Guest editorial

The shift to a circular economy: separating hype from reality

This special issue unravels the onset of a new economic paradigm, moving away from unsustainable “take-make-dispose” to a “take-make-reuse/return/recycle” approach. The traditional linear approach was useful for economic growth but has led to high levels of waste and decreased the capacity of ecosystems and disrupted the anthropogenic activities. The circular economy (CE) approach, however, is regenerative and restorative by design where inputs and materials are kept in economic cycles for longer at their highest value. CE is fast becoming an important agenda for technological, organisational and social innovation as it offers many opportunities, and will enable the world’s societies and economies to become more sustainable. This special issue has served as a platform for researchers to share their CE-related studies with fellow researchers, practitioners and policymakers surrounding debates and ideas around topics such as servitisation, remanufacturing and closed-loop recycling practices, socio-economic and environmental, and waste to energy conversion. This special issue begins with a systematic review paper on supply chain circularity, then the empirical papers are aligned in the order of sectors: manufacturing; electronics and food.

The first paper entitled “How does servitisation affect supply chain circularity? - A systematic literature review” provides a review of a large number of papers and links servitisation and CE by synthesising the effect of product-service systems (PSS) on supply chain circularity (SCC), where the former increases the product longevity. The authors develop and present a conceptual model illustrating how PSS business models impact SCC through increased product longevity, closure of resource loops and resource efficiency.

The second paper entitled “Understanding Barriers of Circular Economy: Cases from the Manufacturing Industry” reveals that despite progress there are still significant barriers in achieving circularity and profit from such initiatives. The dominant barriers in manufacturing sector are identified and it was found that recycling and waste reduction policies have very little impact. Many barriers exist such as start-up cost, complexity in supply chains, business-to-business cooperation. Moreover, there was a lack of information on product design and production, lack of technical skills, lack of quality compromise and the challenges in disassembling products. The study highlights that these barriers need to be overcome to facilitate CE.

The third paper entitled “Economic consequences of consumer repair strategies for electrical household devices” investigates how consumer’s repair strategy impacts the annual costs of ownership of a washing machine and two types of vacuum cleaner. It quantifies the influence of consumer behaviour on the ownership costs of these devices. They calculate the annual cost of ownership is determined by calculating the annual life cycle cost for the respective devices. The study highlights that repairing devices is a more favourable option over replacement.

The fourth paper entitled “Collaboration in a circular economy: learning from the farmers to reduce food waste” investigates the relationships between collaborative supply chain from CE perspective. It explores how farmers manage stakeholder relationship in the supply chain to reduce food waste. Farmers adopt collaborative relationships to manage exchange of food waste and to share knowledge of waste management practices. It was found that geographic proximity is important CE, although its importance is determined by physical or non-physical exchange.

The penultimate paper entitled “Minimizing losses at red meat supply chain with circular and central slaughterhouse model” provides an account of how improvement can be achieved in red meat sector using CE concept. The aim was to predict the number of slaughtered cattle and the amount of bone and blood waste in the slaughtering process. It became apparent that despite a drop, there are still significant losses in the Turkish red meat sector. It demonstrates the potential of using CE to bring social, economic and environmental benefits for the red meat sector in Turkey.

The final paper entitled “Waste to Energy and Circular Economy: The Case of Anaerobic Digestion” highlights the innovative use of technology to enhance circularity in by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), where anaerobic digestion converting food waste into useful matter is discussed by authors. It investigates how biological waste materials can be used for generating the much-needed energy and obtaining nutrient-rich compost for agriculture. The paper reveals how the use of waste by SMEs would lead to environmental benefits as well as clean energy generation.

All the research studies discussed in this special issue demonstrates a widespread awareness and application of CE principles in different industries. There is growing evidence of the use of CE-related practices as a viable solution and an alternative paradigm to the de facto linear approach.