Analysis of the barriers to urban mining for resource melioration in emerging economies

Abstract

Urban mining is a management approach that can transform wastes into a secondary material resource based on the circular economy. It helps to provide secondary raw materials by recycling precious metals and raw materials, and also contributes to improve resource consumption and melioration in a circular economy and sustainability. However, it is difficult to implement urban mining due to various barriers such as lack of know-how, needed technology. Thus, the study aims to determine the barriers and challenges of urban mining in emerging economies both theoretically and empirically and to identify the various barriers and determine the causal relationships and the relative importance of these barriers that are critical to the success of urban mining, which provides resource melioration in circular economy. In the study, six main dimensions and eighteen barriers are analysed by five experts with using Fuzzy DEMATEL. According to the results, the most important barrier to urban mining in emerging economies from the e-waste perspective, which is in cause group, is the government's incentives and support. The barrier is followed by lack of regulations and lack of producer responsibility, respectively. Moreover, the lowest priority barrier, which is in effect group, is lack of product design and setting standards that encourage circularity.