packaging tax (GOV.UK)
• packaging and packaging waste (GOV.UK)
• net zero strategy (GOV.UK)
• net zero Wales (GOV.WALES)

Grant additional conditions

Grants are awarded under the standard UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant terms and conditions .

EPSRC is fully committed to develop and promote responsible innovation. Research has the ability to not only produce understanding, knowledge and value, but also unintended consequences, questions, ethical dilemmas and, at times, unexpected social transformations.

We recognise that we have a duty of care to promote approaches to responsible innovation that will initiate ongoing reflection about the potential ethical and societal implications of the research that we sponsor and to encourage our research community to do likewise.

Links to wider programme or area

There are many different definitions of a circular economy. At its heart UKRI considers it to be about:

• producing less
• keeping the products, materials and resources we do use and produce in circulation at their highest value for as long as possible
• recovering them after use

The UKRI 2022 to 2027 strategy aims to drive the development, adoption and diffusion of green technologies, building a sustainable circular economy and a greener future for the UK as we move to net zero. More circular use of resources is crucial to:

• achieving net zero carbon emission targets
• reducing resource consumption, waste and pollution harmful to biodiversity
• enhancing health and resource security
• offering the UK significant economic, social and environmental benefits

Supporting the interdisciplinary, whole systems, engineering, physical sciences, maths and information and communications technology research and innovation needed to deliver a circular economy is a priority for EPSRC. It directly delivers against EPSRC’s engineering net zero priority ambitions to collaborate across UKRI to deliver whole systems approaches and solutions to:

• reduce resource use

BBSRC supports multistakeholder bioscience funding that generates economic, environmental and social benefits through a circular bioeconomy.

This opportunity follows the UKRI £20 million Plastics Research and Innovation Fund and runs concurrent to the UKRI £60 million smart sustainable plastic packaging Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund initiatives.

Supporting documents

Equality impact assessment (PDF, 234KB)

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services .

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Artificial intelligence in support of the circular economy: ethical considerations and a path forward

• Network Research
• Open access
• Published: 28 November 2022
• Volume 39 , pages 1451–1464, ( 2024 )

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• Huw Roberts 1 , 2 ,
• Joyce Zhang 3 ,
• Ben Bariach 3 ,
• Josh Cowls 3 , 4 ,
• Ben Gilburt 3 ,
• Prathm Juneja 3 ,
• Andreas Tsamados 3 ,
• Marta Ziosi 3 ,
• Mariarosaria Taddeo 3 , 4 &
• Luciano Floridi 3 , 5  

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The world’s current model for economic development is unsustainable. It encourages high levels of resource extraction, consumption, and waste that undermine positive environmental outcomes. Transitioning to a circular economy (CE) model of development has been proposed as a sustainable alternative. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a crucial enabler for CE. It can aid in designing robust and sustainable products, facilitate new circular business models, and support the broader infrastructures needed to scale circularity. However, to date, considerations of the ethical implications of using AI to achieve a transition to CE have been limited. This article addresses this gap. It outlines how AI is and can be used to transition towards CE, analyzes the ethical risks associated with using AI for this purpose, and supports some recommendations to policymakers and industry on how to minimise these risks.

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1 Introduction: artificial intelligence, circular economy, and their challenges

Over the past 50 years, natural resource extraction has tripled globally, with this trend accelerating since the turn of the century (Oberle et al. 2019 ). Based on the current trajectory, demand will require more than two planets’ worth of natural resources by 2030 and three by 2050 (Osborne 2006 ). Excessive demand for resources leads to higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions from mining and extraction, the creation of monocultures that harm the natural ecosystem, and individual health deteriorating due to environmental degradation, such as worsening air quality. Waste is also extensive. For instance, the global food system currently produces enough food to feed the world’s population, but roughly a third is wasted in the supply chain and the process of consumption (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google 2019 ). The “circular economy” (CE) has been proposed as an economic model that can help overcome these developmental challenges.

Although there is no agreed-upon definition of CE (Kirchherr et al. 2017 ), the term is generally used to refer to an economy “based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems” (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017 ). This contrasts with the so-called “linear economy”, the current and dominant consumption-based economic paradigm described above, which is characterised by taking resources, making goods to be sold, and disposing of everything one does not need, including the product at the end of its lifecycle (Sariatli 2017 ). Products are typically made to be consumed and discarded by the user once they are no longer considered valuable. Similarly, by-products in the creation process of products are frequently discarded rather than utilised.

To address the harms associated with a linear economy, public and private sector CE policies and initiatives have emerged since at least the 1990s. Germany was an early pioneer of integrating CE into national law by enacting the “Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act” (1996), which placed waste-management responsibilities on those who produce, market, and consume goods. Since the turn of the century, interest in this model amongst policymakers and businesses has continued to grow (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017 ). For example, the Chinese government passed a CE promotion law in 2008, published a national strategy for achieving CE in 2013, and emphasised implementing CE in its previous four national 5 years plans (Mathews and Tan 2016 ). Likewise, the European Commission announced a Circular Economy Action Plan in 2015 and the subsequent New Circular Economy Action Plan in 2020 , which look to transition the EU towards a regenerative growth model through enacting a “future-oriented agenda for achieving a cleaner and more competitive Europe” (New Circular Economy Action Plan 2020 ). In other states—such as Brazil, India, and the United States (US)—industry has been leading CE initiatives (Geng et al. 2019 ), with companies such as Xerox and Caterpillar integrating CE principles into their business models (Stahel 2016 ).

Digital technologies are a crucial enabler of CE ambitions (Preston 2012 ). Policymakers and businesses recognise this. For instance, the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan explicitly states that “digital technologies, such as the Internet of things, big data, blockchain, and artificial intelligence will… accelerate circularity” (New Circular Economy Action Plan 2020 , p. 4). Similarly, numerous businesses across the globe have looked to digital technologies to further circularity, such as using sensors to more effectively monitor and maintain products (Nobre and Tavares 2017 ; Reuter 2016 ).

In this article, we centre our analysis on artificial intelligence (AI), understood here as a cluster of smart technologies, ranging from machine learning software, to natural language processing applications, to robotics, which have unprecedented capacities to reshape individual lives, societies, and the environment (Roberts et al. 2021 ). Two reasons determined our choice. First, AI technologies have several novel features, including an ability to process vast amounts of data, autonomously or semi-autonomously, to make inferences, predictions, decisions, or to generate content. These features mean that of all digital tools and technologies, those that utilise AI have the most transformational potential for CE; for instance, through facilitating widespread smart automation or breakthroughs in fundamental science that could scale CE solutions exponentially. Footnote 1 At the same time, these novel features mean that AI technologies pose unique ethical risks to fundamental rights that deserve special attention (Floridi and Taddeo 2016 ; Tsamados et al. 2021 ). Second, there has been significant growth in the use of these technologies in recent years (The State of AI in 2021 2021 ), with academics, businesses, and policymakers increasingly interested in applying these technologies for CE initiatives (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google 2019 ). Hence, it is not just a hypothetical consideration.

To date, research at the intersection of AI and CE has focused on how these technologies can be used to aid CE ambitions (Acerbi et al. 2021 ). By contrast, the potential for harms to emerge from using AI to achieve this circular transition has not been comprehensively analysed. This is a significant omission, given the well-documented ethical risks associated with many uses of AI, including uses to foster socially and environmentally good outcomes (Cowls et al. 2021 ; Taddeo et al. 2021 ; Tsamados et al. 2021 ). In this paper, we address this gap by (i) assessing the potential ethical issues associated with using AI to achieve CE targets, and (ii) providing policy recommendations designed to promote the ethical use of AI for achieving CE ambitions. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section two establishes a background for the analysis with a brief overview of the history and concept of the circular economy, including common criticisms. Section three considers how AI can aid the transition to a circular economy. Section four assesses the ethical risks of using AI technologies to support CE strategies. Section five offers some policy recommendations for governments and industry that can be adopted to achieve more ethical outcomes when using AI for CE initiatives. A brief conclusion closes the article.

2 The concept of circular economy

CE is a model for economic development that seeks to decouple growth from the unrestrained consumption of finite resources through introducing regenerative practices (The Circular Economy In Detail , n.d. 2022 ). The CE concept has been touted in various forms since at least the late 1970s as a solution to the environmental sustainability issue (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017 ) and as a new model for economic prosperity (Kirchherr et al. 2017 ). Although perspectives on what CE is differ significantly, there are several commonalities at the heart of most understandings. CE typically centres around ideas of reduction, reuse (including repair), and recycling (hereafter the “3Rs”) Footnote 2 of products, components, and materials to minimise waste (Kirchherr et al. 2017 ). The 3Rs are often understood as functioning in a “waste hierarchy”: reduction is the top priority to ensure that resources are extracted at a level where nature can recover. Next, reuse is promoted, so that excessive waste is not created unnecessarily. Recycling is the last resort on account of being the most wasteful (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017 ).

Many understandings of CE distinguish between biological and technical cycles. Circularity is often the default in “natural” biological systems, with waste from specific processes becoming resources for others (Stahel 2016 ). The water and carbon cycles, and processes such as composting, are examples of circular living systems regenerating themselves (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation 2017 ). CE initiatives seek to emulate “natural” cycles when using biological materials in production, such as through regenerating soil and using renewable resources in the manufacturing process (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google 2019 ). Technical cycles are for materials that have been processed by humans and cannot easily be returned to nature. A prominent example is the extraction of rare metals and their transformation into mass-market consumer electronics. These materials should be (re)used as efficiently as possible to minimise resource extraction and transformation (Gaustad et al. 2021 ; Silvestri et al. 2021 ). In practice, products are often a mix of biological and technical materials. To ensure that cycles are effectively maintained, it is essential to separate materials at the point of recycling, or to develop technical materials that emulate biological ones that can be more easily returned to nature. Footnote 3

Unlike the idea of sustainability, which has often been criticised on account of being too vague to be implementable (Phillis and Andriantiatsaholiniaina 2001 ), CE provides a tangible model that can be adopted for reusing (Floridi 2019 ) or cutting down waste and promoting more environmentally friendly growth (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017 ).

2.1 Circular economy initiatives

Several policy initiatives have been released to promote a transition to a CE model. For example, the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (2013) stipulates that all producers of phones need to accommodate a take-back system, and the New Circular Action Plan ( 2020 ) introduces a comprehensive set of product requirements for circularity. In China, the Circular Economy Promotion Law (2008) notes that senior officials should be evaluated against CE targets and indicators, which were established in the country’s subsequent 5 years plans (McDowall et al. 2017 ). Finally, although the US has been less active in promoting CE, the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Recycling Strategy ( 2021 ) explicitly focuses on circularity (National Recycling Strategy 2021 ) and a handful of local initiatives have been undertaken, including San Francisco’s Zero Waste scheme (Mathews and Tan 2016 ).

Industry initiatives are also being pioneered across private sectors. The technology company Philips has begun offering “lighting as a service”, where it focuses on selling maintenance and repair agreements rather than lighting products. The products sold as part of these agreements are often smart technologies that only provide lighting when needed (Achieving a Circular Economy 2015 ). Ikea has recently opened its first second-hand store and an associated buy-back scheme to encourage consumers to return their unwanted goods for reuse (Fleming 2020 ). Smaller private initiatives are also on the rise. Prominent examples include Fairphone Footnote 4 and BackMarket, Footnote 5 social enterprise companies that apply the CE model to the mobile phone and computer industries, by encouraging the refurbishing, repair, and reuse of phones and laptops.

These initiatives are promising, but the transition towards circularity is still nascent. Despite predictions that the circular economy will replace the linear economy by 2029 (Hippold 2019 ), a 2022 report showed that only 8.6% of the world economy was circular in 2020, which is, in fact, a decline from 2018, when 9.1% of the global economy was circular (de Wit and Haigh 2022 ) Footnote 6 . This indicates that significant progress still needs to be made if a meaningful circular transition is to take place.

2.2 Circular economy criticisms

The concept of a CE is not without its critics. Notably, the focus on socially good outcomes is generally lacking in CE narratives (Barbier 1987 ; Purvis et al. 2019 ), while the idea of sustainability often includes economic, environmental, and social elements (Bibri 2018 ). Because of this, it is unclear whether the circular economy would prove beneficial for social outcomes, including whether it would improve individual well-being (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017 ), or lead to greater

“social equality, in terms of inter- and intra-generational equity, gender, racial and religious equality and other diversity, financial equality, or in terms of equality of social opportunity” (Murray et al. 2017 , p. 376)

Even if CE proved to be socially beneficial, it remains unclear how to ensure or even facilitate these beneficial aspects.

Some scholarship has been critical of the theoretical robustness of the CE concept, which has predominantly been developed by policymakers and businesses. This includes questions over the foundational premise that the earth is a closed loop where materials and energy cycle through the system, with scientists pointing out that the earth is, in fact, an open system (Skene 2018 ). Other criticisms include the potentially damaging effects of “Jevon’s paradox” ( i.e. eco-efficiency leading to more consumption) (Korhonen et al. 2018 ), and the objection that long-lasting products may not be the most environmentally friendly choice on account of the difficulty of disposal Footnote 7 (Murray et al. 2017 ) or due to the prolonged use of eco-inefficient products (Blunck et al. 2019 ).

Perhaps, most problematically, the lack of theoretical robustness of the CE concept could lead organisations to appropriate the term without overhauling business practices in a meaningful way. For instance, many proposed definitions of CE do not include the idea of a waste hierarchy, meaning companies could make incremental improvements in recycling and claim that they are introducing circular and sustainable business practices, irrespective of the kind of material used (and disposed) in production processes (Kirchherr et al. 2017 ). Large transnational corporations leading the discourse on, and investments in, CE initiatives also create a risk of co-option, whereby powerful actors that are already prospering because of the current developmental model set the standards for CE, while also securing a position of capital accumulation within this new model (Mah 2021 ; Ponte 2019 ). This could undermine market competition and consumer choice.

Finally, some even question whether CE is sufficient to fix the current “take-make-waste” model, given that it still promotes consumption and growth (Blühdorn and Welsh 2007 ; Mah 2021 ). This problem has given rise to a “degrowth” movement amongst environmental activists and scholars, who advocate for a radical political economy reorganisation that concentrates mainly on the “reduction” principle that is also found in CE (Schröder et al. 2019 ).

Despite these documented drawbacks, it would be wrong to dismiss the CE model. While imperfect, in many circumstances, it offers a marked improvement on the status quo and can facilitate tangibly sustainable outcomes. Nonetheless, for a sustainable and effective implementation of CE to succeed, ongoing scrutiny and anticipation of potential harms are needed. This includes scrutinising the digital technologies that are being used to support CE as part of a “green plus blue” approach to global challenges in the twenty-first century (Floridi 2020 ). We undertake this analysis in the following sections, specifically focusing on AI.

3 AI and CE

AI is a key enabler of CE and the focal point of this paper on account of its potential to bring about significant benefits and risks. Footnote 8 However, it is important to acknowledge from the outset that AI does not function in a vacuum; AI systems are typically developed and deployed in tandem with other digital technologies. For example, Internet of things (IoT) devices may be used to collect data for an AI system to subsequently analyse (Askoxylakis 2018 ; Reuter 2016 ). Accordingly, while our analysis centres on the use of AI in support of CE, we consider the use of other digital technologies insofar as they complement AI in relevant contexts. The remainder of this section considers how AI can aid CE goals by Sect. ( 3.1 ) designing and maintaining circular products and Sect. ( 3.2 ) facilitating circular businesses.

3.1 Designing, developing, and maintaining circular products

AI can support the design, development, and maintenance of circular products. This can happen in two notable ways.

First, a product needs to be designed and developed with the 3Rs in mind to meet CE parameters. In particular, products should be designed to ensure a long product life and in a way that enables the separation of components that are a part of the biological cycle (e.g. cardboard) from those that are part of a technical cycle (e.g. plastic), which would enhance its recycling potential (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google 2019 ). AI can support designers by suggesting initial designs for eco-friendly products or adjusting designs based on environmental parameters and/or considerations of other actors in the circular value chain (Acerbi et al. 2021 ; Gailhofer et al. 2021 ). For instance, parameters could be established for designing a product based on local or recycled materials, which would, in turn, lessen resource extraction and emissions associated with the transport of materials. Similarly, AI can help design new materials to substitute unsustainable resources, such as harmful chemicals. This design could enhance the durability of products and ease recycling at the end of the product lifecycle. An example is the project ‘Accelerated Metallurgy’ which used AI to develop novel metal alloy combinations that take into account circular economy principles such as non-toxicity, design for use and reuse, extending the use period and minimising waste (Gailhofer et al. 2021 ). AI could also help predict how materials change over time, including considerations of durability and potential toxicity of materials (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google 2019 ). This information can be contained in a “product passport”, which would help facilitate reverse logistics (Charnley et al. 2019 ). These solutions could address some of the concerns outlined above about the long-term issues of eco-inefficiencies and disposal issues surrounding circular products (Blunck et al. 2019 ; Murray et al. 2017 ).

Second, regarding the maintenance of CE products, AI could be used to monitor products and make data-driven decisions. For example, AI-powered digital twins—virtual models that accurately reflect physical objects—can help study performance over time and generate possible improvements (What Is a Digital Twin? n.d. 2022 ). These systems, which rely on IoT sensors to collect data on functionality, can help ensure the longevity of products through understanding product performance and condition in near-real-time (Askoxylakis 2018 ; Okorie et al. 2018 ). These data can then be used to make decisions about a product, such as whether interventions are needed, optimising performance and extending the product lifespan (Bressanelli et al. 2018 ). More generally, AI can be used to analyse data collected over a product’s lifecycle to either make real-time efficiency improvements or to determine whether a returned product should be reused, remanufactured, or recycled (Blunck et al. 2019 ). Since 2019, Apple has used on-device machine learning to predict the usage patterns of iPhone users, allowing more efficient battery charging, which it claims can extend the chemical age and thus the lifespan of the popular smartphone. Footnote 9 Meanwhile, Google and DeepMind have used AI to optimise battery usage based on predicted usage patterns and thus save power and potentially reduce charge cycles. Footnote 10 Beyond conventional business-to-consumer markets, these could be effective methods of maintaining product quality in a sharing economy business model.

3.2 Facilitating circular businesses

AI could also support circular business. In this case, at least three points of intervention are promising.

First, AI can be used to develop innovative circular business models, like AI-based dynamic pricing. If products are sold as a service or recycled products marketed, it is unlikely that standardised pricing could be used, given the multitude of variables impacting the price of a product. Relying on individuals to price each returned product manually would be time-consuming and could not scale effectively. Dynamic pricing algorithms could be used to analyse many variables that should be considered in pricing, such as age of the product, wear and tear, and market conditions to calibrate price-points efficiently. Platforms like eBay already offer second-hand sellers price suggestions based on the current market for similar items in similar conditions. Footnote 11 Likewise, matching algorithms can help connect buyers and sellers more effectively (Gailhofer et al. 2021 ). These business models are already being tested in existing sharing economy models, such as for bikes, indicating the potential viability of exporting them into circular product markets (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google 2019 ). Indeed, product-as-a-service has been identified as a potentially significant opportunity for existing companies, not just market disruptors (Antikainen and Valkokari 2016 ).

Second, AI could facilitate circular businesses by supporting the recycling infrastructure needed for a functioning circular economy. Effective sorting is required, because CE involves reusing, repairing, and recycling products. AI-powered image recognition can identify and differentiate waste, minimising resource loss. For instance, Unilever and Alibaba recently partnered to trial an AI-enabled sorting machine that distinguishes between different types of plastic, with the project aiming to introduce large-scale, closed-loop, plastic recycling in China (Moore 2021 ). Similarly, in the electronic waste sector, robots are being integrated into disassembly lines to retrieve and recycle valuable and hazardous materials at the end of a product’s lifecycle (Renteria and Alvarez-de-los-Mozos 2019 ). For example, Apple’s Daisy robot can “take apart up to 200 iPhone devices per hour, removing and sorting components to recover materials that traditional recyclers can’t—and at a higher quality” (Apple Recycling Program 2018 ). This facilitates higher value recovery of materials, creating secondary product markets (Fletcher and Webb 2017 ; Renteria and Alvarez-de-los-Mozos 2019 ). This type of sorting is crucial for minimising waste at the end of a product’s lifecycle and providing the materials for new circular products.

Third, AI can help with necessary infrastructural elements, to ensure that the resources underpinning circular businesses are themselves sustainable. Energy consumption for storage and processing of data is a notable example. Data centres are heavily energy-intensive. Some predictions suggest that data centres could use as much as 13% of the world’s electricity by 2030, compared to 1% in 2010 (Andrae and Edler 2015 ). If data-intensive circular businesses require electricity consumption at this level, then many of the environmental aspirations of the circular economy could be undermined. This is a risk that has been recognised by some of the world’s largest data providers, many of whom are turning to AI to assist in areas such as cooling and optimising energy use. For instance, in 2016, DeepMind developed an AI system that tuned Google data centres’ cooling systems based on the weather and other factors, thus reducing the cooling energy bill by 40% (Jones 2018 ).

4 Ethical issues of using AI in CE

We have seen that using AI for developing CE products and businesses offers many potential benefits. However, without proper consideration or ethical scrutiny, the use of these technologies could undermine their utility on account of being harmful and rejected by society (Floridi et al. 2020 ). The unethical use of AI presents several plausible risks, as we detail in the remainder of this section. Sub-Sects. ( 4.1 ) and ( 4.2 ) will focus on the potential direct harms from AI systems for CE, while Sects. ( 4.3 ) and ( 4.4 ) will focus on broader structural considerations of using these technologies.

4.1 Data privacy

CE concerns relationships and processes between multiple parties. A single actor does not “close the loop” given the connectedness of supply chains; circularity can hardly be achieved without collaboration (Alexandris et al. 2018 ; Larsson and Lindfred 2019 ; Sankaran 2020 ). This poses a pressing need for cooperative networks, and data and interoperable systems are critical to this end (Ramadoss et al. 2018 ). Data fuel these intra- and inter-organisational networks by informing stakeholders about the various attributes of underlying assets, such as location, condition, and availability. At the same time, without AI, it would be extremely difficult to make sense of these data and use them to aid in designing and maintaining products, supporting circular businesses, or achieving a high degree of circularity in the economy. However, this data collection and analysis could also exacerbate privacy risks.

Regarding data collection, the proliferation of tracking and measurement devices, such as IoT, into personal spaces is often a prerequisite for AI-powered CE products. This poses a significant ethical risk (Bressanelli et al. 2018 ; Ramadoss et al. 2018 ). Take the collaboration between Cisco, Cranfield University, and The Clearing in developing a circular model for producing and consuming sport shoes. Each pair of shoes was fitted with an IoT component that tracked the location and shoe condition to identify replacement and upgrade needs. At the end of the product’s life, customers were recommended a location to return the shoes for remanufacturing (Nobre and Tavares 2017 ). While this model sought to minimise environmental waste, it did so at the cost of revealing an individual’s geospatial data, which can act as a proxy for many other pieces of information about an individual, including their work, hobbies, and other behavioural patterns. Accordingly, the use of AI in support of CE tacitly encourages increased data collection through allowing data analysis capabilities to be scaled, in turn threatening consumer privacy.

A potential retort to this ethical risk is that personal data, including geospatial data, are already collected and analysed by numerous applications on our phones (Binns et al. 2018 ). However, the fact that ethically contentious data collection is already taking place does not act as a justification for further collection. How the data from tracking-enabled CE devices are used and by whom are key questions that would need to be addressed if geospatial data or other personal data are to be used ethically for CE products. A recent public engagement exercise by the Geospatial Commission—an expert committee housed within the UK Government’s Cabinet Office—revealed that individuals were concerned that geospatial data are not being used in their best interests, that they could not control the use of these data meaningfully, and that there were real risks of the data being misused or breached (Maxwell et al. 2021 ). The responses to this engagement exercise indicate that collecting geospatial data from circular products for subsequent analysis through AI applications pose a significant risk to public trust.

Regarding data analysis, the individual or group inferences that AI systems can make could also prove ethically problematic (Floridi 2014 ; Taylor et al. 2016 ). Consider the example of smart meters, which, as of 2020, account for over 30% of all energy meters in homes and small businesses in the UK (Smart Meter Statistics in Great Britain 2020 ). AI can analyse data from these meters to improve energy consumption, resulting in lower costs for consumers and a waste reduction. While energy data may not seem sensitive, patterns in energy usage can point to when individuals wake up, go to sleep, go to work, are away, have guests over, amongst many other things. Previous studies have indicated that it is even possible to infer how frequently an individual puts on the kettle and how much water is used to fill it (Murray et al. 2016 ). This example is indicative of how AI can make precise inferences about individual behaviours, even through seemingly banal applications. Potential CE benefits could be undermined by pernicious uses of these data, such as for unwanted targeted advertising or punitive behaviours against customers not following regimented policies, like black-box trackers on cars for specifically profiled drivers.

