Abstract
The relevance of circular economy to environmental science has led to a notable increase of research works during the last few years. It is very important to know the evolution of the publications that relate these two concepts, as well as the main areas of knowledge in which these investigations are framed. The purpose is to understand and highlight the state of art of circular economy and the role and relationship of the environment. Bibliometric analysis allows to evaluate developments in knowledge on a specific subject and assesses the scientific influence of researches and sources. This paper analyses the worldwide research dynamics on circular economy in the period from 2006 to 2017. A bibliometric analysis of 743 articles was completed. The most productive journals in this field were Journal of Cleaner Production. The five most productive countries were China, United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. Works on the circular economy and environment has considerable potential and it is open to research fields as sustainability or industrial production. The findings of this study could prove useful for studies into environmental circular economy, as they show a global sight of this line of study. Thus, the article represents a contribution to identify the main trends in circular economy research and environment and, from there, propose future research initiatives.
Highlights
Circular Economy (CE) is a topic that has been gaining importance and prominence in recent years, both among scholars and managers of public and private entities, having become trending in a few years
In addition to being an upward topic in western economy, CE is having a rapid growth in other countries, mainly in China, which is the first country in the world to develop a law
Circular economy and environment were the terms selected and the research scope focused on articles published in the period 2004–2017
Summary
Circular Economy (CE) is a topic that has been gaining importance and prominence in recent years, both among scholars and managers of public and private entities, having become trending in a few years. A proof of this is the rapid growth in the number of publications on the topic in just a few years. For example, the number of academic articles published on CE and environment was only in 2014, reaching 371 in 2017, which represents an increase of 1275% in just three years. In addition to being an upward topic in western economy, CE is having a rapid growth in other countries, mainly in China, which is the first country in the world to develop a law (in 2008). In a socioeconomic context of business development, CE is considered an important approach to achieve sustainable economic and environmental development [2]. The European Union created a CE package by extending the earlier waste directive [3]
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