Restorative measures to diminish the covid-19 pandemic effects through circular economy enablers for sustainable and resilient supply chain

Abstract

Purpose The catastrophic state of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has seized off all the operations along with the globe. It has not only distressed the socio-economic structure of the world but also mounted enormous pressure on the governmental bodies to save the lives of the people. Despite this, severe impacts of the same have been observed on the small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMME) practices, resulting in the economic downturn. The purpose of this study is to facilitate the SMME’s with circular economy (CE) practices to overcome the negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on their supply chain (SC) operations. Design/methodology/approach The presented work identified seven critical impacts as criteria of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on the Indian SMME and seeks to identify the relief measures in the CE paradigm by identifying 13 prominent enablers to CE as alternatives. Experts’ opinions have been engaged to detect CE enablers’ proficiency to overpower the pandemic impact through a questionnaire-based survey. The obtained data have been clustered and analyzed through a hybrid approach of entropy weight method and grey relational analysis to find an organized ranking of the enablers. Findings Current work spotlights the SMME’s losses due to SC disruptions and declined consumption patterns. The waste augmentation during the pandemic era has also been grouped in this study, primarily associating with the SC’s waste generation. The result of the performed analysis shows that the CE enabler “waste reduction and its transformation into a resource (E1)” have achieved the highest rank among all the considered enablers, governing a higher demand toward reusing waste for better handling the post COVID era state of affairs. Originality/value The presented study aimed to suppress the pandemic impact and generate anticipation of the CE concept, which might help the managers and policymakers identify its urgent need to achieve a stable and resilient SC system in a post COVID period. Presented work is peculiar, aiming to accelerate the CE adaption with green material usage in the industrial sector to suppress the present miserable condition and to achieve industrial and social sustainability for a better-foreseen future.

Circular Economy Research in the COVID-19 Era: a Review and the Road Ahead

“…Another CE case is the application of sustainable methods to reduce and treat medical waste as well as to purchase or recover materials locally [ 32 ]. Likewise, the necessity to protect, restore, and regenerate natural resources (e.g., energy, water, fossil fuels) has become more urgent due to food scarcity [ 33 , 34 ], supply breakdown of fast-moving consumer goods, and health complications that have occurred during the pandemic [ 35 ].…”

Sustaining circular economy practices in supply chains during a global disruption

“…The study’s results highlight knowledge training and data security as essential causal factors that influence other factors. Another study also investigated how CE practices could reduce the impacts of a global disruption (Agarwal et al ., 2022).…”

“…Similarly, Tseng et al (2022) highlighted the value of industry 4.0 and digitalization, while constructing a hierarchical circular supply chain (CSC) framework based on data-driven analysis comprising qualitative and quantitative information. Considering the importance of technologies for implementing CE, Gupta and Singh (2021) (Agarwal et al, 2022).…”

A systematic and critical review of waste management in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises: future directions for theory and practice

“…It is important that MSMEs create and enhance a culture of ongoing improvement to reduce waste that is beneficial in saving costs (Sahoo and Yadav 2018 ). Ultimately, WM should be adopted by MSMEs during and post the COVID-19 pandemic (Agarwal et al 2021 ).…”