The above examples refer to intra-organisation data collection and analysis. The situation can become even more contested when inter-organisation data sharing is considered. As mentioned, this connectivity is a necessary step for “closing the loop”, yet it raises questions over how organisations can share data in a meaningful way while still ensuring privacy (Antikainen et al. 2018 ). Data security and liability risks are heightened within a highly interoperable ecosystem where one compromised node could impact many others (Allam and Dhunny 2019 ; Luthra and Mangla 2018 ), with the effects of security breaches especially damaging in these complex and interdependent systems involving multiple stakeholders. If left unaddressed, these risks could affect the potential successful adoption of a connected circular economy or make its implementation more problematic than it needs to be through undermining public trust.

4.2 Algorithmic bias

CE literature is generally positive about adopting algorithmic-based business models, such as automated dynamic pricing and matching. AI can be used to scale circular business practices by pricing reused products and/or matching them with potential consumers automatically, for example, based on demand, the condition of the product, or the profile of consumers. However, many existing experiments with automated dynamic pricing and algorithmic profiling in the wider economy have led to unfair or discriminatory outcomes. Here, we will focus our discussion on the former. Footnote 12 Recent examples of unethical outcomes from automated dynamic pricing include an online Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) preparatory course provider discriminating based on ZIP codes, which act as a proxy for ethnicity, leading to Asians being almost twice as likely to be offered higher prices than non-Asians (Angwin et al. 2015 ); the dating app Tinder’s pricing algorithm discriminating against individuals over 30 (Heikkila 2022 ); and Uber charging higher fare prices to individuals in Chicago neighbourhoods that have larger non-white and higher poverty level populations (Pandey and Caliskan 2021 ).

Taking this last case of Uber as an example, fare pricing is generally determined by duration and length of trips and a “surge multiplier”, which is based on relative demand and supply within a specific location. Uber’s current algorithmic model is influenced by drivers’ preferences and biases, such as whether to collect individuals from some areas of a city or specific passengers based on information provided, like name and rating. Ge et al. ( 2020 , p. 1) found that in Boston, US

“Uber drivers were twice as likely to cancel an accepted ride when travellers were using [an] African American-sounding name”.

Pandey and Caliskan ( 2021 ) argue that one possible reason specific neighbourhoods, and thus demographic groups, are charged higher prices is because a lower proportion of drivers are willing to provide services in some areas, impacting surge pricing. These example shows how harmful biases can creep into dynamic pricing business models and suggest that applying this model to CE poses a significant ethical risk. While using personal characteristics for pricing CE products may seem implausible at first, there are clear precedents in personalised marketing (Miller and Hosanagar 2019 ). On top of this, risks could materialise even if protected characteristics, like race or gender, are avoided, due to the potential for other attributes to act as proxies, as was seen in the above example. As such, it is not unreasonable to imagine tailored pricing and advertising of circular products including a variable that correlates with a protected characteristic and inadvertently leads to indirect discrimination (e.g. the inclusion of consumer’s ZIP code as a variable, so as to minimise transport emissions).

It should be stressed that harmful biases are not unique to automated pricing and other algorithmic business models. Individuals manually pricing CE products may show similar biases, as seen in many other sectors previously (Ayres 1991 ; Chander 2017 ). However, AI systems could standardise specific types of harmful biases at scale, with the “black box” nature of some of these systems exacerbating this risk by making harms less traceable (Pasquale 2015 ). Additionally, because of the proliferation of AI-as-a-service—off the shelf AI systems that organisations can buy—and due to the complex allocation of responsibilities, redressing these biases might become extremely challenging. This indicates that careful consideration of design ex-ante and regular monitoring ex-post are needed if companies are to adopt an ethically sound automated dynamic pricing system.

4.3 Economic inequality and exclusion

On top of the direct harms to individuals from AI systems for CE, these technologies could also have negative structural impacts. In terms of social and economic outcomes, significant risks are associated with the current realities of AI development and deployment. This is true both internationally and domestically.

Internationally, as several nations in Europe, North America, and Asia pilot circular projects, including smart cities, Global South countries have fewer resources to promote an AI-powered circular transition. A study by McKinsey estimates that leading countries could capture an additional 20–25% in net economic benefits from AI adoption. In comparison, Global South countries may capture only about 5–15% (Notes from the AI Frontier 2018 ). Thus, the application of AI may widen the digital divide between nations rather than close it.

As a solution, Ghoreishi and Happonen ( 2020 ) propose that Global North countries could use their AI technologies to help developing countries move towards CE. However, this approach would merely plaster over the broader issue of how contemporary AI value chains are structured. In the Global South, critical roles in the AI value chain include extracting raw materials, manufacturing hardware, and low-skilled tasks such as data labelling (Crawford and Joler 2018 ; Gray and Suri 2019 ). In contrast, the underlying research, design, and maintenance of products typically occur in the Global North (Weber 2017 ). Accordingly, merely relying on AI exports to the Global South for a CE transition could further exacerbate many problematic dependency-agency issues that characterise current AI dynamics (Weber 2017 ), and which have long been criticised by international development scholars (Frank 1986 ). Indeed, without a wider restructuring of the AI value chain that empowers high value-added tasks being completed in the Global South, other risks from simply exporting AI could materialise, such as the use of harmfully biased or unrobust models on account of deployment in a context the system was not trained for (Danks and London 2017 ).

Domestic inequalities and exclusion could also materialise within Global North states, which is where most AI-driven CE initiatives presently occur. CE’s reduction of linear consumption will change the labour structure from creating products to maintaining products-as-a-service. This will mean a greater emphasis on higher skilled work designing and maintaining products, and a lesser emphasis on factory floor product creation. The resultant shift would be a polarisation in the types of occupations available, thus leading to wage inequality (Lawrence et al. 2017 ). In countries like the U.S., where nearly 50% of digital service jobs exist in only ten metropolitan areas, a shift from manufacturing to design roles may result in further geographic inequality (Muro 2020 ).

Domestically, social exclusion is also a real possibility. On a regional scale, cities like Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Reykjavik have created digital suggestion platforms, where citizens can provide information about the city’s infrastructure and environment. The intention of developing these platforms is to collect data and encourage civic engagement while improving social and environmental conditions towards a circular economy. However, these tools tend to “exclude non-digital people like the elderly or simply less-informed” (Blunck et al. 2019 ). In the UK, for example, 99% of adults aged 16–44 years were recent internet users, compared with 54% of adults aged 75 years and over. Additionally, 81% of disabled adults are internet users, compared to 91% of adults more generally (Internet Users UK: 2020, 2021 ). Likewise, the increasing attention and resources being used on smart cities to leverage the most innovative technologies for social, economic, and environmental activities could come at the expense of suburban and rural areas (Allam and Dhunny 2019 ; Ziosi et al. 2022 ). While the use of AI in support of CE would not be entirely to blame for these domestic inequalities—which are already materialising due to the development and deployment of other digital technologies—the potential exacerbation of these inequalities from using AI in support of CE is an important ethical consideration.

4.4 Epistemological risks

A final ethical consideration concerns whether current, relevant, scientific knowledge makes the use of AI in CE innately risky. Nature is a complex and balanced ecosystem. The risk is that one may over-simplify the ecosystem, adopting a reductionist approach, formalising what cannot be reduced to formulae, and using mathematical modelling in which crucial variables are removed (Murray et al. 2017 ). This is problematic, because, for AI to benefit the environment, one needs to “ask the right ecological questions to have a clear understanding of the problem” and how to tackle it (Blunck et al. 2019 , p. 31). There is still much unknown about the environmental dimensions of CE (Larsson and Lindfred 2019 ). For example, water reuse is an excellent opportunity to apply CE principles. However, there are many concerns and unknowns about the impact of the quality of recycled water, specifically on human health (Voulvoulis 2018 ). The same observation has been made about plastic recycling which consumes resources and produces its own set of waste and emissions (Korhonen et al. 2018 ; Mah 2021 ). More generally, existing work on the environmental aspect of the circular economy is unbalanced, with scholars pointing out that biodiversity is often a forgotten element of CE narratives (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017 ). This risks inadvertently deploying AI or optimising algorithms in a harmful manner because of a flawed or narrow understanding of what a good environmental outcome should look like (Murray et al. 2017 ).

Designing or optimising for specific notions of good environmental outcomes is ethically risky due to the inevitable complex balances and trade-offs involved. The rapid development and manufacturing of advanced machinery for CE will lead to extensive use of resources, causing emissions and pollution (Blunck et al. 2019 ). For instance, many “clean” technologies, such as hybrid car engines, also rely on rare-earth metals that are mined at considerable environmental cost (Tremblay 2016 ). Indeed, if done incorrectly, the disposal of these products could also prove challenging, with electrical and electronic equipment becoming one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the EU (New Circular Economy Action Plan 2020 ). Likewise, data collection, analysis, and storage processes in AI development require much computational power, which consumes enormous amounts of energy (Cowls et al. 2021 ; Kouhizadeh et al. 2019 ). This energy consumption is increasing with the development of bigger AI models, with the computing power needed to train state-of-the-art models increasing by over 300,000 times from 2012 to 2018. Footnote 13 Consequently, using AI to fulfil a narrow set of CE ambitions could come at the cost of other environmental priorities. In fact, given that AI standardises and scales specific decisions, the risk associated with using these systems is particularly high, if trade-offs are not adequately understood and considered.

5 Policy recommendations

CE literature often considers how a transition from a linear economy can occur at three levels: micro, meso, and macro (Acerbi et al. 2021 ; Ghisellini et al. 2016 ; McDowall et al. 2017 ; Milios 2018 ). These categories are used slightly differently across academic literature, with our usage as follows. Micro recommendations refer to intra-organisation policies. Meso recommendations refer to industry-specific policies and/or inter-organisation relationships. Macro recommendations refer to national or global-level policies. To help avoid or mitigate the potential risks outlined above, we offer policy recommendations at each level. These recommendations are meant to be realistically implementable and help guide the policy and practice of AI in support of CE in the near and medium-term.

5.1 Micro-level

Organisations looking to develop circular products or transition to a circular business model should look to the debates in AI and digital ethics literature. Several innovative solutions can be found within this field for mitigating the harms outlined above. Here, we will focus on two practices that can support the ethical use of AI: privacy-enhancing technologies and AI auditing. These practices align with addressing the ethical risks outlined in Sects.  4.1 and 4.2 , respectively.

Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) is a catch-all phrase for any technical solution protecting individual privacy or personal data (Privacy Enhancing Technologies for Trustworthy Use of Data 2021 ). This ranges from simple tools such as ad-blockers to more advanced techniques like homomorphic encryption. PETs can minimise the risks associated with data collection from devices, including IoT-embedded CE products, and subsequent inferences made by AI technologies. Regarding data collection, IoT and similar devices could be combined with privacy-enhancing measures like federated analytics which analyses data locally. Given that attempts to apply PETs to IoT devices are still immature (Garrido et al., 2021 ), this is likely a medium-term solution that technology companies will probably need to pioneer. Footnote 14 For inferences about those using circular products, privacy-preserving techniques such as differential privacy (Dwork 2008 ) and synthetic data can offer protection by obscuring the individual within datasets. The former does so by enabling population-level insights and the latter by augmenting datasets with realistic, generated data. These techniques will likely involve a trade-off between the degree of privacy preserved and the granularity of insights provided about products. Accordingly, deciding whether to use PETs should be a case-by-case decision that organisations make, based on factors such as level of risk.

AI auditing can mitigate the risk of harmful algorithmic bias in the CE, such as that posed by circular business models that incorporate automated dynamic pricing. Several auditing approaches can detect whether AI systems are exhibiting bias. Governance audits can be used to determine whether there are appropriate organisational measures in place for the use of AI systems; empirical audits can be used to assess the inputs and/or outputs of an algorithm for signs of bias; and technical audits can assess features of the dataset and/or model (Auditing Algorithms 2022 ). These audits could be undertaken internally, based on regulator, academic, or industry guidance (Raji et al. 2020 ; Mökander et al. 2021 ; Mökander and Floridi 2021 ), Footnote 15 or by an external organisation offering AI auditing services. Detecting harmful biases allows CE businesses to modify their systems to mitigate these harms. It is important to stress that the field of AI auditing is still relatively nascent, meaning research is necessary for determining which framework is appropriate for a specific product or organisation. That being said, regulatory guidance on auditing will become clearer as policy measures like the EU’s AI Act begin to take shape.

5.2 Meso-level

Addressing the structural inequalities associated with a shift to CE is challenging. Developing new industry-wide norms, particularly within the technology sector, could be a beneficial first step. An open source approach offers possible mitigation for the international geographic inequalities that currently characterise the use of AI in the CE. Patent wavers (e.g. as done by Tesla), open source software (e.g. Meta/ Linux’s PyTorch), and open data (e.g. Google’s Dataset Search) could all support organisations that currently do not have access to large datasets or possess the capabilities to integrate AI into their processes (Zhang et al. 2019 ). This opening of capabilities can stimulate circular businesses and higher quality jobs in the Global South. Moreover, it could improve the overall innovation ecosystem, speeding up the transition to a CE. However, the limitations of this proposal should also be stressed. Structural inequalities, such as those relating to education and infrastructure, mean that any claims of geography being a thing of the past are fallacious (Anwar and Graham 2022 ). Likewise, open source does not mean that capabilities are democratised, given that the underlying designs and logics of systems and datasets are controlled by very few entities (Crawford and Joler 2018 ). Accordingly, open source can provide a promising first step for reducing global inequalities, but it is necessary to recognise the limited change it can make within wider power structures.

The private sector should also develop best practices for an inclusive CE transition. One aspect of this is reskilling programmes. Current reskilling initiatives are left mainly to individual organisations; these initiatives can help manage immediate business needs but are inadequate for managing longer term occupational shifts, due to their frequent disconnect and parochial focus. Sector skills councils, non-profit organisations that help a single sector identify and close the specific skill gap, could provide a strong foundation for addressing the needed structural transition for CE (Chopra-McGowan and Reddy 2020 ). A second element of an inclusive use of AI for CE is the promotion of diversity in the development of applications and products. An important first step is to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are prioritised when undertaking public engagement on policies or products. More generally, for AI-powered CE products to be designed inclusively, those creating the systems must be reflective of a society’s diversity. While this is true for all digital technologies, it is particularly important for AI, given that many systems are (semi-)autonomous and opaque, making it more difficult to detect and rectify issues ex-post . Correcting the diversity gap in the technology sector is necessary, and it will require a range of industry-wide remedies, including funding university outreach and scholarships, partnering with, and supporting interest groups that seek to support minorities within the sector, and transparent reporting about diversity statistics. Failing to do so will lead to the development of AI products that only work well for specific demographic groups.

5.3 Macro-level

At a macro-level, governments can help address the epistemological risks associated with AI for CE through supporting research and developing wide-ranging guidance. Regarding the former, the concept of CE has generally been developed and progressed by policymakers and industry, with several scientists questioning some fundamental premises around CE (Korhonen et al. 2018 ; Skene 2018 ). The first port of call is for governments to increase the funding available for research into foundational questions associated with CE and how to operationalise it in a way that minimises harmful trade-offs. There are already promising signs of such investment beginning to materialise. For instance, in 2021, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) pledged £30 million to support a major research programme into CE, encompassing 30 universities and over 200 industry partners. Footnote 16

Guidance can help ensure that scientifically supported best practice is followed when using AI for CE. The needed guidance ranges from repositories of existing successful uses, to codes of practice, to standards defining appropriate variables when optimising AI for different CE problems. Examples of best practice for guidance or standards can be drawn from several adjacent fields, including environmental governance. For instance, the European Commission is set to introduce a standard methodology for quantifying the environmental footprint of private sector products and services in the first half of 2022, which is designed to mitigate “greenwashing”. Footnote 17 Similar methodologies could be proposed for measuring the carbon cost of AI systems, so as to understand the environmental trade-offs associated with their use for CE.

Finally, the epistemic risks that we highlighted in Sect.  4.4 call for a joined-up and flexible approach to the governance of AI for CE and CE in general. As our scientific understanding of complex environmental dynamics is still evolving, governance mechanisms aiming at supporting sustainable practices need to be able to accept and adapt quickly to new knowledge to ensure that AI for CE is a success. The risk here is that governance policies may standardise the wrong trade-offs and thus scale harms. Deep collaboration between governments, academia, and industry, potentially through new and dynamic institutions, will be necessary for overcoming this risk.

6 Conclusion

CE offers an alternative vision to the current linear economic model. Circularity would facilitate more environmentally sustainable development and a broader societal shift from consumption to quality experiences and relationships. AI will be crucial to realising this transition. It can support the design and maintenance of circular products and the creation of circular business models. Policymakers, industry, and academics are all taking a keen interest in these potential opportunities.

However, there has been little scrutiny of the ethical consequences of using AI to transition to CE and how to address potential risks. Using AI to develop and maintain circular products and businesses may pose significant challenges. Privacy, equality, and well-being could all be harmed through the unethical use of AI. Moreover, positive social and environmental outcomes could be undermined by a disjointed, uneven, or misguided application of AI in transitioning to a circular economy. These risks can be minimised and, in some cases, avoided altogether. To this end, we have proposed three sets of recommendations that can guide the ethical adoption of AI for fulfilling circular economy ambitions.

At the micro-level, adopting AI ethics best practices within organisations, such as using privacy-enhancing technologies and AI ethics-based auditing, will help mitigate potential risks from privacy infringements and harmful biases. At the meso-level, the promotion of open source, industry-wide collaboration on reskilling, and supporting inclusive design, could help minimise the exacerbation of social and economic inequalities, both internationally and domestically. At the macro-level, governments can help to address some of the epistemological questions associated with using AI for CE by providing further funding for research and developing guidance and standards collaboratively. Adopting these recommendations would leverage the good potential of AI to foster CE. AI and CE can be mutually supportive, and an ethical “AI4CE” is an important project. It must also become an urgent priority.

Data availability

Not Applicable

For instance, the development of new types of plastic that are more environmentally friendly. See https://www.deepmind.com/blog/putting-the-power-of-alphafold-into-the-worlds-hands

The 3Rs are typically adopted, though many scholars go further through adding other ‘Rs’ pertaining to CE behaviours.

This point will be discussed in greater depth later in the paper.

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One important caveat is that this does not necessarily suggest that CE initiatives are shrinking in real terms. Instead, this figure may be indicative of higher levels of overall consumption.

For example, bamboo chopsticks are less energetically expensive than a highly specialised plastic fork. When both of these products are inevitably disposed, the bamboo chopsticks can be easily re-assimilated into nature through bio-degradation, while the fork may require multiple processes and machines for its recycling (Murray et al. 2017 ).

As mentioned in the introduction, this is on account of the novel features of AI which include (i) an ability to process vast amounts of data, (ii) autonomously or semi-autonomously, and (iii) to make inferences, predictions, decisions, or to generate content.

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Acknowledgements

Huw Roberts’ research is supported by a research grant for the AI*SDG project at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Mariarosaria Taddeo wishes to acknowledge that she serves as non-executive president of the board of directors of Noovle Spa.

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Roberts, H., Zhang, J., Bariach, B. et al. Artificial intelligence in support of the circular economy: ethical considerations and a path forward. AI & Soc 39 , 1451–1464 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01596-8

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Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual framework and research agenda

The International Journal of Logistics Management

ISSN : 0957-4093

Article publication date: 8 December 2020

Issue publication date: 29 April 2021

Circular economy (CE) initiatives are taking hold across both developed and developing nations. Central to these initiatives is the reconfiguration of core supply chain management (SCM) processes that underlie current production and consumption patterns. This conceptual article provides a detailed discussion of how supply chain processes can support the successful implementation of CE. The article highlights areas of convergence in hopes of sparking collaboration among scholars and practitioners in SCM, CE, and related fields.

Design/methodology/approach

This article adopts a theory extension approach to conceptual development that uses CE as a “method” for exploring core processes within the domain of SCM. The article offers a discussion of the ways in which the five principles of CE (closing, slowing, intensifying, narrowing, dematerialising loops) intersect with eight core SCM processes (customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, customer service management, demand management, order fulfilment, manufacturing flow management, product development and commercialization, returns management).

This article identifies specific ways in which core SCM processes can support the transition from traditional linear approaches to production and consumption to a more circular approach. This paper results in a conceptual framework and research agenda for researchers and practitioners working to adapt current supply chain processes to support the implementation of CE.

Originality/value

This article highlights key areas of convergence among scholars and practitioners through a systematic extension of CE principles into the domain of SCM. In so doing, the paper lays out a potential agenda for collaboration among these groups.

• Sustainability

Hazen, B.T. , Russo, I. , Confente, I. and Pellathy, D. (2021), "Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual framework and research agenda", The International Journal of Logistics Management , Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 510-537. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-12-2019-0332

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Benjamin T. Hazen, Ivan Russo, Ilenia Confente and Daniel Pellathy

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode .

Introduction

Human activity is pushing Earth towards a series of “tipping points”, with the potential to trigger dramatic changes in the environmental conditions that support modern society ( Barnosky et al. , 2012 ; Heikkurinen, 2018 ). Climate change, widespread land degradation and precipitous loss of biodiversity are all currently observable effects of human activity that have the potential to destabilize the very ecosystems that support human development and sustainment. As Sir Robert Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), recently reported: “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide” ( IPBES, 2018 ). Pulling back from these tipping points requires new models of social and economic organization that better align Earth's service capacity with the needs of human populations ( Steffen et al. , 2015 ).

The concept of circular economy (CE) represents one of the most promising approaches to organizing sustainable economic activity for the future. CE refers to “a regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimised by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops” ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2017 , p. 776). Although not new, CE has recently emerged on the global stage as a potential organizing principle around which multiple economic, political and social stakeholders can rally in their effort to pull the Earth back from the brink of environmental catastrophe ( Pearce and Turner, 1990 ; Andersen, 2007 ; Ghisellini et al. , 2016 ; Su et al. , 2013 ). Although challenges have been identified ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2017 ), the rewards of implementing CE are notable. The European Commission (2020) estimates that a shift to a functioning CE would grow Europe's GDP by almost 0.5% by 2030 and the net increase in jobs will be approximately 700,000 compared to actual baseline case and a GDP increase of as much as 7% relative to the current development scenario.

Yet despite the growing prominence of CE, the concept has garnered relatively little attention in the supply chain management (SCM) literature ( Tjahjono and Ripanti, 2019 ). This absence of CE-related research is striking, given that efficient management of global supply chains is critical to advancing CE. Indeed, a World Economic Forum (2014) report titled “Toward the Circular Economy: Accelerating The Scale-Up Across Global Supply Chains” argues that supply chains are the key unit of action with regard to CE implementation and success, and will be the foundation for driving needed change. As the bedrock of the world economy, supply chain processes arguably require the greatest, and most immediate attention ( Ying and Li-jun, 2012 , Govindan and Hasanagic, 2018 ; Min et al. , 2019 ). Thus, a robust framework for planning and managing a CE supply chain is needed ( Tjahjono and Ripanti, 2019 ).

This paper seeks to develop a conceptual understanding of SCM's role in CE, with the aim of providing a framework and research agenda for stakeholders and scholars working to adapt current supply chain processes to support the implementation of CE. Through a systematic process of theoretical extension–which adopts CE as its overarching “method” for exploring processes within the theoretical domain of SCM–the paper maps the intersections between CE principles and SCM processes ( Lukka and Vinnari, 2014 ; Jaakkola, 2020 ). The paper suggests a number of new areas for SCM theory, research, and practice and provides direction for cross-disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary study.

The paper begins by positioning CE in relation to a number of extant SCM topics – including green, sustainable and responsible SCM. The paper then adopts the Global Supply Chain Forum model of SCM ( Lambert, 2014 ) as the basis for systematically relating core supply chain processes to CE. Finally, the paper presents a series of research proposals meant to encourage SCM researchers to explore this highly relevant and impactful topic.

Background: positioning CE in the SCM literature

CE aims to decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, such as carbon-based energy sources, by designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use and regenerating natural systems. In this way, CE seeks to repurpose economic activity towards creating positive society-wide benefits ( Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015 ).

CE implies the reengineering of many aspects of production and consumption. On the production side, this would include investment in long-lasting product design, with processes that support maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2017 , p. 759). Transitioning current production patterns to a functioning CE requires overcoming technological, financial and institutional barriers ( Mathews and Tan, 2011 ; Russo et al. , 2019a , b ). These challenges are faced by supply chain managers on an almost daily basis, although in ways that are not always systematic, consistent or motivated specifically by a CE orientation.

