The circular economy: New or Refurbished as CE 3.0? – Exploring Controversies in the Conceptualisation of the Circular Economy through a Focus on History and Resource Retention Options

The concept of the ‘circular economy’ (CE) is receiving growing attention on various levels, among them policy making, advocacy and consultancy, and science. Critical voices have questioned the potential ascribed to CE.... [ view full abstract ]

The concept of the ‘circular economy’ (CE) is receiving growing attention on various levels, among them policy making, advocacy and consultancy, and science. Critical voices have questioned the potential ascribed to CE. Existing controversies are reflected in academic output and diverging perspectives affecting policy making, stakeholders and CE implementation. Set aside the views of proponents and critics, both camps have so far largely overlooked that it is the current dominant framing of the CE which jeopardizes its potential impact. This paper explores the revival of CE as a controversial concept through a focus on its history and the key concept of value retention options (ROs) in the form of a ROs-hierarchy. We argue that it is the framing and conceptualisation of CE which has reincarnated various times while its basic thoughts can be found back in other sustainability sub-concepts. Realisation of CE seems to imply an extended notion of collaboration – among businesses as well as between businesses and other key stakeholders, most notably end-consumers, - wherefore the development of a common language on CE is needed to enable the integration of CE into the organisational systems of all these participating stakeholders. In this process, the typology of the different ROs can serve as a guideline. The outcomes of pilot projects on collaboration for CE show lower ROs prevail at an expense of higher value ROs which are identified in literature. Although it is often difficult to state that one RO is better than the other, thinking in terms of ROs helps for developing a shared understanding of organisational processes required for CE implementation and can assist in defining clear goals and making first assessments. Whereas systematic efforts continue to foster mainly the lower value ROs, we argue for inducing a change in the conceptualisation of CE that places emphasis on the strive for the higher level ROs, i.e. creation of closed-loop supply chains through short loops, including repair and remanufacturing, rather than through the more established long loops. In order to attain higher forms of reuse we also call for a clear measurement system of the different options. We suggest that politics carry a key responsibility to foster enabling mechanisms for implementation of higher level ROs, amongst others public procurement is critical in incurring efforts to seriously measure the sustainability impacts to show viability, increase legitimacy and thereby scalability of the CE. In the end, CE is principally an environmental concept but it is through the collaboration between humans that a contribution to the sustainable development of wider society can be attained.