A Circular Economy: Where Will It Take Us?

Abstract

The avalanche of environmental challenges, from local to global and back, has prompted responses at all levels from personal to inter-governmental. The results of these responses have fallen in the range between useful and counterproductive, with many examples on each side, but the scale of the overall challenge continues to escalate. Moving towards a zero-carbon global economy through absolute reductions in fossil fuel usage is a sure way of mitigating climate change, and a range of environmental, social and economic benefits would follow. The case for a Circular Economy (CE), however, is less clear. Whilst some CE initiatives may lead to the decoupling of economic growth from resource extraction, this does not necessarily equate to reducing the rate of extraction. Thus, the contribution of CE to the achievement of environmental objectives globally cannot be taken for granted. In terms of social impact, the best that can be said is that CE might be neutral. Technologies that promote the ‘sharing economy’ for instance, often suggested as a crucial CE strategy, create opportunities for individual wealth accumulation, but are also a route to the gig economy and the casualisation of labour. CE is arguably a business imperative, but definitive evidence to support the idea of a circular economy that meets social and environmental goals needs development.

Critiques of the circular economy

“…The circular economy is presented as the practical solution to the sustainability challenge, but it underestimates the challenge (Müller‐Christ, 2011; Murray et al., 2017). For example, it revolves around a relatively small fraction of materials in the global throughput (Åkerman et al., 2020), the short‐term and long‐term environmental impacts remain unknown when designing reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling projects (Korhonen et al., 2018a), it is uncertain on what level circular products can actually substitute for conventional linear products (Hart & Pomponi, 2021; Zink & Geyer, 2017), and whether circular business models can deliver sustainable value needs to be assessed on a case by case basis through a systematic approach taking into account all stakeholders (Manninen et al., 2018). This is problematic because the environmental benefit of the circular economy rests largely on this premise.…”

A Critical Appraisal of Review Studies in Circular Economy: a Tertiary Study

“…CE business models are based on closed production systems where resources are kept being used for a longer period [29]. CE is an economic strategy with environmental benefits [30], which focuses on slowing closing, narrowing, and regenerating resource loops to address problems whose impacts have been provoked by humankind: climate change, biodiversity, and resource strains [27,31]. CE aims to care and preserve the environment by implementing sustainable strategies in the economy and our society [32].…”

“…Reference Period cover # of primary studies [1] [109] 2003-2019 [2] [65] 2001-2020 [3] [110] 2009-2019 [4] [111] 2009-2018 [5] [112] 2011-2019 [6] [113] 2013-2017 [7] [71] -- [8] [51] - [9] [114] 2011-2018 [10] [115] 2013-2019 [11] [116] 2015-2019 [12] [117] 2001-2019 - [13] [118] 1995-2017 [14] [119] - [15] [120] 2013-2017 - [16] [121] 2013-2017 [17] [122] 2000-2016 [18] [123] 2000-2018 [19] [124] 1992-2017 [20] [125] 2000-2015 [21] [126] 1987-2015 [22] [127] 1995-2014 [23] [128] 1997-2013 [24] [129] 1984-2012 [25] [130] 1990-2011 [26] [131] 1997-2012 [27] [132] 2000-2010 [28] [133] 1994-2009 [29] [134] 2011-2015 - [30] [135] 2006-2016 [31] [136] 1985-2015 [32] [137] 2004-2018 [33] [138] 2005-2018 [34] [139] 2015-2019 [35] [26] 2009-2018 [36] [85] 1999-2019…”

Sustainable Waste Management Through Systems Engineering Models and Remote Sensing Approaches

“…This is also advocated in a circular economy for long-term sustainability (e.g., [17,121,166]. Since, the definitive objective of a sustainable circular economy is global reductions in resource use and waste production [54,61]. Essentially in a circular economy, which adopts the "make-use-reuse-remake-recycle" approach, long-term sustainability is ensured by maximum reuse and recycling of resources so that waste generation is reduced to a minimum [12,18,40].…”