The supply chain literature suggests applications of various aspects of CE thinking, particularly in the areas of green supply chain management (GSCM), sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and closed-loop supply chain management (CLSCM) ( Govindan and Soleimani, 2017 ; Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2009 ; Stindt et al. , 2016 ; Liu et al. , 2018 ). However, application of CE thinking in these different areas remains fragmented ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2018 ). Moreover, GSCM, SSCM and CLSCM themselves pursue separate and sometimes competing goals, causing conceptual and practical confusion with regard to their application ( Mollenkopf et al. , 2010 ). CE, by contrast, offers a coherent set of five organizing principles for researchers and practitioners ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2017 ). The systematic application of these principles can draw on insights from GSCM, SSCM and CLSCM, while at the same time overcoming differences in these areas.

The aims of GSCM, SSCM, and CLSCM differ from each other and from CE. GSCM focuses exclusively on integrating environmental thinking into SCM activities, with the aim of converting traditional SCM activities into a newly updated set of “green” activities (e.g. green purchasing, green manufacturing, green logistics) that limit a supply chain's environmental impact (Hernani et al ., 2005; Srivastava, 2007 ; Hazen et al. , 2011 ; Sarkis et al. , 2011 ). SSCM focuses instead on the broader notion of organizational performance by integrating social and environmental metrics into SCM processes as a means of improving a company's long-term outcomes ( Kirchhoff et al. , 2016 ; Carter and Rogers, 2008 ; Searing and Müller, 2008). Finally, CLSCM focuses on the return, disposition, and value recapture of post-sale products ( Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2009 ). Although each of these approaches provide important insights, they lack a coherent set of organizing principles that can overcome their differences.

Adopting a CE perspective–with its five principles of closing, slowing, intensifying, narrowing and dematerializing material and energy loops, as defined in Table 1 – might allow researchers and managers to incorporate insights from GSCM, SSCM and CLSCM within a systematic framework that can help guide the rethinking of current modes of economic activity. For instance, CLSCM principles clearly describe fundamental tools for achieving the CE objectives of closing and intensifying loops ( Habibi et al. , 2017 ; Zeng et al. , 2017 ). Likewise, insights from GSCM will be critical as researchers and practitioners seek to narrow loops by reducing resource consumption and improving efficiency associated with production processes ( Kazancoglu et al. , 2018 ). Finally, integrating social and environmental metrics into supply chain processes through SSCM represents a critical building block for achieving CE's more holistic goal of repurposing economic activity toward creating positive society-wide benefits. In this way, adopting a CE perspective in SCM would build on previous work in GSCM, SSCM and CLSCM, while providing a coherent set of organizing principles that can overcome their differences.

Structured or systematic literature reviews regarding the intersection between CE and SCM are scarce. In particular, CE has received little attention in traditional supply chain, logistics, and operations management journals ( Liu et al. , 2018 ; Tjahjono and Ripanti, 2019 ). However, some notable reviews have begun to inform the relationship between SCM and CE.

For instance, Liu et al. (2018) critically analysed theories that can provide insights for, and further link, GSCM and CE. In doing so, they particularly focus on GSCM and CE literature. Taking a broader perspective, de Angelis et al . (2018) were among the first to review the literature on SCM and CE. Their findings reveal not only the lack of literature bridging CE and SCM, but also the dire need for more practical information regarding how to introduce circular supply chains into existing real-world contexts. Although cases on sector-specific recycling, reverse logistics and closed loop supply chains currently exist ( Bernon et al. , 2018 ), there are no large-scale industrial examples of CE principles being adopted across supply chain processes, further motivating this current paper.

In addition, Tjahjono and Ripanti's (2019) structured literature review suggests 15 core CE values that can be considered when designing a circular, closed-loop supply chain and supporting reverse logistics. However, more work is required to detail how these values will be embedded, suggesting the need for more research on the fundamental processes underlying CE integration with SCM. To this end, Farooque et al. (2019) conducted a structured review of almost 300 articles related to CE across a variety of disciplines in order to develop an understanding of the body of research related to what they term “circular supply chain management”. This important work helps to lay the foundation for this current study in that it elucidates the need fora paradigm shift in the way products, processes, and supply chains are designed and operated for CE implementation.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned reviews, there remains a lack of detailed understanding in the literature regarding how SCM processes can be leveraged to achieve CE goals. Developing this understanding is the primary aim of the present paper. To that end, we drill down into a detailed discussion of how the five principles of CE specifically intersect with core SCM processes.

This paper adopted a theory extension approach based on Lukka and Vinnari (2014) . A semi-structured literature review was conducted as the basis a systematic discussion of core SCM processes in light of CE principles.

Theory extension

Theory extension is a process of exploring the fundamental principles or concepts of a theory within a new domain to refine understanding of the original theory and/or suggest novel theoretical connections within the new domain ( Whetten, 1989 , 2009 ). Lukka and Vinnari (2014) lay out an approach to theory extension based on a distinction between what they call “method” and “domain” theory. “Domain” theory refers to “a particular set of knowledge on a substantive topic area that is situated in a field or domain” ( Lukka and Vinnari, 2014 , p. 1309). “Method” theory, by contrast, refers to an overarching conceptual system or theoretical lens that is used to studying the substantive issues of the domain. Thus, in the Lukka and Vinnari (2014) approach, the “method” provides the structure (or method) for exploring concepts in the “domain”, thereby allowing for theoretical extension.

Applying the Lukka and Vinnari (2014) approach, we adopted a CE perspective (method) to explore substantive concepts in SCM (domain). In particular, we explored each of the eight core supply chain processes identified by the Global Supply Chain Forum framework ( Lambert, 2014 ) – customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, customer service management, demand management, order fulfilment, manufacturing flow management, product development and commercialization, returns management – in light of five CE principles identified in the literature – closing loops, slowing loops, intensifying loops, narrowing loops, dematerialising loops ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2017 ).

Search strategy

In order to discover both theoretical and practical discussions of the intersection between CE and SCM, the research team conducted a semi-structured literature review that covered both the scholarly and practitioner literatures. The search was organized into two phases following the approach suggested by Cerchione and Esposito (2016) and Sashi et al. (2018) .

The first phase represented an academic literature search. In this phase the research team reviewed all studies published on CE over a ten-year period (2010–2019) in six of the top supply chain management journals: Journal of Operations Management , Supply Chain Management: An International Journal , Journal of Supply Chain Management , Journal of Business Logistics , International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management and International Journal of Logistics Management . The goal of this phase was to uncover the most recent academic research on the intersection between CE and core SCM processes. The research team based its search on terminology found in the Global Supply Chain Form model of SCM ( Lambert, 2014 ). The Global Supply Chain Form model is the most cited model of SCM in the literature and therefore represented an appropriate basis for the academic literature search.

“Circular economy” and “customer relationship management”

“Circular economy” and “supplier relationship management”

“Circular economy” and “customer service management”

“Circular economy” and “demand management”’

“Circular economy” and “order fulfilment management”

“Circular economy” and “manufacturing flow management”

“Circular economy” and “product development and commercialization”

“Circular economy” and “returns management”

This academic literature review search yielded only a small number of studies, after coincidental results, results using overlapping terminology, and other unsuitable results were eliminated.

The second phase represented a search of the practitioner literature. This part of the review was, by necessity, less structured. Still, this phase of the search was crucial for identifying valuable questions based on industry observation ( Mentzer, 2008 ), with a focus toward uncovering big ideas with high practical relevance ( Frankel et al. , 2008 ; Lambert and Enz, 2015 ; Stank et al. , 2017 ; Lambert, 2019 ). The search focused on white papers, reports, practitioner journals, and other reputable practitioner outlets. Numerous practitioners were found during the second phase.

By conducting the literature review in this way, the research team was able to capture information about the intersection between CE and core supply chain processes at the level of both theoretical generalization (from academic journals) and at the level of practical implementation (from practitioner outlets). The discussion that developed out of the identified literature became the basis for the research team's suggestions for additional research and theoretical conceptualization. In this way, the literature review allowed for theory extension that was context-sensitive and focused the implement of CE within specific SCM processes (Tranfield et al. , 2003). More broadly, the approach adopted here–both in terms of theory extension and literature review –provides an example of how scholars can answer the call to be thought leaders, who are able to identify emerging business challenges and contribute research on big ideas ( McKinnon, 2013 ; Lambert, 2019 ).

SCM processes from a CE perspective

In the following discussion, each of the eight core SCM process is introduced and reviewed from a CE perspective, with the aim of identifying opportunities to restructure current supply chain processes to support the implementation of CE principles of closing, narrowing, slowing, intensifying and dematerializing resource loops.

Customer relationship management for CE

Customer relationship management (CRM) encompasses all of a firm's customer-facing processes, and links customers to the rest of the firm's supply chain processes. CRM includes reviewing corporate and marketing strategies, segmenting customers, and deciding how to differentiate offerings ( Lambert, 2014 ). Decisions in the area of CRM must align vertically with firm-level strategies. Assuming the adoption of a CE orientation at the firm level, there are numerous was in which CRM processes be restructured to support the implementation of CE principles.

First, marketing strategy may be revised to highlight CE oriented conduct as a key differentiator in how a company delivers value to customers. Second, CRM processes may be restructured to forge longer-term relationships that position customers as proactive partners in supply chain decision making. Such long-term CRM is in keeping with a CE perspective that views consumers, not as the end of linear supply chain, but as the centre of a dynamic supply network. Finally, CRM processes may be reorganized to enable the eventual recapture of used products or residuals, while at the same time providing services to extend product lifecycles.

Research on closed-loop supply chains provides insight into how the CRM process might be revised for CE. Closed-loop SCM is the design, control, and operation of a system to maximize value creation over the entire lifecycle of a product with the dynamic recovery of value from different types and volumes of returns over time ( Govindan and Soleimani, 2017 ; Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2009 ). The concept of the closed-loop supply chain anticipates many of the issues raised by CE implementation, with CE representing a large-scale operationalization of many closed-loop supply chain concepts. Importantly, product returns and customer management concerns are strategic in nature ( Thierry et al. , 1995 ) as they necessary relate to how a firm positions itself in a competitive marketplace and, eventually, the CE.

A growing stream of research is also bringing the closed-loop concept to the business-to-consumer arena, considering how to motivate and support end-consumer participation ( Abbey et al. , 2015 ; Blackburn et al. , 2004 ). Recent research has highlighted that consumers' needs, perceptions and decisions are becoming relevant parts of efficient and effective SCM processes ( Esper and Peinkofer, 2017 ). For a closed-loop supply chain to be tenable, customers (businesses and end-consumers) need to return products and residuals to the supply chain, but also need to be willing to use products that are both designed for reusing/remanufacturing/recycling till the new generation of bio-based products, and also derived from such processes ( Abbey et al. , 2015 ; Reinders et al. , 2017 ; Wang and Hazen, 2016 ). Without broader acceptance of reusing/remanufacturing/recycling, customers will act as barriers to CE, no matter how well the operational system is designed. Thus, new strategies are required for introducing sustainable practices to customers ( Prieto-Sandoval et al. , 2018 ). For example, remanufacturing seems to have some limitation, as only few consumers perceive remanufactured goods to be as good as new ones, which presents a major barrier to more widespread adoption ( Hazen et al. , 2017 ).

Customer acceptance of products produced using CE processes is currently seen as one of the principal barriers that is preventing expansion of closed-loop networks ( Liang, 2011 ). Research on consumer acceptance of these products is emerging, and many problems have been identified.

For instance, remanufacturing is the cornerstone of closed-loop supply chains, and denotes the process through which used items are brought to like-new condition via cleaning, repairing, inspecting and rebuilding components ( Hazen et al. , 2012 ). Unfortunately, consumers typically believe that remanufactured products are unattractive, although brand equity and price discounts can help to overcome some negative perceptions ( Abbey et al. , 2015 ). Such behaviour is specified by waste reduction within a closed loop supply chain ( Cole et al. , 2017 ). Further, research aimed at promoting adoption has shown that educating consumers and demonstrating value helps to allay consumer concerns ( Wang and Hazen, 2016 ). Convincing consumers to switch towards products derived from closed-loop processes will be instrumental toward promoting CE and represents a key area for SCM/CE collaboration. As an example, in November 2016 Apple began selling officially certified reconditioned iPhones through its online store in the US for the first time. The choice of the direct channel can be justified by the need to inform the customer about the validity and quality of the product ( Benjamin, 2016 ).

Although some headway is being made with regard to identifying and employing mechanisms to promote consumer acceptance of CE-derived products, less research is devoted towards how to incentivize other customer-facing activities needed for CE. These roles include returning products and residuals to appropriate collection points, limiting disposal of products (especially those that retain some residual value), and using products in a fashion that extends product lifecycle. Indeed, consumer behaviours will need to dramatically change in order for CE to be tenable. Research is needed on consumer education (i.e. informing consumers on their role in CE), regulatory intervention (i.e. penalties associated with refuse, or incentives associated with compliance with CE initiatives), and increasing ease of participation in CE (i.e. optimization and convenience of collection points plus incentives provided for returning products). For instance, H&M's garment collecting initiative gathered more than 20,000 tonnes of garments in 2018, giving new life to the equivalent of 103 million T -shirts. Thanks to this initiative, any clothes or home textiles that are no longer wanted or needed can be dropped off at any local H&M store and given new purpose ( H&M, 2019 ) (see Figure 1 ).

Supplier relationship management for CE

Along with down-stream relationships, up-stream supplier relationships provide key linkages through which other supply chain processes are employed and are recognized as important antecedents to many aspects of performance ( Carr and Pearson, 1999 ). The nature of supplier relationships has changed over the past several years such that buyers often seek to establish strategic partnerships with suppliers in lieu of keeping suppliers at arm's distance ( Monczka et al. , 1998 ). This trend is encouraging for CE, where firms will be required to collaborate closely with all supply chain partners. Indeed, supply chain cooperation and careful supplier selection practices taking into consideration environmental performance is shown to lead to achievement of CE objectives and can even evoke performance at the firm-level ( Zhu et al. , 2011 ; Petljak et al. , 2018 ). However, the idea of supplier segmentation and preferred suppliers might need to change, in that the CE will necessarily drive firms to collaborate only with strategically aligned supply partners. This will lead to sharpened supplier selection criteria based on suppliers' environmental conduct and on suppliers' location in order to “narrow the loop” ( Geissdoerfer et al. , 2018 ).

As a consequence, work is needed to encourage the close supplier relationships necessary for CE success. These relationships will no longer be based solely on economic considerations, but environmental considerations as well. This can help firms better understand how to stimulate their suppliers to adopt their proposed CE project. For instance, IKEA has developed and implemented their “IKEA Way” for purchasing products, materials and services, which functions as a Supplier Code of Conduct. It comprises IKEA's minimum requirements relating to environmental, social and working conditions (including child labour restrictions) that will allow the company to work more closely with suppliers in order to develop further CE-related initiatives ( IKEA, 2016 ).

Two criteria have been proposed to promote and examine such collaborative eco-industrial initiatives related to CE. Initiatives should improve the eco-efficiency of the group of firms (supply chain) as a whole while also improving the profit position of at least one firm without damaging the position of others ( Mathews and Tan, 2011 ). Ideally, CE initiatives improve lean management, eco-efficiency and profit position of multiple (if not all) firms ( Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes, 2014 ; Mollenkopf et al. , 2010 ). However, realizing both criteria has proved difficult in most supply chains, where supply chain optimization is often subordinated to the firm level through initiatives such as lean, just-in-time delivery, and others. Finally, a circular approach causes reduced volatility and might improve security of supply. Because of a lower need of virgin materials linked with an increase need of used material and collaboration with both suppliers and customers, the exposure to supply chain disruptions related to natural disasters, geopolitical imbalances or unsafe relations is decreased (see Figure 2 ).

Customer service management for CE

The supply chain's role in CE no longer ends at the point of sale, but after-sales support requirements will need to consider all phases of a product's life-cycle. Similar to new requirements for customer relationship management, the idea of customer service needs to be reconceptualized. Most notably, a servitization or service-dominant logic approach where products are offered in the form of services will need to be adopted on a wider scale ( Edvardsson et al. , 2011 ). Such services range from repair to periodical maintenance of products with the goal of extending the useful life of products being used to perform services.

Literature on servitization generally describes means through which manufacturers integrate services with their product offerings ( Neely, 2009 ). However, “complete” servitization of many products will be required to fully implement CE principles. This means, for example, that those in the automobile industry might no longer characterize their businesses in terms of manufacturing and delivering automobiles to consumers, but they will need to think of themselves as purveyors of transportation services. Arguably, automobiles will not need to be personally owned, but rather those in need of transportation will summon a provider on an as-needed basis. Evidence of such a transition can be found in the strategic partnership between General Motors and Lyft ( General Motors, 2016 ). As part of this agreement, General Motors promised to populate Lyft rental hubs with GM vehicles, where Lyft drivers can rent them short-term on an as-needed basis. This means that vehicles can essentially be utilized around the clock by different drivers, increasing both economic and environmental efficiencies gained via collaborative consumption. This approach will promote optimal utilization of durable goods and enable closed-loop supply chain practices to standardize management of fleet assets. Rental, leasing, and reuse are typical examples of CE implementations that help to create a stable and long-term relation between the customer and the supplier. For instance, IKEA announced two important initiatives to help support CE via developing a furniture exchange system and testing furniture and kitchen-item rentals (Hirsh, 2019; World Economic Forum, 2019 ).

In sum, literature on supply chain structural changes in support of traditional servitization approaches is limited, although there is some evidence to support that changes can be tenable ( Ng et al. , 2012 ). This change has generated increasing importance of end-consumers and recently with the advent of e-shopper marketing there is incremental need of measuring and controlling SCM performance (i.e. delivery options, flexibility, reverse logistics) from downstream in order to provide valuable insights regarding a company's supply chain strategy ( Esper and Peinkofer, 2017 ; Stolze et al. , 2016 ). Complete servitization and service-dominant logic strategies that enable value co-creation across the supply chain (to include consumers) will require significant supply chain restructure, and is an area where collaboration between CE and SCM scholars is needed (see Figure 3 ).

Demand management for CE

Demand management entails forecasting, planning for, and managing demand for products and services ( Croxton, 2003 ). Demand forecasting encompasses sales forecasting, but takes a broader, enterprise view of how demand affects all components of the supply chain. Indeed, some scholars suggest a refocus from “supply” chain considerations to “demand” chain considerations ( Christopher and Ryals, 2014 ). This perspective leads to think about how to join forecasting and planning practices, and their impact on forecasting accuracy and costs. This means to remodel supply chains into demand chains creating the possibility that waste and obsolescence can be reduced. This will force companies to not create demand unless they can supply.

Considering the regenerative nature of CE, demand and consumption patterns will dramatically change. This will indeed be disruptive to extant demand management practices and is one of the areas in greatest need of collaboration across the CE and SCM communities. Not only must simple demand for disposable products decline for CE success, but changing (and unknown) demand patterns reflected by reuse, reduction, and recycling practices will significantly alter extant forecasting and planning models.

Mathews and Tan (2011) suggest that CE initiatives are conducted at three levels. Some initiatives reside at a single enterprise or are confined to a small group of enterprises, enhancing energy and resource efficiency. At the second level are initiatives residing at a supply chain-level, whereby a larger group of firms share certain streams of resources to enhance collective efficiency. The third level, which is currently found mainly in China due to its proactive and publicized approach to implementing CE, involves a whole municipal area. At this level, recapturing and regenerating resources via interconnected processes is promoted through economic and administrative incentives; conversely, failures are penalized in some way. Demand management will therefore require acquiescence to this third, higher-order approach.

Research can examine this level from a common pool resource management perspective, which provides an alternative to Hardin (1968) tragedy of the commons theory to suggest that common pool resources can be collectively managed to ensure all participants use resources according to the community's rules, optimizing for community vice local benefit ( Ostrom et al. , 1999 ). Demand management typically seeks to optimize focal-firm performance and common pool resources are often not optimally used across the supply chain. Advances in supply chain demand management have encouraged demand management on a supply chain level ( Lambert and Cooper, 2000 ). The problem of coordinating resources to manage demand requires further investigation, and is one area where SCM and CE scholars can collaborate to find solutions (see Figure 4 ).

Order fulfilment for CE

Order fulfilment refers to the processes concerned with receiving, processing and delivering orders ( Croxton, 2003 ). Processes regarding receiving and processing orders have changed substantially over the past several years, evolving from orders received via phone, fax or mail, to orders received via electronic data interchange, e-commerce and completely automated processes. These advancements will be the bedrock of CE order fulfilment practices, and industry leaders such as are already introducing disruptive innovations that will change the fulfilment landscape in a manner that can eventually sustain CE. For instance, Amazon's Prime Now initiative enables one-hour delivery of thousands of products in select markets ( Amazon Prime Now, 2015 ). This initiative requires revamping the entire fulfilment process, moving distribution facilities from suburban outposts to city centres, and adopting urban transportation delivery modes (i.e. bicycle couriers, public transportation networks and potentially drone aircraft) to make fast and efficient deliveries. Pooling products closer to consumers and using existing and more sustainable transportation will be a key component of CE, and research advancing the operationalization of these concepts is needed.

Green logistics is arguably the longest-running research stream in the sustainable SCM space, and is a primary mechanism for achieving today's CE objectives ( Zheng and Zhang, 2010 ). Green logistics is motivated by environmental benefits, but is typically implemented as part of a cost-savings initiative ( Murphy et al. , 1996 ; Rao and Holt, 2005 ). The lessons learned over the past two decades of research suggest that marrying cost savings to environmental benefits is paramount to organizational adoption. Indeed, it is intuitively obvious that for CE to be successful, bottom lines will have to remain stable or, ideally, be enhanced. To this end, green logistics literature has typically focused on these win-win solutions such as adoption of more efficient vehicles (air, ground, and water vessels), use of more efficient transportation modes, improved vehicle utilization, optimized routing networks, alternative packaging and warehousing approaches, and use of alternative energies to support logistics ( Alstone et al. , 2014 ; McKinnon et al. , 2010 ). Moreover, logistics service providers have to operate in urban areas where they encounter several external problems and environmental pressures to serve the last mile ( Castillo et al. , 2018 ). Continued urbanization and overall demographic growth is projected to add 2.5 billion people more to the urban population by 2050, bringing the proportion of people living in cities to 66%. This trend will force municipality to accelerate the transition from linear economy to circular economy in managing differently the urban logistics of goods, means and people.

Although these topics have been well developed in the literature, further advancements in consideration of CE are required. For instance, more environmentally efficient practices will need to be replaced with zero-impact practices. In addition, as noted with the Amazon Prime Now example, logistics networks need not merely be improved, but restructured. Thus, collaboration between those knowledgeable of both SCM and CE will be instrumental for developing ideal networks and processes that support fulfilment (see Figure 5 ).

Manufacturing flow management for CE

Manufacturing flow management is the SCM process that includes all activities necessary to move products through manufacturing plants ( Goldsby and Garcia-Dastugue, 2003 ). Many sustainable supply chain and operations flow strategies begin with lean and six sigma process improvement initiatives ( Souza, 2012 ), with the assumption that leaner processes will require less energy and reduce resource consumption. In most cases, these improved processes indeed lead to better resource utilization. However, although supply chain-wide optimization is the goal, these initiatives often result in local optimization. Thus, more collaborative work is needed by SCM and CE experts to determine how to not only lean entire supply chains, but also to manage supply chain-level flows consistent with resource preservation principles. The goal, then, is not resource savings, but complete resource recapitalization.

For CE to come to fruition, the idea of accounting for and managing national material resources should be expanded ( Fishman et al. , 2014 ) and resource extraction needs to decline in favour of reutilizing existing resources ( European Environmental Agency, 2014 ). The environmental economics perspective considers a material balance principle, implying that all material flows need to be accounted for ( Kneese et al. , 2015 ). In business, however, management attention is typically given to the flow of economic values, not necessarily physical flows or environmental values ( Andersen, 2007 ). Flow rates, cycle times, and similar metrics are typically designed and measured from the economic perspective, and process metrics for environmental flows or natural resources (energy and raw materials) are scarce in the literature, and almost non-existent in practice. Thus, a new manufacturing flow paradigm is needed that takes these considerations into account. Although firms are creating their own metrics aimed toward monitoring and controlling manufacturing flow for CE, collaboration between CE and SCM experts is needed to develop a common framework of metrics and benchmarks that transcend one-dimensional sustainability metrics in favour of balancing consideration for both economic and environmental value (see Figure 6 ).

Product development and commercialization for CE

Product development and commercialization is the SCM process that provides structure for developing and bringing to market new products jointly with customers and suppliers ( Rogers et al. , 2004 ). Products need to be redesigned with a circular lifecycle in mind, requiring design for remanufacture, recycling, reuse, and other circular initiatives ( Hatcher et al. , 2014 ). This principle is tied to the value co-creation literature, where firms work with suppliers and customers during development of new product offerings.

