IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v32y2024i3p1589-1598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Developing a decision‐making tree for circular economy

Author

Listed:
  • Rodrigo Lozano
  • Francisco Jose Lozano

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) is aimed at redressing the negative impacts on the environment from linear economic models. CE should consider the economic and environmental dimensions; however, in most cases, these have been addressed separately. CE discourses have focused mainly on the environmental dimension and assumed that all material loops must be closed. Despite the calls to engage with CE, there has been extremely limited research on decision‐making for CE. The following steps were followed in the decision‐making for CE framework construction and design: (1) reviewing the literature; (2) considering economic data approaches; (3) accounting for material flows; (4) modifying the fungibility approach to focus on the environmental dimension; (5) considering environmental impacts; and, (6) selecting a decision tree format. This paper combines the economic fungibility (probability of recovery and price), environmental impacts fungibility (probability of recovery and environmental impacts) to develop the ‘Decision‐making tree for circular economy’ framework. The decision‐making tree for circular economy is aimed at providing guidance on which and how to close loops depending on economic considerations, environmental impact, and probability of recovery of materials. The CE decision‐making tree provides eight options to help decide which and how to close such loops, and help decide which material loops should be eliminated, closed, or remain open. Decision‐making is key to deciding which loops to close to engage with CE more efficiently.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodrigo Lozano & Francisco Jose Lozano, 2024. "Developing a decision‐making tree for circular economy," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 1589-1598, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:32:y:2024:i:3:p:1589-1598
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2736
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2736
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2736?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter R. Stahel, 2016. "The circular economy," Nature, Nature, vol. 531(7595), pages 435-438, March.
    2. Miedema, Jan H. & Moll, Henri C., 2013. "Lithium availability in the EU27 for battery-driven vehicles: The impact of recycling and substitution on the confrontation between supply and demand until2050," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 204-211.
    3. Hervé Corvellec & Alison F. Stowell & Nils Johansson, 2022. "Critiques of the circular economy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(2), pages 421-432, April.
    4. Ekta Sinha, 2022. "Circular economy—A way forward to Sustainable Development: Identifying Conceptual Overlaps and Contingency Factors at the Microlevel," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 771-783, August.
    5. Lozano, Rodrigo & Carpenter, Angela & Lozano, Francisco J., 2014. "Critical reflections on the Chemical Leasing concept," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 53-60.
    6. Zhiyong Zhou & Jianhui Huang & Ming Li & Yao Lu, 2022. "The Dynamic Evolution of the Material Flow of Lithium Resources in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Welle, Frank, 2011. "Twenty years of PET bottle to bottle recycling—An overview," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 865-875.
    8. Mark Anthony Camilleri, 2020. "European environment policy for the circular economy: Implications for business and industry stakeholders," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1804-1812, November.
    9. Jouni Korhonen, 2003. "Should we measure corporate social responsibility?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 25-39, March.
    10. David Lyon, 2004. "How can you help organizations change to meet the corporate responsibility agenda?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(3), pages 133-139, September.
    11. Tom Waas & Jean Hugé & Thomas Block & Tarah Wright & Francisco Benitez-Capistros & Aviel Verbruggen, 2014. "Sustainability Assessment and Indicators: Tools in a Decision-Making Strategy for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-23, August.
    12. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mike & Fritz, J. & Wailes, Eric J. & Gauthier, W. & Shapouri, H., 2003. "Biomass from Crop Residues: Some Cost and Supply Estimates," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10240, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. T. E. Graedel & Julian Allwood & Jean‐Pierre Birat & Matthias Buchert & Christian Hagelüken & Barbara K. Reck & Scott F. Sibley & Guido Sonnemann, 2011. "What Do We Know About Metal Recycling Rates?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(3), pages 355-366, June.
    14. Michael Saidani & Alissa Kendall & Bernard Yannou & Yann Leroy & François Cluzel, 2019. "Closing the loop on platinum from catalytic converters: Contributions from material flow analysis and circularity indicators," Post-Print hal-02094798, HAL.
    15. Alice Klettner & Thomas Clarke & Martijn Boersma, 2014. "The Governance of Corporate Sustainability: Empirical Insights into the Development, Leadership and Implementation of Responsible Business Strategy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 145-165, June.
    16. Ángela Triguero & Lourdes Moreno‐Mondéjar & Francisco J. Sáez‐Martínez, 2023. "Circular economy and firm performance: The influence of product life cycle analysis, upcycling, and redesign," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2318-2331, August.
    17. Robert Socolow & Valerie Thomas, 1997. "The Industrial Ecology of Lead and Electric Vehicles," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 1(1), pages 13-36, January.
    18. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mark & Fritz, John & Wailes, Eric J. & Gauthier, Wayne M. & Shapouri, Hosein, 2003. "Biomass From Crop Residues: Cost And Supply Estimates," Agricultural Economic Reports 34063, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Mark Anthony Camilleri, 2019. "The circular economy's closed loop and product service systems for sustainable development: A review and appraisal," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 530-536, May.
