Abstract
The adoption of circularity indicators in the electrical and electronic sector is understood to play a critical role in organisational decision making during the transition from a linear to a circular economy. Yet, it is widely recognised that there is no standardised method of measuring circularity performance. Additionally, the extent of literature uncovers a range of shortcomings of existing cross-sector circularity indicators, including a predominant focus on end-of-life, limited coverage of social measurements, a lack of sector specificity and limited capture of product functionality, durability or sharing. Furthermore, the current electrical and electronic sector-specific circularity indicators focus greatly on repair and recycling, failing to acknowledge the significant impact on circularity of the design and manufacturing, distribution and use phases. Therefore, this research set out to answer how electrical and electronic manufacturers can measure the circular economy performance of their products by developing and testing multidimensional circularity indicators for all products’ life cycle stages. To achieve this, a two-fold qualitative approach was adopted. Firstly, a stakeholders’ workshop aiming to generate, categorise and rate novel circularity indicators was held. Secondly, a focus group piloted the resulting workshop’s circularity indicators. The findings highlight key factors that influence circularity indicators’ applicability to electrical and electronic products, including product function, service arrangement, and customer type. The research has implications for electrical and electronic organisations seeking pathways to the circular economy by understanding, assessing, and measuring the circularity of their products.
Highlights
Introduction iationsThe circular economy (CE) has been gaining traction with consumers, industry stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers due to the promising opportunities to deliver benefits in line with the sustainability paradigm [1,2]
The presentation of the workshop results is divided into the two activities: first, the generation of the set of Circularity indicators (CIs) for E&E products; and secondly, the rating of the relevance of the CIs to the E&E products and assigning them to three E&E product lifecycle phases as determined by the workshop participants: design and production, distribution and use, and end-of-life CIs
The adoption of CIs is understood to be key to providing organisations with the data required for CE implementation strategies (CEIS) decision making during the transition from linear to circular economy business models (CEBM)
Summary
The circular economy (CE) has been gaining traction with consumers, industry stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers due to the promising opportunities to deliver benefits in line with the sustainability paradigm [1,2]. The transition from a linear economy to the CE relies on individual organisations adopting circular economy business models (CEBM) [3]. One sector that could benefit from greater adoption of CEBM is the electrical and electronic (E&E) sector [4]. The E&E sector has increasingly been the subject of CE research in recent years due to its unsustainable production, consumption, and waste practices [5]. The product innovation process is speeding up, resulting in shortening of product lifecycles and early obsolescence [6]. E&E products are subjected to functional or technical obsolescence
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