As with manufacturing flow management (and indeed all SCM processes), new indexes and metrics need to be developed to measure performance and compliance with CE in terms of product development and commercialization, taking into account progress toward reduction, reuse and resource utilization ( Zhijun and Nailing, 2007 ). Standards such as those proposed by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute ( BSI Group, 2014 ), Scotland's Revolve Re-use Quality Standard, or perhaps expanded ISO 9000-series standards can be used to include these considerations. Policies motivating such commonly adopted metrics will be key SCM performance indicators that can be monitored and managed during transition of product development and commercialization practices to enable CE ( Preston, 2012 ).

Product modularity is seen as a key success factor for closed-loop supply chains ( Krikke et al., 2004 ), and will necessarily be the same for CE. Modularity describes the ease of which product and service components can be deconstructed and recombined, and is an important consideration in design for remanufacturing, reusing and recycling ( Hatcher et al. , 2014 ). However, cellular phone and other consumer electronics manufacturers, for example, deliberately plan obsolescence in an attempt to accelerate product life-cycles and demand for new products ( Choney, 2009 ). In turn, this discourages modular design to some extent in an effort to maximize profits. However, original equipment manufacturers and independent remanufacturers have begun to develop strategies to recover, recapture value from, and resell products that consumers discard when upgrading to new releases ( Anthony, 2013 ; Herb Weisbaum, 2019 ). Product design for durability and maintainability is considered a key strategy for extending life cycles ( Dalhammar, 2016 ). For instance, HP's “Instant Ink” program takes steps to reuse and reuse components, saving up to 67% material consumption per printed page ( Coro Strandberg, 2017 ). Research that examines how to motivate modular design principles in a way that supports recapturing value to a maximum extent in both primary and secondary markets is needed.

When natural resources are converted into consumable products, those resources and the resources used in production need to be recapitalized. This challenges traditional product development practices, where profit functions and market share are typically seen as the primary objective functions. Literature in the fields of industrial ecology and cleaner production has been instrumental in making advances toward resource reduction and regeneration during product development and commercialization. However, many in the supply chain, marketing and operations management community sometimes overlook these issues due to the more immediate need to obtain short- and medium-term financial performance. As such, the area of product development and commercialization is in arguably the greatest need of multi-disciplinary collaboration from scholars and practitioners in SCM, production and operations management, marketing, industrial ecology and CE. An established literature stream examines the concept of Design for X , where “ X ” denotes an interchangeable variable that describes a specific design outcome Bocken et al. (2016) . This method is recommended as a good practice for medical and electronic devices with a concurrent engineering approach to improve the product and its manufacturing processes during the design stage. This includes, for instance, Design for Environment (DfE), which considers the life cycle of all materials from extraction to disposal. For example, in 2009 the European Union established mandatory rules on eco-design for refrigerating appliances for all manufacturers and suppliers. Starting in 2021, that regulation will be enhanced to include requirements for repairability and recyclability, which will promote CE goals by improving the life span, maintenance, re-use, upgrade, recyclability and waste handling of appliances.

A growing body of research ( Lee and Lee, 2015 ) indicates that Internet of Things (IoT) offers many new opportunities, brought about by improved consumer experiences, distribution and commercialization processes as well as a significant shift in the way products are utilized. To this end, businesses and scholars are exploring the different interactions between CE activities and intelligent technology ( Stahel, 2015 ), which should encourage supply chain researchers to further investigate how the diffusion of new technologies and innovations are able to enable CE (see Figure 7 ).

Returns management for CE

Returns management is the SCM process by which activities associated with returns, reverse logistics, gate keeping, and returns avoidance are managed within the firm and across members of the supply chain ( Rogers et al. , 2002 ). Reverse flows do not necessarily travel back through the same forward-logistics channel, but typically require different treatment. Thus, service levels, fill rates and other important performance measures need to be considered for flows in both directions ( Hall et al. , 2013 ). Returns management plays an integral role in avoiding disposal and retaining resource values, which in turn supports the resource base and (to an extent) helps to retain amenity values.

Regarding changing the linear consumption model to support product take-back, business-to-business relationships will necessarily require all businesses to re-engineer their roles as suppliers and customers to support multi-directional flows. This idea has already seen attention in the literature on returns management, where internal processes are modified and new processes are put into place to support reverse flows ( Rogers et al. , 2012 ; Stock and Mulki, 2009 ; Mollenkopf et al. , 2007 ).

To date, the returns management research literature provides a solid foundation for CE implementation in regard to outlining how to recapture resources from business customers and end-consumers. For instance, waste-to-energy technologies are being developed ( Pan et al. , 2015 ) and research is exploring how by-products created during product use can be recaptured ( Linton et al. , 2007 ). In addition, reverse logistics network development has seen a great deal of attention, and robust networks are operationalized by both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses alike ( Murfield et al. , 2017 ). Recently, Bernon et al., 2018 found evidence of where reverse logistics practices were aligned with CE principles but had not been recognized as such by companies.

The ability to collaborate with various parties plays in the reverse chain as a crucial role as in the forward chain. In fact, what makes a forward supply chain successful is the collaboration, visibility, and trust of the various entities involved. This is also true for the reverse chain, especially because the returns management process is also heavily demand driven, as the downstream customers make the final decision about orders and returns ( Morgan et al. , 2016 ; Russo et al. , 2019a , b ).

However, many of these more recent advances are unfamiliar to those working on CE efforts, and SCM scholars are unaware of the specific emerging needs of CE. As such, there is a need for knowledge sharing between SCM and CE scholars to develop returns management policies and practices that specifically support CE; however, the literature disproportionately focuses on investigating how firms can mitigate the cost of product returns ( Wang et al. , 2017 ) and how consumers evaluate positively return policies ( Rao et al. , 2018 ). Indeed, CE will require different returns-management approaches that account for larger returns volumes, create scalable networks and consider additional nodes of collection and re-insertion of resources and waste at points along the supply chain that are typically not examined due to a lack of perceived value to today's economically-driven business landscape. For instance, the economic cost of recapturing small waste streams and low-volume returns is typically too high in today's economy, yet recapturing all resources will be a requirement for CE (see Figure 8 ).

Avenues for future SCM research in support of CE

As discussed, CE for SCM focuses on closing resource loops, slowing resource loops, narrowing resources loops, dematerialising resource loops and intensifying resource loops. In detail, closing loop defines the practice to reuse the materials through recycling ( Bocken et al. , 2016 ; Geissdoerfer et al. , 2018 ), whereas the slowing loop aims at designing durable goods and product-life extension ( Leising et al. , 2018 ). The narrowing loop concerns resource efficiency via using fewer resources per product ( Bocken et al. , 2016 ), and the dematerializing loop refers to substituting product utility with services and software solutions, with the purpose of increasing longevity. Finally, the intensifying loop motivates a more intensive product use phase that creates more efficient value ( Geissdoerfer et al ., 2018 ). We adapted this framework to explain how SCM processes interface with circular supply chain loops, as shown in Figure 9 .

The multiple ways that SCM can impact CE implementation open a number of a new avenues for research. As with any investigation, research into SCM for CE must be theoretically driven. Application of general theoretical frameworks borrowed from other disciplines – such as resource-based theory, transaction cost economics or social exchange theory – can be helpful in this regard. Application of these general theoretical frames could aid researchers in defining major concepts as well as promote a better sense of the primary antecedents and outcomes of these concepts ( Pellathy et al. , 2018 ). Middle-range theory would be more useful in producing a detailed narrative of causal processes and the conditions under which supply chain processes generate CE-related outcomes ( Stank et al. , 2017 ). Middle-range theorizing, for instance, is well suited to understanding how companies should develop their approach to CE practices, the contextual factors shaping those practices, and how different approaches generate different outcomes. Given the practical nature of many of the issues involved, middle-range theorizing, which provides a nuanced understanding of why particular outcomes occur in a given setting, would be particularly important for managers seeking to implement CE initiatives in their supply chain organizations ( Christensen and Raynor, 2003 ). The process of middle-range theorizing has been described in detail also in the supply chain literature ( Stank et al. , 2017 ; Pellathy et al. , 2018 ; Bastl et al. , 2019 ). The ideas in this paper pose a number of questions that lend themselves to theorizing at both a grand and middle-range levels.

Closing loops in the SC

Within the context of SCM, closing loops focuses on increased utilization of reused/remanufactured/recycled goods. As noted earlier, if closing loops in the supply chain is to succeed, change must start with customer perceptions and behaviours. Upstream supply chain processes must then be redesigned to accommodate customers' desired value. Thus, a number of critical questions emerge regarding the value that customers place on reused/remanufactured/recycled goods, their wiliness to accept these goods and the ways in which companies can proactively shape consumer perceptions and demand toward greater adoption of these goods. Answering these questions will require SCM researchers to engage with important work done in changing customer value perceptions ( Flint et al. , 2002 ), shopper ecosystems ( Stolze et al. , 2016 ) and demand-supply integration ( Jüttner et al. , 2007 ).

Slowing loops in the SC

Slowing loops in SCM focuses on prolonging the use of goods through the design of long life goods and product lifecycle extensions. Far too many companies pursue a myopic strategy of selling customers low quality goods with ever shorter lifespans ( Rivera and Lallmahomed, 2016 ). Such a strategy can damage company profitability over time while training customers to view products as low quality and easily expendable ( Kuppelwieser et al. , 2019 ). Moreover, as a recent EU reported pointed out, the economic potential in shifting toward maintaining and repairing existing products is almost four times the potential in selling customers new products ( EU Parliament Report, 2016 ). Nevertheless, companies continue to rely on outdated and environmentally unsustainable practices such as planned obsolescence without any supporting product service systems ( Kessler and Brendel, 2016 ). Slowing loops therefore requires companies shift from a model that emphasizes shortening the replacement cycle so as to motivate new product sales to a model that provides post-sale service based on an understanding of the adequate longevity of a product.

Intensifying loops in the SC

SC managers have been leaders in maximizing productivity through waste reduction and the introduction of new technologies for decades. However, there are aspects of intensifying loops in the broader supply chain that managers may be less familiar with. For instance, a central focus in intensifying loops includes increasing the use of shared resources through business platforms that maximize existing capacity and build economies of scale. The key concept here might be co-opetition, which would allow supply chains within the same industry to exploit shared resources while maintaining competing offerings ( Shockley and Fetter, 2015 ; Rai, 2016 ). Intensifying loops also includes greater servitization of the supply chain. One way servitization can happen is through business models that emphasize resource access over ownership ( Schaefers et al. , 2016 ). Airbnb, Uber and other stars of the sharing economy have made a big impression on social media but have yet to make a similar impact on how managers think about their supply chains. Tapping into existing resources that are underutilized, for instance by crowdsourcing last mile delivery ( Castillo et al. , 2018 ), can open significant opportunities to improve outcomes without the cost and environmental damage of developing new resources from scratch. Significant disruptions to the global supply chains in recent years, and especially in consideration of the global COVID-19 pandemic, have already pushed companies to conserve and intensify resource usage ( Chenneveau et al. , 2020 ). These trends could be built on from a specifically CE perspective. How can a focus on intensifying resources alleviate operational bottleneck stemming from perceived resource constraints? How can a focus on intensifying resources improve customer service and other performance outcomes? How can companies tap into innovations in the sharing economy to increase the servitization of their supply chains?

Narrowing loops in the SC

As with intensifying loops, narrowing loops focuses on reducing resource usage and improving efficiency in the production process. And here too, supply chain managers likely feel they have a grasp on the central issues, having grapple for years with the implementation of lean, JIT, and other efficiency boosting process improvements. However, digitalization of the supply chain – the single most disruptive factor related to narrowing loops – remains a challenge. Digitalization refers to leveraging information capturing and processing capabilities to redefine an organization's value creation process and the human-technology interactions that underlie that process ( Cecere, 2017 ). With the emergence of a supply chain ecosystem built on integrated technologies and fuelled by digital information flows, digitalization has the potential to significantly narrow loops by giving managers unprecedented ability to respond to customer demand without maintaining excess inventory ( Transvoyant, 2017 ). These capabilities are manifest in some responses to COVID-19, where companies are able to implement more efficient processes, reduce their transaction costs and streamline operations to accommodate social distancing ( Kechichian and Mahmoud, 2020 ). Additive manufacturing is yet another innovation among many that are narrowing loops in the supply chain. Still managers remain unsure of how and when to implement these technologies and need research guidance on the best strategies moving forward ( Gligor et al. , 2019 ).

Dematerializing loops in the SC

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, researchers need to provide guidance on ways in which managers can focus on dematerializing loops within the supply chain. Ultimately, dematerializing loops in the SC is about using less to do more, making it the holy grail of CE. Dematerialization can include digitizing processes, for instance by using communications technology to foster digital collaboration, or servitizing products, as in the case of eBooks. However, most supply chain process and products do not lend themselves to complete dematerialization. The goal for most companies, therefore, is to rethink their supply chain to ensure they are using the most effective materials in the most efficient way possible. The product packaging industry has been a leader in this regard, offering packaging solutions that are smaller, lighter and thinner but just as effective ( De Koeijer et al. , 2017 ). Walmart, a recognized leader in SCM, has supported many of these packaging innovations with waste reduction commitments ( Walmart, 2016 ). Other examples include lightweight auto body designs that use less materials and are far more fuel efficient ( Pyper, 2012 ) and the miniaturization of technologies ( Felba, 2011 ). Unfortunately, dematerialization is perhaps the most under-researched of the five CE loops discussed here. However, it is in the area of dematerialization that researchers and practitioners can have the biggest impact in realizing a SC designed for CE.

Concluding remarks

CE represents one of the most promising avenues for addressing the ecological degradation that threatens the global environment. Central to CE initiatives is a reconfiguration of core supply chain processes that underlie production and consumption patterns. Yet, few studies have systematically investigated the intersection between core supply chain processes and CE. This paper provides a review of the ways in which core supply chain processes can support the successful implementation of CE initiatives. The article highlights areas of interest in hopes of sparking collaboration among scholars and practitioners in SCM, CE, and related fields.

Advances in CE will require many aspects of the supply chain to be reimagined, going beyond the current thinking in the sustainable SCM literature. SCM scholars and practitioners must embrace the notion that the world's population cannot sustain its desired level of consumption without changing the way products are sourced, produced, delivered, reclaimed, and regenerated. This article provides a framework that can ignite collaboration between CE and SCM experts by suggesting areas in need of cooperative study. In doing so, it proposes a new element to SCM theory by taking processes from this domain and showing how they relate to advancing CE. Indeed, work is required to promote public awareness and acceptance of CE ( Russo et al. , 2019a , b ), and the SCM community needs to have greater awareness of CE needs and implications ( Liu et al. , 2018 ). The theorizing in this article can be used to support future inquiry into increasing understanding and dissemination of how SCM will indeed be the driving factor behind CE.

CRM process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

SRM process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

CSM process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

DM process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

OF process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

MFM process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

PD &C process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

RM process interface with circular supply chain loops and the relative activities

Circular economy and supply chain management processes

Five principles of circular economy

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Acknowledgements

Erratum : It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Hazen, B.T., Russo, I., Confente, I. and Pellathy, D. (2020), “Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual framework and research agenda”, published in The International Journal of Logistics Management , Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-12-2019-0332 , contained a number of errors.

These were:

The placement of all figures at the end of the paper;

The inclusion of a further reading section;

An error in figure 4 that was due to misplaced arrows that disrupted the reading of the flowchart;

The inclusion of a reference to Zhu et al., 2018 in the ‘concluding remarks’ section.

The errors were either introduced during the editorial process or by the authors, but were not corrected prior to publication due to a production error. All errors have now been corrected in the online version. The figures now feature in the respective sections in the body of the article, the further reading section has been removed, figure 4 has now been corrected to show the correct workflow and the reference Zhu et al., 2018 has now been changed to Liu et al., 2018.

The publisher sincerely apologises for the errors and for any inconvenience caused.

Corresponding author

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• Published: 23 February 2024

The appeal of the circular economy revisited: on track for transformative change or enabler of moral licensing?

• Hans Eickhoff   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1416-456X 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  301 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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The proposal of an economy that is circular and without the need for material or energy input has an irresistible appeal to those who recognize the precautionary concept of planetary boundaries and acknowledge that resources are limited. Thus, in the public discourse, its narrative outperforms other lines of arguments when it comes to keeping radical critics of destructive extractivism and the growth imperative in check and averting discussion of degrowth, post-growth, or other systemic alternatives by larger segments of the population and government bodies. Moreover, the myth of a circular economy has the additional benefit that it can win over parts of the environmental movement that is apprehensive of radical and transformative change, particularly in the urban milieus of a middle class that enjoys the privileges of the current social order. In this paper, I argue that the circular economy narrative tends to hinder the necessary systemic transformation while entailing a wide range of specific measures that deserve to be recognized for their merit.

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Introduction.

Now that the narrative of recycling has lost its luster, the circular economy has become the new buzzword for sustainability advocates. After decades of promoting reuse and recycling, a growing amount of waste ended up feeding into a flourishing recycling industry without tackling the problem of production-associated emissions or increased consumption of raw materials (Alfredsson et al., 2018 ). In contrast, a sustainable and circular economy would allow a progressive reduction in resource input by creating closed loops, guaranteeing the well-being of future generations, while creating jobs and saving energy (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017 ; Stahel, 2016 ). This proposal was also picked up by political actors like the European Commission which framed the circular economy as a regenerative growth model for a sustainable economic system (European Commission, 2020 ), a framework which however has been criticized as inconsistent and imprecise on the ground that it does not reckon with the inability to use natural resources many times over without the need to extract them anew, and thus struggles with a low degree of circularity (Kovacic et al., 2020 ). On the backdrop of unabated man-made climate change (IPCC, 2023 ), deteriorating biodiversity and ecosystem functions (IPBES, 2019 ), and the coming of a new geological epoch termed the Anthropocene to substitute the relative stability of the Holocene (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000 ; Steffen et al., 2007 ), it must be discussed if the circular economy proposal will entail sufficient transformative change of the existing socioeconomic metabolism which is indispensable to overcome the current conundrum (Krausmann et al., 2018 ). Furthermore, I argue that the apparent logic and beauty of the circular economy concept indeed obfuscates the need for a radical reduction and redistribution of energy (Millward-Hopkins et al., 2020 ) and overall consumption (Wiedmann et al., 2020 ), including the renunciation of continued exploitation of raw materials from formerly colonized geographies (Alcoff, 2022 ) that upholds an unsustainable ‘imperial’ mode of living (Brand et al., 2017 ).

Even if not endorsed by classical economic theory, economic activity operates within the natural environment and is subject to the laws of nature that set limits to human endeavor. Without naming the proposal of a circular economy explicitly, Boulding ( 1966 ) introduced the concept of the Earth System as a closed loop where material entropy that occurs outside of natural processes can only be countered by constant energy input. Yet, under the premises of the Laws of Thermodynamics, the energy contained in a closed system is unchangeable, and irreversible spontaneous processes will increase entropy in the sense of homogeneous distribution of energy or matter to a maximum (Sandler and Woodcock, 2010 ; Starikov, 2021 ). Drawing on these considerations, the economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen scrutinized the relevance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (the Entropy Law) for the economic process and emphasized that it operates on a unidimensional timeline where energy is dissipated and natural resources are depleted, which renders a growth economy, or even a steady-state economy, impossible in the long-term (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971 ).

The ideas of Boulding and Georgescu-Roegen inspired the concept of Degrowth that proposes a radical transformation of the societies in the global North to reduce their ecological metabolism and resource avidity (Bonaiuti, 2018 ; Kallis et al., 2012 , 2018 ; Kerschner, 2010 ). While critics observe that Georgescu-Roegen might have misinterpreted the Second Law of Thermodynamics drawing an improper analogy between the entropy of energy and the entropy of material substance, his work is still a valid contribution to the economic discussion about the theoretical impossibility of full recycling due to the distinction between stocks—non-renewable in any circumstances—and funds which are renewable if exploited at a sufficiently low rate (Khalil, 2004 ).

Envisioning a circular economy and the concept of the perpetuum mobile

When Leonardo da Vinci postulated the impossibility of a perpetuum mobile within the physical conditions of planet Earth (Bera, 2021 ), he could not have imagined that a similar concept would be resurrected five centuries later. But the ancient dream of humanity to create an apparatus that would work incessantly without the additional input of human labor, or an external source of energy or material, awoke to new life: the congenial concept of a circular economy promises to transform waste into wealth and to warrant the pursuit of exponential—yet sustainable—economic growth forever. But while the idea of a circular economy has become increasingly popular, it still draws, albeit not explicitly, on prior concepts of industrial ecology and industrial symbiosis that support the sustainable development agenda (Cecchin et al., 2021 ).

Before the industrial revolution set off, global economic activity was almost entirely circular but the advent of mass production and the increasing use of fossil fuels that promoted more effective extraction of other natural resources transformed circularity into a linear process that started to deplete natural resources and created large amounts of waste (Bali Swain and Sweet, 2021 ). More than 50 years ago, the report on the Limits to Growth , commissioned by the Club of Rome and compiled by a team of international scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Meadows et al., 1972 ), unmasked the unsustainability of the make-use-dispose process of the linear economy, and it became necessary to create a renewed public perception regarding waste management and resource use (Blomsma and Brennan, 2017 ), if the fundamentals of the capitalist economy were to remain unquestioned. Hence, framing waste as a resource (Zaman, 2022 ) not only created the opportunity for collective action and research, based on an experience of shared ideas and values but also granted the possibility to encompass resource use and waste production within the limits of the current economic system.

Scrutinizing the circular economy and conceptualizing it as an umbrella concept that connects previously unrelated constructs to create a new paradigm, can create an understanding of its consolidation as a new narrative that is characterized by continuing to branch out and becoming more and more complex over time (Blomsma and Brennan, 2017 ). As Hirsch and Levin ( 1999 ) point out, an umbrella construct can be particularly useful in fields that lack a solid theoretical background but where its validity tends to be less challenged by a nonacademic constituency. Understanding the circular economy as an umbrella concept could therefore contribute to decoding the popularity of the circular economy proposal, despite its shortcomings and inconsistencies that have been detailed.

In their revision of the circular economy concept, Kirchherr et al. ( 2017 ) mustered a plethora of 114 definitions which in itself illustrates its heterogeneity and the need to resort to frameworks like the umbrella concept to maintain the notion of a coherent explanatory model. After an iterative coding process that embraced 17 dimensions, the authors came up with a definition of the circular economy as “ an economic system that is based on business models which replace the ‘end-of-life’ concept with reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling and recovering materials in production/distribution and consumption processes, thus operating at the micro level (products, companies, consumers), meso level (eco-industrial parks) and macro level (city, region, nation and beyond), with the aim to accomplish sustainable development, which implies creating environmental quality, economic prosperity and social equity, to the benefit of current and future generations ” (Kirchherr et al., 2017 : pp. 224–225). Additionally, they underscored the necessity of renouncing subverted definitions of the circular economy that are mostly framed as a path to economic prosperity and are pushing the social and environmental goals into the background while not recognizing ‘Reduce’ as a top priority to surpass only incremental improvements and to bring about effective and transformative change. Indeed, only three of the 114 definitions that were analyzed entail all elements of the final definition. Consequently, the imperative of reduction clashes with the business models of the real economy that are built on the pursuit of growth and profit, within the framework of the capitalist market economy, thus hampering the ‘strong’ sufficiency practices that would be in line with the comprehensive definition of a circular economy that Kirchherr et al. ( 2017 ) bring forward. This dilemma is unscored by a study in a sample of 150 companies that proactively communicate their commitment to sustainability and sufficiency but refrain from actually encouraging the refusal to consume (Bocken et al., 2022 ).

Even if acknowledging the concept of a circular economy as a useful contribution towards socioeconomic system change, measuring the effective reduction of environmental and social damage that it promotes must be tackled, particularly when excessive resource use is not adequately priced and does not include additional future costs of current resource extraction (Stephan, 2022 ). Considering that the main strategies for implementing a circular economy include the preservation of the product itself and its function, retrieval of its components, and the recovery of embodied materials and energy, a framework of indicators to embrace these dimensions might consider operating under the concept of Life Cycle Thinking to analyze potential (present and future) impacts and the overall burden or benefit for the environment in comparison to linear processes (Moraga et al., 2019 ). However, reports on interventions at different levels (micro, meso, and macro) do generally not consider the ‘use phase’ of the life cycle and information on systemic interactions between interventions on different levels is scarce which is particularly unfortunate as the results of interventions on the product level can foster large and unintended rebound effects on the societal or macro level (Makov and Vivanco, 2018 ).

Limits to a sustainable circular economy

The concept of planetary boundaries aims to define precautionary safeguards for the functioning of the Earth system that should not be surpassed without setting off the risk of abrupt and non-linear environmental shifts that endanger and threaten the safe operating space for humanity (Rockström et al., 2009 ). Currently, possibly six out of nine planetary boundaries have been breached, including biosphere integrity and climate change (Richardson et al., 2023 ), which is consistent with the warnings on the rapid deterioration of biodiversity and ecosystem function by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2019 ) and the 2023 Synthesis Report on Climate Change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2023 ) that alerts on the effects of human-caused climate change on weather and climate extremes which will continue to intensify.

