Abstract
The circular economy (CE) is now more imperative than ever due to several shortcomings humanity faces due to global economic disruptions. The CE might help initiate a virtuous circle whereby waste materials would be turned into resources for other companies to create closed-loop systems. However, the CE remains a niche paradigm embraced by only a small number of companies in some areas of the world. Some authors have argued that it is essential to encourage stakeholders at different implementation levels of a CE to increase the uptake of this new model among companies, and stakeholders may provide the required framework for the shift towards a circular model. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to answer the following research question: how can the transition towards the CE be accelerated from a ‘stakeholders’ perspective? The study was undertaken in the Spanish region of Basque Country, where a CE strategy is already in place at the regional level, and some companies are already delivering circular solutions. This approach was selected to help understand the lack of widespread adoption of CE initiatives in a local system despite having a regional CE strategy. Data were collected from respondents from various stakeholders and also from desk research to ensure their reliability. The results showed the relevance of understanding how stakeholders can help speed up the transition by proactively exploring new ways to create novel conditions to work together with a broad pool of stakeholders to deepen and scale up the CE implementation.
Highlights
Industrialised economies face multiple threats in their current linear business model, either because they may encounter resource depletion in their operations or because they are Circular Economy and Sustainability vulnerable to other risks that could disrupt their production and supply networks [1]
The circular economy (CE) has risen as a challenger to this traditional linear economy approach by initiating a virtuous circle, whereby materials that would be otherwise converted into waste at the end of their lifespan are transformed into resources for other companies [3] or processes [4] to create closed-loop systems [5]
The role of multiple stakeholders in the transitioning process towards the CE remains a subject of research
Summary
Industrialised economies face multiple threats in their current linear business model, either because they may encounter resource depletion in their operations or because they are Circular Economy and Sustainability vulnerable to other risks that could disrupt their production and supply networks [1]. The CE has risen as a challenger to this traditional linear economy approach by initiating a virtuous circle, whereby materials that would be otherwise converted into waste at the end of their lifespan are transformed into resources for other companies [3] or processes [4] to create closed-loop systems [5] In this sense, the CE has either inspired or taken inspiration from various waste and resource management frameworks such as industrial symbiosis (IS) that provide orientation for collective action developed by stakeholders [6, 7]. This characteristic means that IS in the CE may be seen as a business model innovation [13] based on technical innovations by (a) exchanging waste, resources and energy [14]; (b) collaborating with stakeholders to implement it; and (c) operating a local CE system [15], and a sustainable business model innovation to gain value from turning waste into valuable resources [15, 16]
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