    20. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    21. Tom Waas & Jean Huge & Thomas BLOCK & Tarah Wright & Francisco Javier Benitez Capistros & Aviel Verbruggen, 2014. "Sustainability assessment and indicators: Tools in a decision-making strategy for sustainable development," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/189410, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    22. Willi Haas & Fridolin Krausmann & Dominik Wiedenhofer & Markus Heinz, 2015. "How Circular is the Global Economy?: An Assessment of Material Flows, Waste Production, and Recycling in the European Union and the World in 2005," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 19(5), pages 765-777, October.
    23. Rachel Greer & Timo Wirth & Derk Loorbach, 2023. "The Circular Decision-Making Tree: an Operational Framework," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 693-718, June.
    24. Ana-Maria Zamfir & Cristina Mocanu & Adriana Grigorescu, 2017. "Circular Economy and Decision Models among European SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-15, August.
    25. Michael Saidani & Alissa Kendall & Bernard Yannou & Yann Leroy & François Cluzel, 2019. "Closing the loop on platinum from catalytic converters: Contributions from material flow analysis and circularity indicators," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(5), pages 1143-1158, October.
    26. Hilary A. Sigman, 1995. "A Comparison of Public Policies for Lead Recycling," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(3), pages 452-478, Autumn.
    27. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    28. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mark & Fritz, J. & Wailes, Eric J. & Shapouri, H., 2003. "Biomass from Crop Residues: Some Social Cost and Supply Estimates for U.S. Crops," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5124, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chembessi Chedrak & Gohoungodji Paulin & Juste Rajaonson, 2023. "“A fine wine, better with age”: Circular economy historical roots and influential publications: A bibliometric analysis using Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1593-1612, December.
    2. Iñaki Heras‐Saizarbitoria & Olivier Boiral & Francesco Testa, 2023. "Circular economy at the company level: An empirical study based on sustainability reports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2307-2317, August.
    3. Michael Saidani & Alissa Kendall & Bernard Yannou & Yann Leroy & François Cluzel, 2019. "Closing the loop on platinum from catalytic converters: Contributions from material flow analysis and circularity indicators," Post-Print hal-02094798, HAL.
    4. Risa Arai & Martin Calisto Friant & Walter J. V. Vermeulen, 2024. "The Japanese Circular Economy and Sound Material-Cycle Society Policies: Discourse and Policy Analysis," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 619-650, March.
    5. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    6. Justyna Patalas-Maliszewska & Hanna Łosyk, 2020. "An Approach to Assessing Sustainability in the Development of a Manufacturing Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-18, October.
    7. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    8. Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Inés Suárez-Perales & Dante I. Leyva-de la Hiz, 2019. "Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Gilbert Silvius & Aydan Ismayilova & Vicente Sales-Vivó & Micol Costi, 2021. "Exploring Barriers for Circularity in the EU Furniture Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-25, October.
    10. Townsend, T.J. & Sparkes, D.L. & Ramsden, S.J. & Glithero, N.J. & Wilson, P., 2018. "Wheat straw availability for bioenergy in England," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 349-357.
    11. Zhang, Bingquan & Xu, Jialu & Lin, Zhixian & Lin, Tao & Faaij, André P.C., 2021. "Spatially explicit analyses of sustainable agricultural residue potential for bioenergy in China under various soil and land management scenarios," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Laura Pellegrini & Claudia Cannas, 2021. "Circular Economy Approach: The benefits of a new business model for European Firms," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0018, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    13. Mark Anthony Camilleri, 2020. "European environment policy for the circular economy: Implications for business and industry stakeholders," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1804-1812, November.
    14. Holmatov, B. & Schyns, J.F. & Krol, M.S. & Gerbens-Leenes, P.W. & Hoekstra, A.Y., 2021. "Can crop residues provide fuel for future transport? Limited global residue bioethanol potentials and large associated land, water and carbon footprints," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. E. Sardianou & V. Nikou & K. Evangelinos & I. Nikolaou, 2024. "What are the key dimensions that CE emphasizes on? A systematic analysis of circular economy definitions," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 547-562, September.
    16. Dongwook Kim & Sungbum Kim, 2017. "Sustainable Supply Chain Based on News Articles and Sustainability Reports: Text Mining with Leximancer and DICTION," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-44, June.
    17. Anne P. M. Velenturf, 2021. "A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-41, September.
    18. Morrison, Geoffrey M. & Kumar, Ravindra & Chugh, Sachin & Puri, S. K. & Tuli, D. K. & Malhotra, R. K., 2011. "Hydrogen Transportation in Dehli? Investigating the Hydrogen Compressed Natural Gas (H-CNG) Option," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt5hg3r4pn, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    19. Walsh, Marie E., 2005. "Non-Traditional Sources of Biomass Feedstocks," Energy from Agriculture: New Technologies, Innovative Programs and Success Stories, December 14-15, 2005, St. Louis, Missouri 7625, Farm Foundation.
    20. Andrew Wear, 2023. "Emergent concepts in local economic development," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(8), pages 804-826, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:32:y:2024:i:3:p:1589-1598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.