While socioeconomic and (unfavorable) Earth Systems trends have been accelerating since the industrial revolution, mainly due to the activity of OECD countries and, more recently, due to the emerging economies of the so-called BRICS countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Steffen et al., 2015 ), the General Assembly of the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015 ), comprising 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. Also, the “New Circular Economy Action Plan for a cleaner and more competitive Europe”, that was adopted by the European Commission to accelerate the transformations required by the European Green Deal (European Commission, 2020 ) refers explicitly to the Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet, in both documents, the notion of sustainability remains rather vague and undefined, being “sustainable” mostly used as an axiomatic justification for policy proposals and goals otherwise deemed desirable such as, for instance, poverty eradication, food security, or economic growth.

Also, seemingly unambiguous definitions of sustainable systems as something that survives or persists (Costanza and Patten, 1995 ) do not give real meaning to the concept as long as they leave out other dimensions of sustainability such as time, space, or scope. Following Salas‐Zapata and Ortiz‐Muñoz ( 2019 ), the purposes and meanings that can be ascribed to sustainability include (1) a set of social‐ecological criteria that guide human action, (2) a vision of humankind that is realized through the convergence of the social and ecological objectives of a particular reference system, (3) an object, thing or phenomenon that happens in certain social‐ecological systems, or (4) an approach that entails the incorporation of social and ecological variables into the study of an activity, process or human product (Salas‐Zapata and Ortiz‐Muñoz, 2019 : p. 159). The scope of sustainability might therefore be delimited at the level of values (1) and at the macro (2), meso (3), and micro (4) levels. But additionally, the time horizon can be either short (election cycle), medium (lifetime of current generations), or long-term (future generations), while the spatial scale is local, regional, or global. Thus, only using a definition of ‘strong’ sustainability (Spash, 2017 ) that encompasses a comprehensive scope of social-ecological values and systems on a long-term and global scale shall be consistent with the need for guaranteeing a safe operating space for humanity that is faced with challenges such as climate (in)stability, biodiversity loss, or the endangered balance of the Earth system.

Critics of the concept of sustainable development point out that even apparent progress toward its goals generally conceals ongoing environmental devastation (Bendell, 2022 ; Zeng et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, the aim of ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG 12) seems impossible to attain without effectively reducing production and consumption instead of relying on increased efficiency (which has well-known rebound effects), while the pursuit of economic growth (SDG 8) actually hinders the accomplishment of SDG 12 (Bengtsson et al., 2018 ). Analyzing the impact of economic growth (SDG 8) on resource consumption Hickel ( 2019 ) emphasized that (any) GDP growth would require the decoupling of resource use at a far superior rate than has been achieved historically to effectively reduce the global material footprint (Parrique et al., 2019 ; Tilsted et al., 2021 ; Ward et al., 2016 ). Following a similar line of argument in her critique of SDG 8 that is based on the unsustainability of economic growth, Chertkovskaya ( 2023 ) proposes a reframing of the sustainable development agenda into a well-being agenda where human well-being and the need to reduce resource throughput could inform the envisioned socio-ecological transformation.

Besides the antagonism between SDG 8 and 12, in complex dynamic systems like the Sustainable Development Agenda where policies towards a specific goal act on the capacity to accomplish others, it may be expected that these effects are detrimental and create undesirable tradeoffs (Kroll et al., 2019 ), or even induce unwanted feedback loops, in particular when those goals that would reduce human impact on the Earth system are not prioritized within the framework (Skene, 2021 ). Supporting this observation, a system-based analysis of local and national policies in Brazil that were informed by the concept of sustainable development concluded that the results were at least inconsistent, both on the economic and the ecological level, while only social goals were (partially) achieved (Donaires et al., 2019 ).

A reality check on the circularity of the global economy shows that currently only 8.6% can be considered circular, down from 9.1% just two years before, while global material consumption exceeded for the first time 100 Gt of raw materials in 2019, up from 28.6 Gt in 1972 when the Club of Rome’s report on the Limits to Growth was first published (Circle Economy, 2022 ). Hence, overall material consumption roughly quadrupled while the world population doubled during the same period (Worldometers.info, 2022 ) and thus decoupled from population growth, a trend that has been observed for more than a hundred years (Marín-Beltrán et al., 2022 ). Furthermore, the circular economy does not necessarily lead to a reduction in the use of critical primary raw materials because a shift to different raw materials elsewhere in the life cycle can be observed (Schaubroeck, 2020 ). In this context, the World Bank Group recognizes that by 2050 the transition to purportedly renewable energy production will require over 3 billion tons of minerals and metals, notably graphite, lithium, and cobalt, corresponding to an increase of up to 500%, to stay within the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, while in regard to suitable minerals like copper and aluminum even doubling the rate of recycling would not meet demand (Hund et al., 2020 ).

Ageing material stocks accumulated in buildings, infrastructure, and machinery, which have increased 23-fold since the beginning of the 20th century and continue to grow, represent another challenge for the circular economy concept and require continuous energy and material flows for maintenance, dismantling, and (re)construction with a current recycling rate of just 12%, and an anticipated need for disposal of 35% over the period from 2010 to 2030 due to the end of their service lifetimes (Krausmann et al., 2017 ). Against this backdrop, only a substantially lower level of material stocks would allow achieving a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to keep global warming at bay (Krausmann et al., 2020 ). Thus, circularity must be combined with the concept of longevity to overcome inherent limitations and address material turnover, in an effort to increase eco-efficient resource use (Figge et al., 2018 ), while rebound effects due to efficiency gains need to be addressed comprehensively (Zink and Geyer, 2017 ). Moreover, the attempt to avoid landfill within the European Union and to comply with the goal of a circular economy often displaces the treatment of waste towards the global South, feeding into international recycling networks that burden people and environments with cleaning up a problem that they did not cause (Gregson et al., 2015 ).

Overall, critical reviews of the circular economy point out the flaws of definition and the uncertain overall results, but also the neglect of established knowledge and issues of feasibility, including the limitations due to unaccounted secondary energy and material input due to inefficient limited repurposing or recycling potential (Corvellec et al., 2022 ; Cullen, 2017 ). But, additionally, the underlying “ideological agenda” that includes the emphasis on entrepreneurship, business models, and the infinite possibility of technical solutions also derives its strength from the seductive appeal of the circle as the archetype of perfection and completeness, thus turning the metaphor mythical and irresistible (Corvellec et al., 2022 ).

The unsustainable charm of pro-environmental behavior

The umbrella concept of the circular economy relates closely to the concept of lifestyle in high-income countries of the global North. As laid out by Mikael Jensen ( 2007 ), the concept of lifestyle can be defined on four levels, from global to individual, and entails the notion of consumer identity which, besides the manifestations of national, cultural, and subcultural identities, expresses identity on an individual level through the process and type of material consumption. Products perceived as environmentally friendly and fairly traded embody a message of ethical concern and humanitarian consciousness and consumers associate them with a positive moral value that allows to dress up consumption as pro-environmental behavior. Hence, environmentally concerned people tend to achieve self-realization through “green” consumption patterns but don’t forego necessarily consumption and resource use itself, focusing instead on measures that are promoted within the concept of a circular economy, like (zero-)waste and recycling, to maintain consistent personal narratives (Connolly and Prothero, 2003 ) or to enhance their positional value in the peer community (Kesenheimer and Greitemeyer, 2021 ). As emphasized by Lorek and Fuchs ( 2019 ), this type of ‘weak’ sustainable consumption represents foremostly purchasable efficiency gains that are available to affluent consumers and occur without effective environmental gains, an observation that is also supported by Moser and Kleinhückelkotten ( 2018 ). On the contrary, ‘strong’ sustainable consumption requires embracing sufficiency and the reduction of overall consumption in high-consuming classes which could grant a dignified life for all and replace the growth paradigm (Sandberg, 2021 ; Sandberg et al., 2019 ).

Indeed, higher household income is closely associated with a greater ecological footprint (Adua, 2022 ; Alfredsson et al., 2018 ; Feng et al., 2021 ; Hardadi et al., 2021 ) and individual environmental concerns and pro-environmental behavior in the private sphere do not necessarily reduce household carbon footprint (Csutora, 2012 ; Huddart Kennedy et al., 2015 ). Thus, the example of air travel, which represents a major share of individual greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in high-income urban populations (Czepkiewicz et al., 2019 ; Ivanova et al., 2020 ) and is rarely relinquished, demonstrates that even people with internalized knowledge about climate change show a large gap between attitude and practice (Jacobson et al., 2020 ). This finding is supported by the analysis of representative datasets of the UK population which also showed no association between pro-environmental values and concerns and the reduction of non-work-related flying behavior (Alcock et al., 2017 ).

The apparent inconsistencies between pro-environmentalism, “green” lifestyle, and environmentally harmful habits like travel patterns with high climate impact seem difficult to explain at first glance. However, alongside denial mechanisms that are similar to those that erect psychological barriers to shifting from material comfort to a low-energy behavior (Stoll-Kleemann et al., 2001 ), moral disengagement triggered by aggressive advertising of long-distance travel contributes to the blanketing out of its climate effects (Stubenvoll and Neureiter, 2021 ). Additionally, the effect of moral licensing may further enable the denial of existing contradictions between material and energy consumption, associated greenhouse gas emissions, and the narrative of a sustainable circular economy. In moral psychology, ethical behavior is closely linked to the self-perceived value of moral acts that interfere with self-interest. But while past transgressions increase the resolve to engage in ethical behavior, the boost to the moral self after acting ethically can provoke subsequent licensing of egoistic and unethical attitudes, particularly when there is a conflict between self-interest and an abstract value or goal, or self-construal is based on social roles and relationships (Blanken et al., 2015 ; Mullen and Monin, 2016 ; Xiong et al., 2023 ).

Under the assumption that purchasing environmentally friendly products might prompt subsequent unethical behavior, Mazar and Zhong ( 2010 ) studied the effect of moral licensing in an experimental study on Canadian students that showed a positive association between the prospect of green consumption and high moral and social values. However, while the mere exposure to environmental-friendly products had a favorable effect on altruistic behavior, the actual purchase of these products led to a decrease in altruistic behavior and even to clearly unethical conduct. In a similar study on the potential of behavior change initiatives and policies to increase overall pro-environmental behavior (positive spillover), Clot et al. ( 2022 ) studied the effect of ”green licensing” in a group of 85 undergraduates at a UK university and concluded that licensing actually provoked a negative spillover and worse pro-environmental behavior in other domains. Additionally, engaging in moral licensing can contribute significantly to the rebound effect that is observed after efficiency gains through technological improvements, in particular regarding heating and mobility, thus expanding on a mere economic explanation of rebound (Dorner, 2019 ; Dütschke et al., 2018 ).

Complementing this argument within a larger moral self-regulation framework, Shalvi et al. ( 2015 ) emphasize that self-serving justifications act in protection of the moral self, either in advance of intentional unethical behavior, resorting to mechanisms of ambiguity, self-serving altruism, and moral licensing, or afterward, using physical or symbolic cleansing, partial confessing, and distancing with pointing to others’ moral failures. Thus, in analogy, the peril of the circular economy narrative lies in its apparent logical serenity and opportune resolution of the psychological intricacies that characterize the conflict between ‘green lifestyles’, enacted pro-environmentalism, and engrained consumption patterns, while its mainstream meanderings refrain from substantially transforming the growth economy.

Clues for transformative change

The concept of zero-waste, recycling, and a circular economy does not only operate on an individual level to justify unsustainable consumption patterns but can also be understood as an attempt to render the challenging of industrial capitalism impossible, removing it from the political sphere towards a depoliticized question of consumer behavior (Valenzuela and Böhm, 2017 ). But even when consumers turn to recycling fetishism, in a symbolic effort of redemption that suppresses the acknowledgment of wasteful behavior and intends to obtain moral permission for future consumption, the cleaves and cracks of the current global socioeconomic system become visible. Hothouse Earth pathways loom on the horizon (Steffen et al., 2018 ) and disruptive behaviors of the Earth system are not science fiction anymore but a real prospect (Bernardini et al., 2022 ). The call for environmental justice and decolonization can no longer be ignored (Sultana, 2023 ) and resounds with proposals for a degrowth future in the global North (Singh, 2019 ; Sultana, 2023 ). Thus, “ideas such as those of subsistence-living, the balance between all living beings and reciprocity, self-sufficiency, and self-reliance open the possibility for debates in which both sets of movements can contribute”, thus co-creating convivial technologies and alternative economic systems that refuse neoliberal growth narratives (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., 2019 : p. 182). Moreover, the current social and ecological crises require imagining “other ways of being, and transformative change to our economic life”, where “the social body, with a shared commitment to life in common, is a common goal that unites diverse struggles, including environmental justice and degrowth movements. The success of these diverse struggles in fostering collective subjectivity and postcapitalist alternatives will depend on the ability of these diverse movements to come together, stand in solidarity, learn from each other, and tell alternate stories about how we are to live the Anthropocene” (Singh 2019 : p. 141).

Natalie Ralph’s proposal of conceptual merging of circular economy, degrowth and conviviality design approaches might represent a first step in the direction of circular futures while reappropriating the idea of a circular economy for a framework that embraces local sourcing of raw materials, the possibility of local manufacturing, and the inclusion of users’ creativity in the design process, thus creating products that fulfill an effective need and not an artificially induced desire, are widely accessible, contribute to future sharing and learning, and can be modified or improved without restriction during an extended life cycle and repaired by an average person (Ralph, 2021 ). This proposal, however, requires engaging in a participated policy process which is critical to achieve indispensable popular support (Kongshøj, 2023 ) and will be characterized by the need to address complex problems within the uncertainties of post-normal science where decision stakes are high (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1994 ). Hence, a circular economy discourse that aims to reach beyond variations of the R’s of waste management and resource use will necessarily have to embrace systemic socio-ecological transformation and a “plurality of alternatives” to envision participated circular futures (Calisto Friant et al., 2020 ). Alongside the acknowledgment of planetary boundaries, the formulation of societal boundaries is mandatory to enable a fair and conscious decision process that creates the conditions for a good life for all within a framework of collective self-limitation which overcomes the imperial mode of living at the expense of others (Brand et al., 2021 ).

The transformation of social structures that allows us to envision a future that entails elements of the circular economy without succumbing to its vicissitudes will possibly require the shift from market relations to human relations, within a framework of “intentional sharing and togetherness” (Jarvis 2019 : p. 270). Renouncing explicitly the idea of a consumption-orientated sharing economy, Jarvis puts forward a concept of “real places and co-present realities” that might occur in collective endeavors like co-housing or food cooperatives which, in turn, shape relational human values. This framework entails individual agency, collective intentionality and ‘we-intentions’, participatory democratic procedures, and the defense of ecosystems and ideals of social justice within practices inspired by the degrowth mindset, understood as a “radical niche innovation” to counter the dynamics of growth capitalism and to create diverse—pluriversal—pathways towards alternative practices and systemic change (Kothari et al., 2019 ; Vandeventer et al., 2019 ).

Concluding remarks

The amazing diversity of circular economy definitions seems to allow picking and choosing those that are most suited to one’s preferences and particular circumstances, without changing the dynamics of the industrial growth economy or demanding radical individual and systemic transformation. Thus, the utopia of circularity apparently sanctions the maintenance of privileged habits of conspicuous consumption, within a framework of green lifestyles and pro-environmental behaviors, to end up reinforcing the status quo of unsustainable exploitation of the Earth’s resources while only a small—and diminishing—fraction of materials is reused or recycled, and global consumption continues unabated. Psychological mechanisms like moral licensing can hinder transformative behavioral change even in groups that exhibit high moral standards and acknowledge the predicament of the destruction of the biosphere, particularly when its members enjoy the economic privileges that entitle them to an environmentally destructive lifestyle. In contrast, ‘strong’ sustainability and an all-embracing circular economy require prioritizing ‘Reduce’ without losing sight of social and environmental justice. Thus, without a paradigm shift in overall societal goals from economic growth towards sustainable and regenerative practices, the current conflict between self-interest, interwoven with dominating societal norms, and consistent pro-environmental behavior remains irresoluble, except in fringe groups that operate outside of the mainstream society and either are driven by strong moral values or bound to vernacular lifestyles that are directly threatened by the industrial growth economy.

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this research as no data was generated or analyzed.

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Circularity in waste management: a research proposal to achieve the 2030 Agenda

Rocío gonzález-sánchez.

Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundaments of Economic Analysis, Rey-Juan-Carlos University, Madrid, Spain

Sara Alonso-Muñoz

María sonia medina-salgado, associated data.

Data was retrieved from Web of Sciences database.

Waste management is the main challenge in the transition away from the linear "take-make-dispose" economy. Incorporating the principles of circularity in waste management would facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. This paper aims to provide state-of-the-art research about circular waste management in the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda. For this purpose, bibliometric analysis by VOSviewer and SciMat software is used to define the evolution and to detect research trends. Based on the main gaps identified in studies, a research agenda to guide for further opportunities in this field is suggested. The results obtained four clusters that address sustainable industrial infrastructure, biological waste management, recycling in developing countries and recovery processes. Four research propositions are established, focusing on plastic waste management and generation trends, circular municipal waste management, more sustainable landfill management, and enablers such as indicators and legislation. The transformation towards more bio and ecological models requires social, regulatory and organizational tools that consider the best interests and capacity of companies, public authorities and consumers. In addition, policy implications are considered.

Introduction

Circular economy (CE) is a regenerative and restorative system, which allows the conservation of the value of raw materials by breaking with the concept of end-of-life of products, minimizing waste and emissions and increasing efficiency, through recycling, reusing, and remanufacturing, among others (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017 ). This paradigm represents a further step towards sustainability supported by its three fundamental pillars—economic, environmental and social sustainability (Muñoz-Torres et al. 2018 ). The circular system is based on the principle of material balance, seeking regeneration of natural systems, which implies the minimisation of waste and pollution. In this way, changes already begin to emerge in the design phase (Foschi et al. 2021 ) and go beyond the production system, reaching the development of new patterns of consumption and use by maintaining or reusing products and materials (Vanapalli et al. 2021 ). From an environmental economics point of view, it implies that all material or waste streams must be considered (Andersen 2007 ). Products have a longer lifetime, new applications and are reintroduced into the production system, closing the loop. The social aspect is fundamental to this, and coordination and cooperation with suppliers and customers must be facilitated (Martín Martín et al. 2022 ). In addition, making this new paradigm shift requires a new behavioural and cultural framework.

Waste management involves the transportation, collection, processing, disposal or recycling of waste materials, originating from industries, manufacturing processes and municipal solid waste. This process or system presents one of the main challenges in the transition towards circular business models (Smol et al. 2020 ). CE involves a waste management system that combines changes in the entire supply chain (Johansen et al. 2022 ), from designers and choice of materials to operators and recycling issues (Salmenpera et al. 2021 ).

Circular waste management comprises both the reduction in the generation of residual and household waste, but also the reintroduction of these wastes back into the production system. This reduction is achieved through the eco-design of products, by reducing waste generated in transport, by conserving material value through recycling and by achieving a longer lifetime of products (Salmenpera et al. 2021 ). Once the waste has been generated, it must be incorporated into the production system from the CE, either by using parts or as a source of energy through the reintroduction of biological waste, thus closing the material flow cycle (Zeller et al. 2019 ).

Although interest in waste management research, applying the principles of circularity, is growing, it is necessary to know state-of-the-art research trends in this area. Previous bibliometric or analytical method studies have analysed the relationship between “circularity and “waste” or “waste management” but from a different perspective to the research conducted. Recent studies have provided a qualitative view of the relationship but from very specific aspects -considering a type of waste, a geographical area or time period or one of the dimensions of sustainability-. Some research focuses on one type of waste such as Tsai et al. ( 2020 ) who analyse the link between municipal solid waste and the circular economy or Sundar et al. ( 2023 ) who examine e-waste. Ranjbari et al. ( 2021 ) examines the application of circularity in waste management, including the “closed loop” concept, up to 2020. Circular economy and closed-loop material cycles are deeply connected; however, the concept of closed-loop material cycles arose with the beginning of industrialization (Kara et al. 2022 ). Negrete‑Cardoso et al. ( 2022 ) considers “circular economy” to be related to “waste” and its impact on the post-Covid period. Chioatto and Sospiro ( 2023 ) discuss European economic policy issues that have promoted waste management from a circularity perspective. From a systematic literature review approach Di Vaio et al. ( 2023 ) analyse the accountability and management accounting practices of waste management related to the circular economy.

Our study presents three differentiating contributions with respect to previous studies. Firstly, we focused specifically on “circular economy” and “waste management” from a holistic perspective considering environmental, economic and social aspects. Secondly, by considering the year 2021 in the period under study, this includes one of the years with the most research on the effect of COVID-19 on waste management. The unprecedented increase of waste generated by this pandemic requires further research to enable the construction of a comprehensive circular economy model (Ranjbari et al. 2023 ). Thirdly, we established a relationship between our results and their contribution to the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda. Although previous work has recognised the contribution of circular waste management to the 2030 Agenda (Di Vaio et al. 2023 ), a full analysis of the contribution of research by specific targets has not been carried out. Further than considering the main topics of the 2030 Agenda in the different clusters obtained, this paper establishes the relationship between the Sustainable Global Goals (SDGs) associated with waste management and the different research streams found.

The purpose of this study is to provide state-of-the-art research on the relationship between circular economy and waste management. This bibliometric analysis examines the historical evolution of research and identifies trending themes to uncover the conceptual building blocks of this field. Moreover, is setting out a research agenda about future opportunities for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. This paper contributes to filling the existing gap on scientific literature for guiding research in the implementation of circular waste management, which is fundamental to achieving the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda. Hence, considering the current scientific literature, we propose the following research questions:

• RQ1. How does the scientific literature structure on waste management and circular economy align with the 2030 Agenda?
• RQ2. What are the central topics and patterns within this research field?
• RQ3. What are the main research trend topics in the domain?
• RQ4. What is the research proposal on the relationship between circular waste management and the 2030 Agenda?

The paper is divided as follows: following the introduction, the literature overiew on waste management and 2030 Agenda is covered, then the methodology section is presented, describing the different phases of the process. The bibliometric results are exposed as productivity measures, considering the historical evolution of documents published in the field of waste management and circular economy and the most representative journals by authors sorted by institution, country, number of documents published and total citations. Through co-occurrence analysis, using VOSviewer software and SciMat software which displays strategic diagrams and clusters with the main motor, research topic trends in the field were identified whether basic, emerging or disappearing, and developed or isolated themes. Finally, discussions and conclusions within a research agenda are presented.

Waste management and Sustainable Development Goals

Waste generation has increased significantly in recent years in relation to consumer patterns, activities and lifestyles. Therefore, waste management is of great environmental value (Martín Martín et al. 2022 ). Inappropriate waste generation has negative environmental, social and economic impacts in terms of damage to biodiversity and pollution, human health problems and the costs involved, respectively. Coping with the costs of environmental and social impacts must be considered worse than developing new and more efficient waste management systems (Sharma et al. 2021 ). To reduce these negative effects, the introduction of sustainable and circular issues to manage waste generation, and the collection of waste throughout the life cycle of products is required (Tsai et al. 2021 ). This need has been accentuated by recent crises in areas such as health, safety and energy during 2021 and 2022 (Vanapalli et al. 2021 ; Gatto 2022 ; Mišík 2022 ). However, these adverse historical events provide an opportunity for reflection, forcing governments and businesses to promote long overdue energy and ecological transition policies and practices (Gatto 2022 ; Mišík 2022 ). Given the need to consolidate this trend, the implementation of circularity enhances sustainability and requires a new vision in waste management (Minoja and Romano 2021 ).

In 2015 the United Nations adopted Agenda 2030 as a roadmap to achieving higher levels of sustainability, striving towards satisfying its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the commitment of public actors, industry and society (Schulze et al. 2022 ). Several theories have been used in the literature to analyse these SDGs. Resource-based theory regarding natural resources is widely studied to examine waste practices that protect the environment (Agyabeng-Mensah et al. 2021 ). Due to the environmental impacts, some of the theories focus on pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour, such as social-practice theory (Munir 2022 ) and the theory of planned behaviour (Goh and Jie 2019 ). Regarding the association between SDGs and supply chains, a redesign towards sustainable practices is required. Transactions and economics theory have highlighted the need for changes to the decision-making process during production cycle stages to achieve sustainability goals. In addition, stakeholder and agency theories enable the achievement of SDGs, since both the collaboration and the alignment of interests in fulfilling the 2030 Agenda are required (Agrawal et al. 2022 ).

The relationship between waste management and the 2030 Agenda is closely linked, as it affects many SDGs. It is therefore essential that this relationship be studied. According to SDG 2, the listed items of: ‘end hunger, achieve food security, improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’ require, among other factors, the minimisation of food loss and food waste to achieve efficient and sustainable agricultural production. Similarly, factors such as increasing food availability or achieving more resilient food systems would facilitate this goal (Wieben 2016 ). SDG 3, ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, in order to reduce illness linked to water, pollution and hazardous chemicals by means of smart waste management (Fatimah et al. 2020 ). SDG 6 ‘ensure access to water and sanitation for all’ aims to reduce the percentage of untreated wastewater and increase recycling and reuse (Tortajada 2020 ). SDG 7 ‘ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy’ proposes increasing the use of renewable energy and facilitating access to research on clean energy, including renewable sources (Taifouris and Martín 2023 ). SDG 9 ‘build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation’ advocates for the modernisation and conversion of industries towards cleaner and more sustainable models as they are required to use resources more efficiently and rationally (Dantas et al. 2021 ). SDG 11 ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ focuses on building more sustainable cities, with particular attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management. This also implies resource efficiency and waste generation-collection services (Sharma et al. 2021 ). SDG 12, ‘ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’ seeks to achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. This goal emphasises the importance of reducing different types of waste throughout the life cycle of a product or service through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse activities (Principato et al. 2019 ). With regard to agro-food waste, a reduction of both food losses and food waste in the production and supply chains is proposed. SDG 13, ‘take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’, can affect waste treatments relevant to their environmental impact through using greener and cleaner technologies, such as anaerobic digestion (Kakadellis et al. 2021 ). SDG 14, ‘conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’ is also linked to plastic waste management, according to marine pollution minimisation. SDG 15, ‘sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss’ can be mitigated by protection and restoration, avoiding landfill waste. Finally, SDG 17 ‘revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development’, can be enhanced owing to waste treatment development, enabled by new treatments technologies (Sharma et al. 2021 ).

SDGs achievement is a priority and takes on even greater importance considering the fact that eight years prior to the deadline set in the 2030 Agenda, some reports show that we are still far from meeting most of the goals. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that around 35% of employment is a direct result of food systems and the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices in the food system -including food waste and loss- which is still low, referring to unfulfilled SDG 2 (Torero 2020 ). Uncollected waste is one of the major issues. In terms of municipal solid waste management, proper collection is key, as mismanagement of these services can lead to dumping into waters, which directly affects SDG 6 achievement (Sharma et al. 2021 ). To enable both sustainable energy and industrialisation a transition towards the use of renewable and cleaner energy is necessary. Waste can be adopted as an energy resource, such as biomass waste and pyrolysis (Moya et al. 2017 ). However, fossil fuels are still strongly present in several industries, which negatively impact on SDG 7, 9 and 11. Waste management systems’ disruptions in relation to current situations -COVID-19 pandemic and supply crisis- have minimised recovery and recycling activity. For instance, the plastic waste proliferation caused by the pandemic resulted in both water and air pollution, due to poor and non-effective waste management. Thus, SDG 12, 13 and 14 premises are failing (Sharma et al. 2021 ). This also adversely affects halting biodiversity loss and the land degradation (SDG 15). In addition, there are advances in waste treatment thanks to new technologies which are starting to be implemented. For instance, anaerobic digestion and waste-to-energy technologies (Moya et al. 2017 ), but their application is still scarce, not satisfying SDG 17. Consequently, there is an urgent need to take additional measures to facilitate the implementation of the various sustainable measures included in the plan.

Methodology

This study combines a bibliometric analysis carried out by VOSviewer and SciMat software, and an in-depth literature review of the articles published during the year 2021. Figure  1 shows the phases of this work: Phase 1) data collection, phase 2) bibliometric analysis, and phase 3) systematic literature review and research agenda.

Methodological process

Data collection

In the first phase, documents from the Web of Science Core Collection database were collected from the period 2009 up to September 2021. The keywords used were ‘circular economy’ and ‘waste management’. This generated a total of 1.395 papers. Then, it was selected articles by topic, which includes title, abstract and authors’ keywords. retrieving 966 documents. Thereafter, we sorted the data into groups of Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, taking only articles into consideration, reaching a total sample of 576 articles that were extracted and including in this analysis after a double checked in order to eliminate inconsistences.

Bibliometric analysis

Bibliometric methodology identifies research trends providing the knowledge structure about a specific field. By examining recent published articles, network analysis shows emerging fields (Hettiarachchi et al. 2022 ). In the second phase, bibliometric approach was performed using VOSviewer and SciMat software to understand the latest trends in the fields of waste management and circular economy. VOSviewer is more visual and allows for the examination of co-occurrence, analysis of authors, institutions and countries (Van Eck and Waltman 2010 ). In this paper, SciMat completes VOSviewer analysis since it carries out the co-occurrence analysis in time periods and the evolution of these periods can be seen on an evolution map. Additionally, SciMat illustrates strategic diagrams which uncover the main research themes (Cobo et al. 2012 ). Furthermore, it allows one to observe the clusters of each keyword, making the analysis more complete and comprehensive.

Following on from this, VOSviewer conducts a citation analysis of the most representative journals and the most prolific authors and from here, a co-occurrence analysis is displayed. Via the SciMat tool a co-word analysis is also developed, displaying the strategic diagrams and clusters with relevant keywords, divided up into three periods according to the number of documents published, years 2009–2019 (Period 1), 2020 (Period 2) and 2021 (Period 3).

In the third and last phase, a literature review of the articles related to circular economy and waste management is carried out, in accordance with 51 documents from the motor themes of the SciMat analysis in the third period, during the year 2021, to determine the latest trends and research in the field. Finally, a research agenda is exposed regarding trending topics analysed in this work.

Bibliometric results and productivity measures

Figure  2 shows the historical evolution of documents published in the field of waste management and circular economy from 2009 to September 2021, considering a total sample of 576 articles. Waste management towards circularity is gaining momentum in academia according to the number of documents published in the field since 2015, coinciding with ‘The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ (United Nations 2015 ). In addition, other European strategies and legislative challenges took place, such as ‘Communication on closing the loop. An EU action plan for the Circular Economy’ (European Commission 2015 ) and ‘Communication on a monitoring framework for the Circular Economy’ (European Commission 2018 ) considering waste management as one of the main challenges in the transition to circular business models.

Historical evolution of publications in the field of waste management and circular economy

Table ​ Table1 1 shows the ten most representative journals sorted by number of total documents published and citations. These journals represent 60,25% of the total sample formed by 132 sources. The Journal of Cleaner Production is the most influential with 79 articles published in the field of circular economy and waste management, and a total of 1.343 cites. It should be noted that almost all sources belong to the "environmental sciences" category. None of the most cited journals belong to the social sciences.

Most representative journals and authors’ institution and countries sorted by number of documents and total number of citations

R ranking, N number of documents, % from the total sample of documents (N = 576), TC total number of citations

The most influential authors are sorted by number of documents published and total citations, indicating the institutions and country which they work in, and the h-index –impact and productivity measure-. The most prolific author is Navarro Ferronato from the University of Insubria in Italy with 9 papers published and a total of 129 cites, followed by Vicenzo Torreta (8, 129) from the same institution. The prevalence of Italian researchers is in line with the country's overall recycling rate for all types of waste which reaches 68%, well above the EU average (57%) published in the “Third Report on the Italian circular economy in 2021” (ENEA 2021 ). Additionally, in 2020 several legislative decrees came into force that facilitated the implementation of EU directives on waste and the circular economy.

Institutions include the University of Hong Kong whose role in integrated and sustainable waste management is significant both at the research level (Hossain et al. 2021 ) and practical level in running the campus and encouraging waste reduction and recycling among all stakeholders (The University of Hong Kong 2021 ).

Research trend topics in the field

Co-occurrence analysis by vosviewer software.

Co-occurrence analyses the most frequent keywords in a research field regarding their jointly mention, represented by clusters (Callon et al. 1983 ). This method is widely used to identify research trend topics about a particular subject area according to the keyword frequency (Donthu et al. 2021 ). The closer two items are from each other, the higher the connection. Accordingly, those keywords with a higher association appear closer.

This analysis used the full counting network technique which points the total number of occurrences a concept appears in all documents. The normalisation parameter method with association strength was performed by VOSviewer, to normalise the link strength between keywords (Van Eck and Waltman 2010 ).

Performing the analysis, different occurrence thresholds have been used to observe the network structure. VOSviewer software permits to perform a data cleaning to visualise a map created by text data merging terms using a thesaurus file (Van Eck and Waltman 2010 ). In our co-occurrence analysis we created a thesaurus to merge different keywords referring to the same item, such as ‘LCA’ and ‘life cycle assessment’, or ‘municipal solid waste’ and ‘municipal-solid waste’. Finally, a minimum of 13 occurrences of a keyword has been chosen from 2.868 words. 41 keywords met the threshold that represents the main items of each cluster. The keywords are divided up into main four groups of clusters coloured in red, green, blue and yellow in Fig.  3 . The red cluster named ‘Industrial ecology and more sustainable infrastructure’ -SDG 9- focuses on the circular economy and industrial ecology with the aim of making industrial buildings and construction and demolition waste more sustainable, and on the challenges and barriers posed by these new models. The green cluster ‘Waste management through biological and assessment processes’ -SDGs 6, 7, 11 and 12- links the food waste and municipal solid waste and how anaerobic digestion and biogas can achieve a reduction in the use of energy and low emissions. Water treatment is associated with optimisation through new technologies. These studies use the life cycle assessment as a main tool for measurement. Sustainable development and recycling, considering indicators and behaviors in developing countries are shown in the blue cluster named ‘Sustainable development and recycling in developing countries’ -SDG 12-. Finally, the cluster in yellow studies the need to establish new policies and designs that would allow for improved waste management through resource recovery, such as the extension of producer responsibility beyond the sale of the product or service. It is therefore titled ‘New procedures for the recovery of resources’ -SDG 12-.

Co-occurrence analysis of keywords by vosviewer

Strategic diagrams and motor themes by SciMat software

Science mapping analysis displays how items from a particular field are linked to each other, determining the evolution and cognitive structure (Small 1999 ). In this study, keywords are the items used. The bibliometric mapping tool used to show the strategic diagrams is SciMat software. From the set of documents, it generates a knowledge base, in this case, the relationships between keywords are stored following a co-occurrence analysis. SciMat software grouped by plural to find similar items during the de-duplicating process (Cobo et al. 2012 ). For instance, keywords such as system and systems.

SciMat tracks a longitudinal framework that analyses the conceptual and intellectual evolution of a field. The normalisation measure chosen was the equivalence index. And to obtain the scientific map and the associated clusters and subnets, the clustering algorithm method followed was simple centers algorithm. The analysis is performed dividing the sample into three periods: period 1 with a total of 214 articles of year 2009 up to year 2019, period 2 with 155 articles of the year 2020, and period 3 with 189 articles of the year 2021. From a sample of 2,819 words, a total of 77 words have been considered, selecting only keywords with a minimum of 10 associated documents. As can be seen in Fig.  4 , the stability index (0.99 and 0.99) indicates that there is a balance between the number of words from one period to the next.

Overlapping map. Periods 1, 2 and 3 by scimat software

The evolution map shows the results of the longitudinal analysis. The thick lines show the clusters that share a main theme, and the dashed lines are those that share themes other than the main theme (Cobo et al. 2012 ). In the first period the motor theme is circular economy, while in the second period the focus is on municipal solid waste.

Figure  5 shows the difference between periods 1 and 2, from the more general to the more specific, with municipal solid waste oriented towards sustainable development -SDG 11-. In the third period focus returns to circular economy, with more dispersion apparent than in period 2, yet more specificity, as the number of clusters expands again. The massive generation of plastic waste generated during COVID-19 (Khoo et al. 2021 ; Vanapalli et al. 2021 ) could explain the interest in municipal solid waste management during period 2 and the emergence of concepts with plastics management in period 3. As a result, an evolution from the first period can be observed, with a strong focus on the implementation of circular economy and energy generation towards a circular economy centered on municipal solid waste.

Evolution map. Periods 1 and 2 by scimat software

This analysis is focused on the third period to gain better attention about the recent evolution of this field. Figure  6 shows a strategic diagram of Period 3 (year 2021) with four quadrants of the main thematic nodes according to the co-word analysis performed by SciMat. The strategic diagram displays the motor themes: ‘circular economy’, ‘life cycle assessment’ and ‘China’, developed thereafter, the basic themes: ‘recovery’ as a very specific and underdeveloped topic, it suggests a strategy towards circularity that is beginning to be considered, because many policies were only focused on promoting recycling (Ghisellini et al. 2016 ). The emerging or disappearing themes: ‘generation’, an emerging theme related to e-waste which is working on the reuse of products -SDG 12-, but circular economy is not applied in-depth. Regarding sustainable development and waste management, the environmental impacts are still a very large gap in the literature; ‘plastic waste’ is an emerging theme for circular economy, and it is studied within the pyrolysis and recycling process and new designs to improve the circularity -SDG 9 and 12-. ‘Sector’ appears as an isolated theme from circular economy, the literature is very cohesive in density due to its links with waste management case studies in different industries -SDG 9-.

Strategic diagram. Period 3 (2021) by scimat software

Based on Fig.  6 ‘circular economy’, ‘China’ and ‘life cycle assessment’ appear as motor themes. These keywords present high density and centrality, thus they have been intensively and highly studied in literature. Which is why the following analysis is focused on them. ‘Circular economy’ is linked with ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ according to the origin of circularity (Ghisellini et al. 2016 ). Likewise, the keyword ‘recycling’ relates to circular economy as a part of 3Rs principles, due to circular policies and their focus on recycling practices and strategies rather than other options -SDG 12-. ‘Municipal solid waste’ and ‘management’ is one of the most developed topics in the studies analysed and published during 2021 towards circular economy -SDG 11-.

‘China’ is a pioneering country in the implementation of circular economy policies, and strategies based on sustainability (Lieder and Rashid 2016 ). From a broad CE perspective, the country has incorporated these schemes due to the country’s rapid industrialisation and its growing efforts in research (McDowall et al. 2017 ). Indeed, the country is the largest producer of municipal solid waste (Wang et al. 2021 ) increased by COVID-19 (Vanapalli et al. 2021 ) and given its large industrial sector. The country is developing research that allows it to establish symbiotic relationships, to find new ways of using resources or converting waste into energy -SDG 7, 9 and 11-. It would be framed within the so-called industrial symbiosis, defined as the process by which waste from one industry or industrial process is converted into raw material for another (Provin et al. 2021 ).

‘Life cycle assessment’ appears far removed from circular economy, focusing more on waste demolition and construction management (Ahmed and Zhang 2021 ; Lu et al. 2021 ) -SDG 9-, and on plastic waste generation (Hossain et al. 2021 ; Pincelli et al. 2021 ).

Review analysis

A systematic literature review was performed, considering the core documents with highest impact –those that appear at a minimum two nodes (Cobo et al. 2012 )- from SciMat report. Selecting those articles from the three clusters that are presented as motor themes for period 3 (year 2021): ‘circular economy’, ‘China’ and ‘life cycle assessment’. Firstly, it was considered those papers with at least one citation (N = 51). Secondly, an in-depth analysis of those articles was carried out, compiling findings and future research lines of the 20 leading articles by number of citations (Table ​ (Table2) 2 ) according to the SciMat core documents.

Findings and future research lines of the main articles related with circular economy and waste management during year 2021

TC total number of citations

Citation analysis is a measurement widely used that considers a paper highly cited as relevant in a field (Zupic and Cater 2014 ), enabling us to evaluate the influence of a research topic. Also is used as a tool to detect emerging and research trends (Chen 2006 ).

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) -SDG 11- is one of the main topics. Many of the papers related are case studies such as Vardopoulos et al. ( 2021 ) which developed a Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model to evaluate and assess the Municipal Solid Waste practices in Greek municipalities. Abou Taleb and Al Farooque ( 2021 ) concentrate on full cost accounting in 27 Egypt councils designing pricing model ‘Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT)’ for municipal waste recycling. Wielgosinski et al. ( 2021 ) performed an analysis of the Polish municipal solid waste management through a balance model for assessing the impact of increasing the level of recycling, whilst Istrate et al. ( 2021 ) studied the municipal solid waste management in Madrid with a material flow analysis. Similarly, Tong et al. ( 2021 ) analyses the solid waste management system and the cause-effect relationship of households in Vietnam. Di Foggia and Beccarello ( 2021 ) highlighted the fact that the waste management chain in Italy focuses on waste-to-energy plants, calculating market measures towards circularity. In addition, in the region of Brescia, Italy, Bertanza et al. ( 2021 ) examined the evolution of municipal solid waste evolution with mass flow analysis of medium firms. Solid waste management in Brazilian universities is explored in the Nolasco et al. ( 2021 ) paper, which developed a qualitative-quantitative analysis, identifying factors of university campus waste management.

Plastic waste management is greatly studied in connection with circularity practices in many of the articles published during 2021, such as the case studies carried out by Foschi et al. ( 2021 ) on the Emilia Romagna plastic waste recycling system, following the European Commission Plastic Strategy. Similarly, Wu et al. ( 2021 ) outlines how Taiwan achieves circular economy in plastic waste from an industrial level, owing to collective bricolage. Some of the papers outline COVID-19 and the excessive use of plastics, coinciding with the most cited article of the sample (Vanapalli et al. 2021 ) which address COVID-19 plastic waste generation and the use of more sustainable technologies. The Khoo et al. ( 2021 ) paper provides recommendations for adopting effective plastic waste management due to excessive use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pikon et al. ( 2021 ) shows the influence of COVID-19 on waste management from an economic impact perspective, highlighting the changes in municipal solid waste during the pandemic in the Polish market. Furthermore, increasing attention is being paid to biodegradable plastics as an alternative to conventional plastics. Ghosh and Jones ( 2021 ) examine upcoming trends, potential future scenarios, and the material value chain perspective of biodegradable plastics, whilst Kakadellis et al. ( 2021 ) categorizes qualitative data about biodegradable plastic strategies in United Kingdom -SDG 12-.

In the studies examined, the management of food waste is also analysed -SDG 11 and 12.- Zarba et al. ( 2021 ) analyses the Italian agri-food effectiveness towards circular economy regulatory; Provin et al. ( 2021 ) examines the reuse of food industry waste for the manufacture of biotextiles in the framework of the circular economy and the SDGs. This inter-industry collaboration would be part of the industrial symbiosis referred to above -SDG 9-.

In a similar vein, and related to SDG 9, the last process analysed by the most cited studies is the pyrolysis process, which allows thermal degradation of waste, associated with landfill mining, extracting valuable materials from the remains of materials deposited in landfills (Jagodzinska et al. 2021 ). Martínez ( 2021 ) discusses the opportunities and challenges of pyrolysis in Latin America.

This section is based on the results obtained from the bibliometric clusterisation, and the review of the 20 most cited articles. The number of articles published in the field have increased since 2015, corresponding to the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals focused on improving and achieving education, health, economic growth and reducing inequality, as well as preserving forests and oceans (United Nations 2015 ). It is also remarkable to note the growth between years 2019 and 2021 due to new strategies and worldwide circular policies implemented in the field of waste management, such as the ‘Circular Economy Action Plan for a greener and more competitive Europe’ based on the prevention of waste and seeking improved local waste and raw material management (EU 2020 ; Camana et al. 2021 ). Although the "Agenda 2030" or "SDG" themes were not found in any of the clusters, the rest of the themes are closely related to their fulfilment. Moreover, circular waste management not only contributes to several SDGs, but also creates synergies between the goals.

A significant trend in the literature has focused on waste recycling (SDG 11 and 12), which is essential, yet insufficient if sustainable production and consumption is to be achieved by 2030. The main research topics analysed in the articles published during year 2021 focus on (1) Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) with the design of new municipal waste recycling models such as the Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) pricing model (Abou Taleb and Al Farooque 2021 ), (2) the importance of plastic waste (Khoo et al. 2021 ) and its recovery as a tool in the implementation of circularity principles (Ferreira et al. 2021 ), increased by the generation of plastic waste during the COVID-19 pandemic (Khoo et al. 2021 ), and (3) the reduction of food waste or its application in bio-textiles (Provin et al. 2021 ) or as an energy source -SDG 9 and 11-.

Going one step further should be considered in achieving further targets of this goal. On the one hand, a reduction in waste generation and a search for more sustainable disposal options for waste that cannot be recycled are required, e.g., through new processes such as waste pyrolysis (Jagodzinska et al. 2021 ) -SDG 9-. On the other hand, extending the lifetime of products by finding additional, new uses for them, eliminating planned obsolescence or repairing the product at a cost lower than buying a new product (Ghisellini et al. 2016 ) -SDG 12. Complementarily, waste generated in one sector can be used as a raw material in another sector or as a source of energy in the case of organic waste -SDG 7 and 9-.

Research agenda

The research agenda provides guidance to scholars in future related-research directions. The agenda is based on the previous in-depth analysis of the 20 articles included in the review. Considering the analysis and the ensuing discussion, the following proposal is put forward for the circular management of waste management to accelerate the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda. Moreover, this could fill gaps and give opportunities for further development. Figure 7 collects the research agenda propositions.

Research agenda propositions diagram

New trends in plastic waste management and generation (SDG 12)

One of the most researched materials in the most cited papers is the use of plastic -6 of the 20 papers analyse this issue-. Firstly, because of the significant increase in waste associated with it after COVID-19 (Vanapalli et al. 2021 ; Khoo et al. 2021 ). Secondly, because of the need to progressively replace it with other materials such as biodegradable plastics, which implies the use of renewable raw materials. In short, solutions must be proposed to current plastic waste, the quantity of which threatens the habitat of numerous species, and measures must be taken to curb its expansion and offer alternatives in sustainable materials.

It is worth noting that no studies have been found that analyse the legislative challenges associated with the progressive elimination of plastic in products such as bags or single-use items.

Proposition 1: To deepen new trends in plastic waste management and generation.

New pathways in the circular management of municipal waste (SDG 7, 9, 11 and 12)

The second line of the proposal relates to circular municipal waste management -SDG 11-, a topic of great interest in recent research (Abou Taleb and Al Farooque 2021 ), growing due to recent global crises. However, the approach that has analysed this topic focuses mainly on waste recycling.

A broader focus is needed, considering other alternatives such as the reduction of waste generation, reuse and the use of Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) as a raw material or energy source in other sectors. Compared to incineration, which is highly polluting if the organic waste is mixed with other types of waste, there are more sustainable and energy-efficient alternatives such as anaerobic digestion (Kakadellis et al. 2021 ) -SDG 7-. This requires consumer awareness and training –SDG 12- in waste separation, adequate facilities for the process and greater cooperation between industries (Foschi et al. 2021 ; Vanapalli et al. 2021 ) For the latter option, it is recommended that tools such as industrial symbiosis be explored in greater depth -SDG 9-.

Proposition 2: To expand the alternatives towards more sustainable options in municipal waste management with the cooperation of consumers and industries.

Towards more sustainable landfill management (SDG 7, 9 and 11)

In contrast to traditional landfill management, new infrastructures, treatments and smart technologies are proposed to improve recycling and waste disposal. Among them, (1) the construction of waste-to-energy plants makes it possible to burn solid waste to power electricity generators (Di Foggia and Beccarello 2021 ) –SDG 7-; (2) pyrolysis process for thermal degradation of waste, reducing waste accumulation (Jagodzinska et al. 2021 ) –SDG 11- or (3) Industry 4.0 can be applied in waste treatment -SDG 9- for more efficient technique of separation models in waste management addressing circular economy practices (Wang et al. 2021 ). This line of research has a profound relationship with municipal waste management, given the importance of municipal waste in current landfills.

Proposition 3: To improve the operation and efficiency of landfills through new infrastructures, treatments and technological tools.

Establishment of enablers in the implementation of circularity: Design of indicators and development of legislation (SDG 12)

Optimising waste management processes requires the establishment of measurement indicators. These indicators should be of a different nature and go beyond the economic or environmental quantification of targets. They should include social aspects such as awareness raising (Loizia et al. 2021 ; Van Straten et al. 2021 ). Additionally, along with technological and economic tools, the creation of a legislative framework is a critical factor in the implementation of circularity in waste management operations (Salmenpera et al. 2021 ; Woodard 2021 ).

Proposition 4: Establishment of measurement and policy enablers.

Conclusions

Circular waste management focuses on reducing the amount of waste generated and reintroducing the waste, once treated, as new material or energy in production, keeping the material in a cyclical flow within the same or another sector (Demirbas 2011 ; Salmenpera et al. 2021 ). It, therefore, implies reaching a new level of treatment, complementing the recycling option with a holistic view of the problem. The application of circularity principles in waste management can contribute significantly to the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda, as it impacts several of the SDGs -6, 7, 9, 11 and 12-.

According to the research questions presented, the scientific literature structure of the field of waste management and circular economy (RQ1) has been analysed, showing that the most productive sources come from the field of environmental sciences, which conditions the main topics investigated and shows a clear lack of attention to social sciences. The most prolific authors come from two countries with a strong interest in environmental research in general and waste management in particular—Italy and China. In the case of China, this is due to its strong productive fabric and a prominent role in the generation of waste from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concerning RQ2, four clusters have been obtained related to industrial ecology -SDG 9-, waste management from the application of bio-based processes -SDGs 6, 7, 11 and 12-, water treatment, sustainable development and recycling in developing countries -SDG 12- and the cluster on new procedures for the recovery of resources -SDG 12-.

To conduct analysis of the central topics and the patterns we used SciMat software, dividing the articles published in the field into three periods (2009–2019, 2020 and 2021) showing the scientific literature development, as can be seen in the evolution map (Fig.  5 ). The motor themes showed in the strategic diagram of the third period are circular economy, life cycle assessment and China; recovery is a basic theme; the emerging themes are generation and plastic waste; and sector is a developed theme. Referring to RQ3, the results provided from the systematic literature review are in line with the central topics pointed out previously. Many of the studies published during 2021 pertain to motor themes circular economy and China, and to plastic waste as an emerging theme.

The most cited articles and the previous bibliometric analysis have shown the great interest generated among scientists in the management of urban waste and plastic waste, which has increased in the last two years in relation to sanitary waste. The circular economy means that recycling is not enough in the management of this waste. In addition to the reduction in the generation of waste, the incorporation of the "bio" concept in its treatment, which allows fibres, bioplastics and other biomaterials to be obtained, has been added. Along the same lines, the treatment of food waste allows it to be converted into animal feed, biofuels or even textiles. However, among the most cited articles, no research related to the use and recycling of wastewater was found -SDG 6-. Further research is needed to enable its use for biomass production or as a source of nutrients for micro-organisms of interest (Kaszycki et al. 2021 ).

The establishment of three research propositions completes this research (RQ4). In this way, it is crucial to develop three fundamental aspects. First, the use of new technologies to meet the various needs raised. Secondly, a new approach to urban waste management is required. And thirdly, to develop research from a holistic perspective that will require the use of theories and sciences from the environmental, social and economic fields.

Theoretical contributions

The results of this study offer academic contributions about circular waste management. Among the theoretical contributions is the establishment of state-of-the-art research on waste management linked to the circular economy, which will guide future research and fill existing gaps. To offer the most complete research review possible, a mixed methodology—bibliometric and systematic review of the most cited recent research—has been used. A bibliometric analysis was carried out with two software tools, taking advantage of the potential of both. Using complementary software validates the analysis results. In addition, this article provides a framework for research as a guiding point in waste management.

Thus, lack of social research is a major drawback that requires urgent incorporation of new social or multidisciplinary studies. It can be considered that social and economic issues have not been sufficiently addressed in the literature. None of the clusters obtained have these dimensions as their motor theme. Dropping SDGs such as 8 -decent work and economic growth-.

Practical contributions

A guideline for practitioners about circular waste management is required. Findings reveal the need for a reference framework for scholars, practitioners and institutions.

This article implies practical contributions for governments to achieve a transition towards more circular waste management. The research shows the technical feasibility of substituting certain materials, mainly plastic, or applying techniques that allow a step beyond recycling. It is necessary to focus on actions based on recovery, reduction, remanufacturing and redesign of plastic waste to fill this gap (Olatayo et al. 2022 ). Highlight the policy spillover effect, which means that support for some public fees—for example, plastic bag fees—may imply greater support for other environmental policies related to waste reduction (Thomas et al. 2019 ). This could facilitate positive transitions towards environmental behavioural changes. In addition, public–private coordination is required in the implementation of new legislation (Foschi et al. 2021 ).

The significant "bio" trend has spread to different types of waste and sectors. Thus, the circular management of waste will require the development of infrastructures, technologies and processes oriented to its application, which means waste management with less environmental impact, but also a generation of value of the product derived from the waste. This value can be manifested in new products -whether or not related to the original sector of the product from which the waste is derived- or renewable and sustainable energies (Ferreira et al. 2021 ; Kaszycki et al. 2021 ). For this, these processes require the establishment of cooperation tools between industries in such a way that we can establish symbiosis between them (Provin et al. 2021 ).

Limitations and future research lines

Addressing the limitations of this study, it’s worth underscoring the fact that WoS was the exclusive Database used to retrieve the final sample under analysis, and only articles published in English are studied, other languages were not considered. Despite the use of VOSviewer to display the co-occurrence analysis, the interpretation of the results is subjective, in accordance with the papers reviewed. In future works, other software can be combined such as CiteSpace or HistCite to visually create scientific maps.

Regarding future research lines, the following aspects are considered a research agenda in the field of waste management and circular economy. The need to incorporate into waste management from a circular perspective such as: circular bioeconomy models, the construction of more robust eco-efficiency indicators to improve measurement and comparison between regions, and the consideration of new processes and techniques in the management of urban, food and plastic waste. Research is also required to manage waste in the construction and demolition of buildings and infrastructures from a sustainably innovative standpoint.

The challenges facing waste management in meeting the 2030 Agenda are considerable. Circular economy facilitates the pathway but is not a miracle tool. The contribution of companies and industries requires the collaboration and awareness of consumers. To this end, public institutions must generate policies, regulations and incentives that create the most favorable framework possible. Having already surpassed half of the set timeframe towards meeting the SDG targets, urgent measures are required, and the Academy must lend its support in this regard.

Authors’ contribution statements

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conception or design of the work: Rocío González Sánchez and Sara Alonso Muñoz. Data collection: Rocío González Sánchez and María Sonia Medina Salgado. Data analysis and interpretation: Rocío González Sánchez and Sara Alonso Muñoz. Drafting the article: Rocío González Sánchez and Sara Alonso Muñoz. Critical revision of the article: Rocío González Sánchez and Sonia Medina Salgado.

Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This paper has been supported by Project PID2021-124641NB-I00 of the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain).

Data availability

Declarations.

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Best Practices on Circular Economy: Redefining Growth: From Waste to Worth  2018    CTI 07 2018A  Session 1    Standard  Completed Project    * Atleast Project Title is Required. Project No. Project Title Project Status Publication (if any) Fund Account Sub-fund Project Year Project Session APEC Funding Co-funding Amount Total Project Value Sponsoring Forum   Topics   Committee   Other Fora Involved Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved   Proposing Economy(ies)   Co-Sponsoring Economies ; ; ; ; ;   Expected Start Date Expected Completion Date Project Proponent Name 1 Job Title 1 Organization 1 Postal Address 1 Telephone 1 Fax 1 Email 1   Project Proponent Name 2 Job Title 2 Organization 2 Postal Address 2 Telephone 2 Fax 2 Email 2   Declaration Project Summary The objectives of the project are: ·  To exchange best practices on Circular Economy models focused on maximizing resources utilization and efficiency in production; collection and recycling of post consumption package, particularly in beverage sectors, among others; identify and create new opportunities for economic growth and boost innovation and competitiveness of APEC economies; ·  To build capacity on handling solid waste in APEC economies, in order to limit the environmental impacts due to the use of resources, as well as to develop inclusive models to generate formal jobs. ·  To explore the possibility to develop a draft proposal for a Circular Economy transversal framework. This project seeks to exchange best practices and develop recommendations during a two-day workshop in Mexico City, and explore the possibility to develop a draft proposal for a Circular Economy transversal framework. Relevance APEC has recognized the need to develop new growth paradigms while launching the APEC Leader’s Growth Strategy in 2010, aimed at achieving balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth. To achieve for expected growth all segments of economies –from micro-enterprises to women- should participate as to maintain economic prosperity while protecting the environment and addressing global environmental challenges. In 2014, APEC Leader’s claimed the phrase “from waste to worth”, meaning that there is a confirmed economic gain coming from waste management, and introduced the concept of “Circular Economy”, a key driver to redefine growth and focus on the positive benefits of consumption and reuse.  For the coming decades, APEC should continue adding value for the next generations, especially vulnerable groups, as demand trends are raising the number of consumers who are more involved in “going-green” consumption, and the problems related to the management of waste are arising in our societies. In the circular economy model, the economic activity builds and rebuilds overall the system. Within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there is an international trend towards greater awareness of the environment and many economies are already creating mechanisms that promote the Circular Economy based on recycling practice to reduce waste, to collect and recover the value of these materials.  The benefits of this model for APEC developing economies are of great importance, to mention a few: ·  Inclusive: allows the economic activity to build and rebuild at all scales, involving small businesses, organizations and vulnerable groups, at the local and global level. For example: it fosters Micro Small Medium Enterprise s’ -led by women- participation in global value chains while incorporating small businesses in the recycling process. · Job creator: generates an internal market in the recycling business, developing local corridors for vulnerable groups and communities. In Mexico, this program has created 2,400 direct and 35,000 indirect jobs. · Benefits the population: opportunity to implement educational programs for children, while reducing CO2 emissions. After 15 years, Mexico has recovered 3.2 million tons in PET, managing to avoid the emission of 10 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. In this context, the present project is of significant importance, since it is oriented to share successful experiences for the implementation of the Circular Economy model while creating new value chains and contributing to the global efforts for the protection of the environment and the transition to green economies, as well as creating new opportunities for economic growth, fostering innovation, competitiveness and inclusion in the Asia-Pacific region.  Under the eligibility criteria of the sub-fund of Innovative Development, Economic Reform and Growth (IERG), the Circular Economy aims to: (i) contribute to the implementation of the APEC Cooperation Initiative for Jointly Establishing an Asia-Pacific Urbanization Partnership; including establishing a cooperative network of sustainable cities in APEC economies, organizing sustainable urban development forums and policy dialogues, and carrying out relevant projects that promote sustainable urbanization objectives; (ii) implement APEC Initiatives on Blue Economy cooperation; and (iii) carry out relevant projects that promote experience sharing, policy dialogue, capacity building and practical cooperation, contributing directly to the objectives and priorities of the APEC Accord on innovative Development, Economic Reform and Growth, and primarily benefit developing economies. This project will develop capacity building of APEC member economies by sharing best practices on the benefits of implementing circular economy models in their economies. For example: as a first step, economies could identify through consumption patterns where future collection opportunities may appear and the development of a local value chain is possible, while sharing how the collection and recycling of waste, could facilitate the incorporation of low income groups, particularly women, to formal sectors and generate new jobs, and at the same time improving their labour conditions. In parallel, another step is the generation of new habits in younger generations, including school challenges to reinforce their environmental conscious. Objectives 2) To build capacity on handling solid waste in APEC economies, in order to limit the environmental impacts due to the use of resources, as well as to develop inclusive models to generate formal jobs; and 3) To explore the possibility to develop a draft proposal for a Circular Economy transversal framework. Alignment Under the Second Priority APEC-PNG, “Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth”, it contributes to the global commitments relevant to sustainable development goals. Likewise, it contributes to the achievement of the APEC Growth Strategy of 2010, by sharing best practices of environmentally friendly processes (recycling and collection), promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and cooperation to address environmental challenges. Similarly, advancing to achieve the objectives set out in the Leaders Declaration of 2014 (Innovative Development, Economic Reform and Growth – Circular Economy) and in 2015 (Key Responsibility Areas – KAA, Growth Strategy with the Sustainable Development Goals). Closely linked to the above, collaborates with the implementation of the APEC Cooperation Initiative for the Joint Establishment of an Asia-Pacific Urbanization Association (Ministerial Declaration of 2015). It also contributes to the implementation of the 2016 Ningbo Initiative, by favoring the construction of smart cities, the development of green cities, urban regeneration and retro-adaptation and innovative urban development. As a final point, it favors greater economic participation of women (Leaders Declaration of 2017) and as it is stated in the Action Agenda Advancing Economic, Financial and Social Inclusion in the APEC Region, empowering all members of society to take advantage of global opportunities.  The project seeks to contribute to the APEC Leader’s Growth Strategy to achieve economic prosperity, protect the environment and prevent pollution, which are all part of sustainable development. Circular economy seeks sustainable development throughout different strategies, which involve: innovation and design of products and services, global value/supply chains, green supply economic and social inclusion, participation of SMEs, as well as their entry into regional and global markets, and clean energy. The main purpose is to achieve the circularity in the processes, allowing the production and sustainable consumption.  The development of regional circular economy, will have an adjustment of traditional industrial structure, increase research and development of environmentally sound technologies, and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of the region. This new paradigm represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits. All these actions are part of the achievement of the Bogor Goals as a whole and are part of the current works of the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) Agenda. All these actions are part of the achievement of the Bogor Goals as a whole and are part of the current works of the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) Agenda such as, but are not limited to: Guidebook for Development of Sustainable Cities, APEC Cooperation Network on Green Supply Chain, APEC Strategic Blueprint for Promoting, Global Value Chains (GVCs) Development and Cooperation (GVCs Blueprint), APEC Global Value Chain Partnership Platform and the economic inclusion agenda. TILF/ASF Justification Beneficiaries and Outputs 1) Two day Workshop: This will provide the following benefits for the participants: a) Presentation by experts of Circular Economy Concepts and examples for Post-Consumption Waste b) Best practices regarding Models for Collection Systems (ECOCE Model of Mexico) c) Examples of SMEs that developed capabilities for collection and recycling of PET with inclusion and diversity aspects. d) Field visit (self-funded) to Recycling Facilities (Bottle to Bottle). 2)  Collection System - Road Map a) The participants will be provided with a draft “Road Map/ Check list for a Collection System implementation as a tool for the economies to follow up and report progress and update”. The Road Map will also be discussed at CTI. i)    The roadmap will play the following role before, during and after the Workshop: ii)    Before the Workshop: The participants will use the Roadmap as a checklist that will provide useful information about their current collection and recycling initiatives. ii)    During the Workshop: It will be use as guideline to identify gaps of current collection and recycling systems vs Circular Economy Approach and examples. -  After the Workshop: With the identified  gaps the roadmap will provide some recommendations about how to start a Circular Economy Project with all the aspects explained during the workshop (Collection Models, Recycling Initiatives, Development of SME´s and Gender Inclusion). 3)  Recommendations a) Documents with recommendations and success stories will be shared to the participants including presentations from the experts.   1)  Best Practices exchange on Circular Economy Models focused on maximizing resources utilization and efficiency in production; in collection and recycling of post consumption package; identify and create new opportunities for economic growth and boost innovation and competitiveness of APEC economies; 2)  Capacity Building on handling solid waste in APEC economies, in order to limit the environmental impacts due to the use of resources as well as to develop inclusive models to generate formal jobs; 3)  Recommendation made regarding a draft proposal for a Circular Economy with APEC economies. The direct beneficiaries would be the attendants to the workshop such as: experts in sustainable issues, stakeholders related to PET and recycling business, energy, human resources, women and vulnerable groups (i.e. low-income groups), policy makers from APEC economies working on sustainability policies and gender-perspective government plans, as well as decision-makers whose responsibilities include achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Women will be encouraged to participate in the workshop, as the model explores the possibility. Dissemination Gender · The invitation to the workshop will be sent following a gender perspective encouraging member economies to nominate both male and female experts to be involved in the planning, management, allocation of resources and implementation of the project. In this project, we will ensure representativeness of male and female at every stage of the project. The expected percentage of female participants and speakers is from 40-50%. To fulfill the commitment, as seen below in the work plan, there will be as mentioned in paragraph 9, metrics to measure the gender inclusion perspective, these will consist of: number of formal jobs created for women on collecting and recycling PET; number of women with access to social security as result of working within the PET supply chain; number of women-led SMEs on the Circular Economy field. We will monitor the participation of women to ensure there are no significant gender disparities in all the areas. · To highlight the close relationship between gender and circular economy and identify how APEC can efficiently raise public awareness on gender perspectives in policy formulation, a special session will take place in the workshop to share experiences of SMEs led by women The cases identified in Mexico’s experience can benefit participants, mostly female, on how to: · Turn an informal activity into a formal one with all the benefits attached to it (social security, formal jobs, taxes) ·  Identify the most efficient manner to gather women currently working in collection of residues and develop a formal enterprise ·   Build a flexible work environment that allows them to work and take care of their children · Engage other stakeholders from the business sector and the government in order to ensure financial support and a steady demand  Mexico’s experience shows that after the implementation of a circular economy model, new market opportunities arise for MSMES led by women, either as creating formal gathering enterprises, or through business that offer final products, either for small consumers or retailers, made from recycled materials. In Mexico’s experience, which the goal is to replicate, there are MSMES offering textile, clothing and apparel, gifts, toys, etc.  Currently, the SMEs led by women and developed after the implementation of a circular economy in Mexico, not only are formally employed in the collection systems, but have also been assisted into developing additional skills that have allowed them to transform the materials collected (mostly aluminum and PET) and transform it into new products that are being exported to the U.S. and Europe. Therefore, this case illustrates that it is possible to move on from a model where a woman is working in dangerous conditions to a situation where she has a formal job, working around side other women and adding value to products that were once residues and now are export material. Work Plan to a recycling facility, where they will meet success stories of inclusive recycling models. The recommendations from experts and participants will help drafting a proposal that will include the main learnings from the workshop and a specific set of actions on how to work out a Circular Economy framework within APEC. Timeline:  April-May Definition of program, schedule and proposal of experts, speakers and participants. Project proposal August Setting final program. Invitation of experts, speakers and participants; confirmation of participants and speakers. September Preparation of workshop materials. Expected outputs are (a) program, (b) list of speakers and experts, (c) list of participants, (d) invitation, (e) recommendations to elaborate a Circular Economy Framework. October Workshop Field visit (self-funded). Recommendations and best-practices for Circular Economy Models, which will serve as the foundation for a transversal framework (see below) and a road map on how to implement a collection system. Circular Economy is a broader concept that goes from the design of the product all the way to post-consumption collection actions, therefore this Framework will intend to offer direction to APEC economies that are currently dealing with management of solid waste. As part of the results of the workshop, Mexico will gather the main outcomes, recommendations and best practices offered during the two days of discussions and presentations, and present them at the proper APEC for a as a draft proposal for a Circular Economy Transversal Framework. Therefore, considering that the Framework proposal will touch upon each link in the solid waste management chain, it can serve as a starting point for economies wishing to develop a Circular Economy model from scratch, or just using the areas where they can see an improvement upon what they already have in place. The final goal of the Framework is to provide sustainability to APEC economies in their handling of solid waste.  Program (draft) Day 1 Day 2 - Circular Economy Models - Visit to recycling plant: Presentation of best practices for a recycling model - Return to workshop to develop conclusions and draft for transversal framework Within two months of the conclusion of the Workshop, event organizers will work on the drafting, endorsement and submission of the Completion Report and all supporting documents to the Secretariat. Six to twelve months after project end date, organizers will participate in the Long Term Evaluation of APEC Projects conducted by the Secretariat, as required for all APEC funded projects. There are few liabilities related to the organization of the workshop as such. In order to guarantee an efficient work during the two days, the organizing committee will work to ensure having the adequate experts as speakers sharing their insight and knowledge. Additionally, in order to assure this information will contribute to the region’s development, a special focus will be placed upon the selection of attendees, prioritizing the economies’ needs in terms of solid waste management.  The Project Overseer will work with the co-sponsoring economies to get recommendations of potential speakers to reduce the risk of last minute speaker’s cancellations. That risk will be managed by identifying possible back-up speakers in advance of the event.  The CTI representatives will be the focal point to nominate participants who will attend the Workshop. To assure the workshop will attract targeted participants, invitation will also be sent to other fora involved in the topic such as: EWG, HRDWG, OFWG, PPWE, SMEWG, PPSTI. The indicators to assess the impact will be divided into two groups. The first one is related to Circular Economy and includes: metric tons PET collected and recycled; PET collected and recycled by each economy as a percentage of its global apparent consumption of PET and reduction of CO2 emissions; number of SMEs that collect and recycle and; number of collecting and recycling initiatives (start-ups) receiving financing by governments and; growth of “social collection” initiatives, which include those efforts aimed at developing environmental education, for example collection in schools, small-populations, etc. On the second set, there will be metrics to measure the gender inclusion perspective, these will consist of: number of formal jobs created for women on collecting and recycling PET; number of women with access to social security as result of working within the PET supply chain; number of women-led SMEs on the Circular Economy field.  In order to collect these indicators, as part of the draft proposal for a Circular Economy Framework that Mexico will summit to CTI, a section for monitoring and evaluation will be included, with a survey for each of these two groups prior to the workshop. The first survey for APEC economies will be used to determine the current status of APEC economies on their handling of solid waste. The survey will ask them to provide information on the criteria of the first group described above: (1) metric tons of PET collected and recycled, (2) PET collected and recycled by each economy as percentage of its global apparent consumption of PET and reduction of CO2 emissions, (3) number of SMEs that collect and recycle, (4) number of collecting and recycling initiatives (start-ups) receiving financing by governments and (5) annual growth of “social collection” initiatives. These four indicators will provide a starting point to determine if the APEC economy improved its management of solid waste after the workshop, in case it had decided to employ the Framework. The second survey for APEC economies will be used to determine the social impact of the Framework and will ask them to give information on: (1) number of formal jobs, existing at the moment, for women collecting and recycling PET, (2) number of women with access to social security as result of working within the PET supply chain and (3) number of women-led SMEs on the Circular Economy field. These indicators will serve as the starting point to evaluate impact.  Regarding the effectiveness of the workshop with the participants, two questionnaires will be applied. The first one will be distributed among the participants on the final day in order to determine if: a)  The knowledge about Circular Economy Models and their benefits are better understood b)  The speakers’ knowledge and presentations met the participants’ expectations. c)   The roadmap and Mexico’s experience will be useful for them into implementing a Circular Economy Model d)  The recommendations on how to implement a Circular Economy Model were useful e)  There is clarity on which are the next steps necessaries towards achieving an efficient circular economy model  With the objective to determine the success of the workshop, a second questionnaire will be send to participants three months after the workshop. This second questionnaire will serve to identify: a)  The information received in the workshop has been shared with other stakeholders within the economies b)  The roadmap and recommendations are useful according to the economy’s reality c)  The main problems to follow-up with the next steps  The project seeks to promote cross fora collaboration with CTI and ECOTECH working groups. The activities which will be carried out in this project are aligned with Mexico’s top priorities for sustainable smart cities and the proposal doesn´t duplicate the work related with other projects. The project will seek to collaborate with the EWG, HRDWG, OFWG, PPWE, SMEWG and PPSTI through sharing the outcomes. Collaboration with related CTI initiatives will also be sought including with the APEC Green Supply Chain Cooperation Network, and Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) to gain synergies among the initiatives. Specifically, this effort serves as guide and reference for future work on recycling and managing of waste. The impact expected after the APEC funding includes changes in policy, in order to share responsibility concepts and incentives for increasing the collection and recycling of post-consumption waste. The Framework proposal Mexico will present will include each of the links and steps APEC economies must oversee in order to set up a Circular Economy model. This document will provide the main support action for the economies since it will offer guidance through the process. The indicators included in the evaluation sector will serve the APEC economy to measure its progress. Additionally, it is expected that this will result in collection systems, value chain development, development of new business, mostly entrepreneurs as part of the collection and recycling systems, an Increase the installed capacity of the recycling Industry. Finally, environmental and social benefits, such as: Increase the domestic rates of collection, recycling and declining of plastic leakage to oceans and water basins, and job creation. The beneficiaries will be supported with the following: 1)  They will have direct contact and details from experts so they can explore to install and implement elements of Circular Economy with guidance from the experts. 2) The economies and stakeholders will also have the Road Map for implementation. A Checklist will be circulated for agreement to CTI, in order to have it as part of the follow up and commitment every delegate from the APEC economies will report progress and update. 1) Changes in Policy: The purpose is to reflect in current policy the Circular Economy Models, Shared Responsibilities concepts and incentives for increasing the collection and recycling of post-consumption waste. 2)  Progress in Circular Economy Models for Waste Management a) Collection Systems: The possibility to replicate Collection Systems at local level. b) Value chain development: Development of new business, entrepreneurs as part of the collection and recycling systems. c)  Recycling Industry: Increase the installed capacity d) Environmental Benefits: Increase domestic rates of collection, recycling and declining of plastic leakage to oceans and water basins. Ms. Vannessa Tena / Mrs. Graciela Narcia / Mr. Omar Mérida APEC Coordinator / CTI Representative / stakeholder representative Organization: Ministry of Economy / Coca-Cola FEMSA Postal address: Paseo de la Reforma 296, Col. Juarez, Del. Cuauhtemoc, Mexico City Tel: +5255 5729 9100 E-mail:   [email protected] /[email protected] Version: 3.0  Created at 30/07/2018 15:49  by Lucy Phua  Last modified at 05/02/2020 13:53  by Lucy Phua  Content Type: Standard Proposal Version: Created at by Last modified at by All Rights Reserved © 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Singapore. Developed with the assistance of Microsoft. Help & FAQ Biocatalysis for industry, medicine and the circular economy: general discussion Abdulrahman Alogaidi, Fraser Armstrong, Amulyasai Bakshi, Uwe T. Bornscheuer, Gareth Brown, Isabelle Bruton, Dominic J. Campopiano, Daniel Dourado, Friedrich johannes Ehinger, Sabine Flitsch, Artur Góra, Anthony p. Green, Donald Hilvert, Sumire Honda, Meilan Huang, Rhiannon E. H. Jones, Thomas King, Bruce R. Lichtenstein , Michal Lihan, Louis Y. P. Luk Tara C. Lurshay, Stefan Lutz, Neil G. Marsh, Alexander Mckenzie, Ben Orton, Joelle N. Pelletier, Agata Raczyńska, Lubomír Rulíšek, Peter Stockinger, Per-Olof Syrén, Nicholas Turner, Francesca Valetti, Marc Van der kamp, Lu shin Wong Show 14 more Show less School of the Environment and Life Sciences Research output : Contribution to journal › Comment/debate Original language English Journal DOIs Publication status Early online - 23 Aug 2024 Access to Document 10.1039/D4FD90025A T1 - Biocatalysis for industry, medicine and the circular economy: general discussion AU - Alogaidi, Abdulrahman AU - Armstrong, Fraser AU - Bakshi, Amulyasai AU - Bornscheuer, Uwe T. AU - Brown, Gareth AU - Bruton, Isabelle AU - Campopiano, Dominic J. AU - Dourado, Daniel AU - Ehinger, Friedrich johannes AU - Flitsch, Sabine AU - Góra, Artur AU - Green, Anthony p. AU - Hilvert, Donald AU - Honda, Sumire AU - Huang, Meilan AU - Jones, Rhiannon E. H. AU - King, Thomas AU - Lichtenstein, Bruce R. AU - Lihan, Michal AU - Luk, Louis Y. P. AU - Lurshay, Tara C. AU - Lutz, Stefan AU - Marsh, Neil G. AU - Mckenzie, Alexander AU - Orton, Ben AU - Pelletier, Joelle N. AU - Raczyńska, Agata AU - Rulíšek, Lubomír AU - Stockinger, Peter AU - Syrén, Per-Olof AU - Turner, Nicholas AU - Valetti, Francesca AU - Van der kamp, Marc AU - Wong, Lu shin PY - 2024/8/23 Y1 - 2024/8/23 U2 - 10.1039/D4FD90025A DO - 10.1039/D4FD90025A M3 - Comment/debate SN - 1359-6640 JO - Faraday Discussions JF - Faraday Discussions Information Author Services Initiatives You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader. All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. 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Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI. JSmol Viewer Obsolete mining buildings and the circular economy on the example of a coal mine from poland—adaptation or demolition and building anew. 1. Introduction To conduct a comparative analysis (financial, environmental, and social) of two alternatives: demolition and construction of a new building and adaptation of an existing mining facility; To develop a decision-support model for handling obsolete mining facilities following the principles of a circular economy. 2. Analysis of the Research State on the Circular Economy in the Construction Sector 3. materials and methods, 3.1. characteristics of the research subject: brzeszcze-east hcm and the compressor and fan station, 3.2. methods. Research through design is material-based research, development work, and action research: practical laboratory experiments resulting in reports and step-by-step diaries clearly about what is being achieved and communicated through the design process [ 26 ]. In 2021, a comprehensive revitalisation concept for the post-mining area was designed [ 27 ]. This process included the following: a. Desk research: archival documents were analysed to understand the site’s history and determine geotechnical, hydrogeological, and planning conditions. b. Field surveys: These were conducted to inventory the infrastructure of the post-mining area (in 2008, 2011, 2020, and 2022). Existing buildings were inspected during these surveys, and photographic documentation was taken. c. Social research and discussion forums: conducted over ten years among residents, researchers, and local decision-makers. d. Design. The concept of adapting the mining complex into a circular economy hub was designed. The idea involves reusing buildings following the CE principle. e. Macroscopic inspection of the historical buildings selected for comparative analysis: these inspections assessed the technical condition and determined guidelines for construction work. Comparative analyses: Financial, social, and environmental impact. The analyses were used to compare two investment variants: (1) adaptation of historical buildings and (2) demolition and building of a similar new facility. 4. Results: Towards Circular Use of Post-Mining Facilities 4.1. from the decision on demolition to the initial assessment of adaptation possibilities, 4.2. social research and discussion forums, 4.3. the concept of adapting the mining complex into a circular economy hub, 4.4. assessment of the technical condition of the historic compressor and fan station, 4.5. the concept of adapting the compressor and fan station, 4.6. comparative financial, social, and environmental impact analysis. In the case of adaptation: based on the concept for the adaptation of the compressor and fan station; In the case of building anew: based on analysing individual material inputs. In the case of adaptation: based on the adaptation concept for the compressor and fan station; In the case of demolition and building anew: based on the project to demolish the compressor and fan station. 4.7. Adapt or Demolish and Build Anew? Decision-Making Model 5. discussion: scalability of waste utilization and reduction of natural resource consumption, 6. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest. Pikoń, K.; Bogacka, M.; Landrat, M.; Piecha-Sobota, K. Kompendium GOZ w Budownictwie (Guide to Circularity in Construction) ; PLGBC: Gliwice, Poland, 2024; Available online: https://circon.plgbc.org.pl/ (accessed on 25 August 2024). EuroGeoSurveys. Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda. 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Available online: www.globalabc.org (accessed on 26 April 2024). Click here to enlarge figure Technical Parameters * Description * Technical Condition ** Guidelines for Construction and Conservation Work ** Compressor and fan station with the following: workshop transformer station fan motor building Length: 49.60 m Width: 40.10 m Building area: 1,335.90 m Median height: 8.35 m Cubic capacity: 8,603 m The building is a single-story masonry building without a basement, and it is integrally connected to the compressor station building. The load-bearing system of the main hall consists of reinforced concrete frames. Inside the main hall are two ventilation chimneys, each with a diameter of 180 cm and wall thickness of 25 cm, along with compressors. These chimneys extend 3 m above the roof surface. The roof itself is covered with reinforced concrete slabs. Electrical devices and transformers are housed in the power station building. This building is divided into storage rooms and areas for equipment maintenance. Structural layout—average. Roofing—unsatisfactory. Suspended ceiling—poor. Workshop—unsatisfactory. The identified issues include scratches on masonry, loss of bricks and corrosion damage to masonry, roofing damage and cracks, destruction of the suspended ceiling, dampness in ceilings and walls, chipping of the plaster and paint, and scratches and cracks on the floor. Construction of new roofing. Drying the walls. Scuffing, replenishing, and repainting the chipped plaster. Removal of the suspended ceiling. Compressor station Length: 44.50 m Width: 10.00 m Building area: 525.20 m Average height: 8.7 m Cubic capacity: 4,806 m The second building is a single-story, basement-equipped masonry structure divided into two sections. The first section is a hall connected to the compressor and fan building. The second section is a steel hall located 0.8 m lower than the first and also features a basement equipped with a steel gate on the southern wall. Social rooms for workers are situated between these two hall sections. The building is covered with reinforced concrete slabs and has a flat roof. There are two unloading ramps on the southern wall. There is a steel crane inside the building for transporting equipment and materials. Each hall within this building contains a compressor with an engine. Central structural system—average. Roofing—unsatisfactory. The steel hall of the compressor building is good. Roofing of the steel hall—good. Construction of new roofing. Drying out the walls. Scuffing, replenishing, and repainting the chipped plaster. Comprehensive renovation of the workshops. Itemisation Adaptive Reuse Demolition and Building Anew Projects, concepts, expertise EUR 116,755 EUR 155,474 Demolition n.a. EUR 970,076 Waste storage EUR 1377 EUR 34,205 Adaptation (protecting, renovating) EUR 1,532,841 n.a. Construction n.a. EUR 1,917,340 Furnishings EUR 107,382 EUR 152,832 Total EUR 1,758,355 EUR 3,229,827 Concrete 426 m 2,211 m Reinforcing steel 36.45 Mg 235.25 Mg Steel profiles 9.16 Mg 14 Mg Steel plate 2350 kg 2350 kg Brick 0 pieces 602,100 pieces Brick rubble and stone (17 01 07) - 1773.65 Mg Brick rubble (17 01 02) 27.5 Mg - Concrete rubble (17 01 01) 200.12 Mg 5164.16 Mg Bituminous covering (17 01 82) 77.34 Mg 347.79 Mg Other waste (17 01 82) 5.8 Mg 398.7 Mg Steel waste - 17.3 Mg emission (coming from the production of concrete, steel, and brick) Cultural heritage Health and safety ** Employment *** Working conditions *** Education *** Demography *** Implementation time for new functions *** Two years Three years Town and region attractiveness *** The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. Share and Cite Ostręga, A.; Szewczyk-Świątek, A.; Cała, M.; Dybeł, P. Obsolete Mining Buildings and the Circular Economy on the Example of a Coal Mine from Poland—Adaptation or Demolition and Building Anew? Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7493. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177493 Ostręga A, Szewczyk-Świątek A, Cała M, Dybeł P. Obsolete Mining Buildings and the Circular Economy on the Example of a Coal Mine from Poland—Adaptation or Demolition and Building Anew? Sustainability . 2024; 16(17):7493. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177493 Ostręga, Anna, Anna Szewczyk-Świątek, Marek Cała, and Piotr Dybeł. 2024. "Obsolete Mining Buildings and the Circular Economy on the Example of a Coal Mine from Poland—Adaptation or Demolition and Building Anew?" Sustainability 16, no. 17: 7493. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177493 Article Metrics Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi. Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals Research/Study Research/Study Right-wing media spread misinformation about Harris campaign tax proposal that would impact only the wealthiest Americans Harris proposed an unrealized capital gains tax provision that would impact only certain American households worth more than $100 million Written by Pete Tsipis & Reed McMaster Published 08/28/24 3:44 PM EDT During the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign told multiple outlets that she would support a provision — which was included in the Biden-Harris administration’s federal budget proposal — to tax unrealized capital gains of the ultrawealthy. The policy would affect only those with $100 million or more in tradable assets.  In response, right-wing media repeatedly and falsely claimed that the proposal would actually impact everyday Americans, retirees, and independent businesses and that it could severely damage the economy. Select a Section The harris campaign has signaled support for a tax on the ultra-wealthy, right-wing media are pushing misinformation about the policy and who it would affect, right-wing media demonized harris’ tax policies by calling them “wealth confiscation,” “communism,” and “full-scale socialism” and fearmongering that they would lead to economic turmoil like a stock market crash. The Biden administration proposed, and Harris said she would support, at least a 25% income tax on certain people with over $100 million in assets that include unrealized capital gains. Harris reiterated her support for a provision included in the administration's proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which would apply only to wealth held by high-net-worth households. Unrealized capital gains are increases in the value of an asset that has not yet been sold, like a company, stock, or property. Currently, unrealized gains are not taxed. [Axios, 8/23/24 ; Investopedia, 6/9/24 ] The proposed tax on unrealized gains would apply only to those who have 80% of their $100 million-plus wealth in tradable assets (i.e. stocks). Axios’ Dan Primack wrote, “Within that $100 million club, you'd only pay taxes on unrealized capital gains if at least 80% of your wealth is in tradeable assets (i.e., not shares of private startups or real estate). One caveat for this illiquid group is that there would be a deferred tax of up to 10% on unrealized capital gains upon exit.” [Axios, 8/23/24 ]   Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro claimed that a 25% tax on unrealized capital gains would bankrupt “half the companies in existence.” Shapiro called the policy proposal “psychotic” and “insane,” but he failed to mention that the policy would apply only to those worth more than $100 million with 80% in tradable assets. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show , 8/21/24 ; Media Matters, 8/21/24 ] Fox host Sean Hannity falsely claimed on his radio show that anyone with a 401(k) would have to pay new taxes on unrealized capital gains. He argued, “if you think inflation is bad, that's inflation in perpetuity. ‘Oh, but we're not gonna tax people that make under $400,000 a year.’ Well, apparently, if you have a 401(k) or retirement account of any kind, guess what? You're gonna pay taxes on unrealized capital gains. … She wants to raise the capital gains tax to an enormous rate.” (Someone making $400,000 is earning 250 times less than the tax threshold for this unrealized capital gains provision.) [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show , 8/23/24 ] Fox Business host Dagen McDowell said the proposed tax on unrealized gains would involve “punishing business creation” and falsely claimed it would “starve startups” even though it wouldn’t apply to shares of privately owned startups. She added, “They don’t like anything they are not in control of. They are politicians, and so if they can’t control you, they will destroy you.” [Fox Business, The Big Money Show , 8/22/24 ] Fox host Jesse Watters suggested the unrealized capital gains tax would affect all stock portfolios, when it would actually impact only the portfolios of hundred-millionaires. He stated, “Kamala did kind of play footsie with a new policy today. She said she wants to raise taxes. She said she wants to raise capital gains taxes. And then she says she wants a wealth tax. She wants to tax unrealized gains, which means if your portfolio goes up, and you don’t sell, you just hold it, she wants to tax that.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime , 8/20/24 ] Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo claimed taxing unrealized capital gains at 25% would trickle down and impact the middle class. She stated, “You’ve got to zero-in on some of these taxes that Kamala Harris is backing. Like 44.6% capital gains tax. I mean, what is that going to do to the economy and the markets, you know? Or a 25% tax on unrealized gains. And of course, taking the corporate tax rate up to 28%. You know, she talks about cutting taxes for the middle class, but all of this trickles down. And when you’re talking about a 25% tax on unrealized gains, people need to understand what that means. That's not just about the stock market.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria , 8/23/24 ] Hannity falsely claimed that any American with a retirement plan would have to pay new taxes on unrealized capital gains. He stated, “Look at the tax policy tonight. … If you have a 401(k), if you have a retirement plan of any kind, and you have unrealized capital gains, they will tax those, and they’re not going to ask if you’re making $400,000 a year. Now, reality check, most Americans that work for a living, that don’t make anywhere near $400,000 a year, that means they’re going to get taxed.” Hannity seems to be confusing or conflating standard taxes with Harris' new proposal, which would affect only extremely wealthy households. [Fox News, Hannity , 8/22/24 ; Investopedia, 8/20/24 ] Fox host Greg Gutfeld repeatedly called the taxation of unrealized gains code for “theft” and fearmongered about the policy being turned on poor people, even though the policy is targeted at the rich. He ranted, “So a tax on unrealized gains is taxing money you don't have. And it goes right to the government. So to sell a corrupt, immoral idea, you've got to call it something else, so you call it — instead of ‘theft,’ it’s ‘unrealized gains.’ … So an unrealized gain is the house that your parents live in. … If it does gain in value, 25 to 50% of that increase goes to the IRS every year.” He continued. “They’re gonna say, ‘But we're only going to do this to really rich people,’ but as you know sooner or later, we run out of really rich people, then it’s rich people, then it’s not so rich people, then it’s poor people.” [Fox News, The Five , 8/21/24 ] Newsmax host Bob Sellers claimed that the tax proposal would only initially target the ultra-rich before being used to go after real estate. He claimed, “Now, it isn't necessarily going to affect you or me. They're talking about the ultimate – the ultra-rich. Yeah. That's what they're saying now. But once they get that concept through, they'll start looking more and more. And say, ‘Well, you know, you haven't sold your house. It's worth an awful lot. There's a lot of wealth in there.’ And I'm not saying that's what they're going to do. But once you take that step, it's a slippery slope.” [Newsmax, The Record with Greta Van Susteren , 8/22/24 ]   Fox Business host Stuart Varney called Harris’ tax proposals “full-scale socialism.” He stated, “I say she has been listening to Bernie Sanders, who last night delivered a full-throated roar for socialism. All of the above that you just mentioned, which is now Kamala Harris’ policy, that’s exactly what Bernie Sanders wants. You’ve got a drift here to full-scale socialism.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria , 8/21/24 ] Hannity attacked Kamala’s tax policies, arguing they’re basically “wealth confiscation.” He claimed, “She wants to tax small business. She wants to tax corporations. She wants to put a tax pretty much on anything. She wants a wealth tax. She is open to a 70 to 80% top marginal tax rate. She wants to tax capital gains. She wants to tax unrealized capital gains. She wants to raise the estate tax. Well, basically, it's wealth confiscation, but she's gonna need every penny of it, and it still won't be enough if she wants her $93 trillion Green New Deal ever passed.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show , 8/19/24 ] Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called the proposal “communist” and said the tax on capital gains “is a recipe for a stock market crash.” He stated, “This is communist. … Taxing unrealized gains would force investors to sell off assets to cover their tax bills, hurting long term investments and economic growth. This is a recipe for a stock market crash.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show , 8/21/24 ]  Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy claimed the policy is part of “a formula for Great Depression.” He stated, “Lay out Kamala in her own words, including in her presidential campaign, what she stood for, single payer health care all the way to taxes on unrealized capital gains, it’s a formula for Great Depression. Yes, remind the American voters of that.” [Fox News, Hannity , 8/19/24 ] 450 IMAGES Co-management and circular economy. Proposal for the Integration of Proposed application of the circular economy in the textile industry (PDF) Model of the circular economy and its application in business (PDF) Healthcare Environmental Footprint: Proposal to Deliver (PDF) CIRCULAR ECONOMY PROPOSAL BASED ON ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION SOLUTION: Development of a circular economy and evolution of VIDEO Circular economy: facts and figures Reset India Cisco’s Commitment to the Circular Economy Introduction to Circular Economy Circular Economy RTE PROPOSAL 2023-24 COMMENTS Evolution of research on circular economy and related trends and topics Change in leading role on Circular Economy research from China to European Union. Abstract. Environmental concern has been on the rise in recent years and a proposal for a circular economy (CE) as a tool for sustainable development has received attention from governments, practitioners, and academics. In this sense, the literature on the topic ... Circularity in waste management: a research proposal to achieve the Waste management is the main challenge in the transition away from the linear "take-make-dispose" economy. Incorporating the principles of circularity in waste management would facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. This paper aims to provide state-of-the-art research about circular waste management in the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda. For this purpose, bibliometric ... Circular economy research: A bibliometric analysis (2000-2019) and 1. Introduction. The concept of a circular economy (CE) has gained significant traction globally in the 21st century among different nations, organizations, policymakers, academic institutions, research scholars, and enterprises (Merli et al., 2018).It is increasingly being seen as a solution to ecological and socio-economic challenges resulting from increasing consumption of non-renewable ... Research for a plastics circular economy: full proposal stage 24 January 2023 4:00pm UK time. Apply for funding for interdisciplinary research to support a more sustainable overall plastics system and help the UK move towards a circular plastics economy. You may only submit a full proposal if you have been invited by EPSRC after submitting a successful application at the outline stage. Circularity in waste management: a research proposal to achieve the This paper aims to provide state-of-the-art research about circular waste management in the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda. For this purpose, bibliometric analysis by VOSviewer and SciMat software ... Circular economy: A brief literature review (2015-2020) 1. Introduction. Circular Economy (CE) emerged in the 1970s from the idea of reducing the consumption of inputs for industrial production, but it proves to be potentially applicable to any resource [23].Through the possibility of making human activity more resilient, using the natural cycle model, CE proposes a change in the "extraction-production-disposal" paradigm of linear economy (LE ... Waste2Wealth the process is called the circular economy. The circular economy is a new economic model in. which materials and value circulate and added value is generated by services and smart. operations ... (PDF) Circular Economy Mainstream: an Analysis of Master ... Circular Economy, Sustainable Development and Triple Bo om Line. Organizações em contexto, São Bernardo do Campo, ISSNe 1982-8756 • Vol. 17, n. 34, jul.-dez. 2021 438 The circular economy and Industry 4.0: synergies and challenges The proposal is to answer the following question: based on previous studies, which are the new paths and challenges related to the circular economy (CE) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0)? To answer this question, the research objective is to analyze studies approaching the interface between CE and I4.0. A proposal to measure the circular economy implementation and Research Article. A proposal to measure the circular economy implementation and sustainable development goals achievement using objectively weighted indices. ... Governments, companies and citizens around the world consider necessary to adopt a new circular economy (CE) model that allows solving the planet's environmental challenges and ... Artificial intelligence in support of the circular economy: ethical The world's current model for economic development is unsustainable. It encourages high levels of resource extraction, consumption, and waste that undermine positive environmental outcomes. Transitioning to a circular economy (CE) model of development has been proposed as a sustainable alternative. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a crucial enabler for CE. It can aid in designing robust and ... Relationships between industry 4.0, sustainable manufacturing and In the second stage, a research framework is proposed to integrate Industry 4.0 technology (big data analytics powered artificial intelligence) adoption, sustainable manufacturing and circular economy capabilities.,This research extends the knowledge base by providing a detailed review of Industry 4.0, sustainable manufacturing, and circular ... The circular economy e circular economy: Preserve and enhance natural capital by controlling finite stocks and balancing the flow of. enewable resources. Optimize resource yields by circulating products, components, and materials in use at the highest possible. els at all times. Make the system more effective by eliminating ne. Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual framework and Circular economy (CE) initiatives are taking hold across both developed and developing nations. Central to these initiatives is the reconfiguration of core supply chain management (SCM) processes that underlie current production and consumption patterns. ... Finally, the paper presents a series of research proposals meant to encourage SCM ... Principles for a sustainable circular economy In both sustainable development and circular economy research, the urgency of the issues under investigation often push the analyses of phenomena towards the solving of problems even before phenomena are fully understood. Under such circumstances it is important to take a precautionary approach (Komiyama and Takeuchi, 2006; Sala et al., 2015). The appeal of the circular economy revisited: on track for The proposal of an economy that is circular and without the need for material or energy input has an irresistible appeal to those who recognize the precautionary concept of planetary boundaries ... An Example Sample Project Proposal on "Circular Economy Initiatives for The purpose of this project proposal is to outline a comprehensive plan for implementing circular economy initiatives to promote sustainable development. Circular economy aims to minimize waste generation, maximize resource efficiency, and create a regenerative economic system. By adopting circular practices, we can reduce environmental impacts, enhance resource productivity, and drive ... (PDF) Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual Purpose -Circular economy (CE) initiatives are taking hold across both developed and developing nations. Central to these initiatives is the reconfiguration of core supply chain management (SCM ... Circularity in waste management: a research proposal to achieve the Abstract. Waste management is the main challenge in the transition away from the linear "take-make-dispose" economy. Incorporating the principles of circularity in waste management would facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. This paper aims to provide state-of-the-art research about circular waste management in the ... A framework for a responsible circular economy A framework for a responsible circular economy. The move towards a Circular Economy (CE) from the perspective of a 'just transition' necessitates an approach which deems stakeholder knowledge and agency as central. Under this paradigm the transition to a CE is conceived not as a technocratic challenge, but as a process of socioeconomic ... Proposals The development of regional circular economy, will have an adjustment of traditional industrial structure, increase research and development of environmentally sound technologies, and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of the region. ... In order to collect these indicators, as part of the draft proposal for a Circular Economy Framework ... Biocatalysis for industry, medicine and the circular economy: general Alogaidi A, Armstrong F, Bakshi A, Bornscheuer UT, Brown G, Bruton I et al. Biocatalysis for industry, medicine and the circular economy: general discussion. Faraday Discussions . 2024 Aug 23. Epub 2024 Aug 23. doi: 10.1039/D4FD90025A Obsolete Mining Buildings and the Circular Economy on the Example of a The literature demonstrates that the circular economy in the construction sector is a significant research topic. We will focus on the financial, environmental, and social aspects of adaptive reuse versus demolishing and building anew, which are considered significant benefits of the CE [ 7 ]. Sustainable performance of circular supply chains: A ... In this paper, through a literature review, we seek to understand the measurement of the sustainable dimensions in the performance of the circular supply chains. This research is part of a thesis work, which aims to study sustainable performance in circular supply chains, grouping economic, management and industrial engineering aspects. Previous. PREP Research Associate The first project is the Decision Science for a Circular Economy: Evaluating Consumers Preferences for Recycled Products Using Mass Balance Accounting Project. ... The research question is to evaluate the impact of improved GHG measurement, focusing on benefits quantification of emissions data and measurements for stakeholders and how emissions ... Supply Chain Management and the Circular Economy: towards the Circular circular economy principl es within supply chain management. Our propositions are based on. the following arguments: a) a shift from product ownership to leasing and access in supply. chain ... Right-wing media spread misinformation about Harris campaign tax Research/Study Right-wing media spread misinformation about Harris campaign tax proposal that would impact only the wealthiest Americans. Harris proposed an unrealized capital gains tax provision ... essay homework paper phd review speech study thesis