Circular Products Research Articles

Research on a SaaS (Software as a Service)-based Digital Product Passport System Model for the EV Battery Industry Value Chain

A notion for a policy tool that is particularly supported in policy circles to support the circular economy is the digital product passport (DPP). To lay the groundwork for more circular products, the basic design of a DPP should primarily comprise product-related data gathered by manufacturers. This study aimed to look into the design options for a DPP system and how these options for a DPP system and how these options could help players in the EV battery market given the absence of scientific debate surrounding DPP. With a focus on the role of stakeholders, it does so while introducing the idea of DPP and outlining the current system of legal and voluntary product information instruments. These preliminary results are incorporated into an examination of the possible advantages of DPPs that is actor centered. Through desk research and stakeholder workshops, data is produced. We discovered a significant need for more research, in particular, by examining the function of the DPP system for various actors. These issues include how to reduce red tape and increase incentives for manufacturers to provide specific information, how pertinent data can be compiled, what data collection tools (such as databases), and to which stakeholder groups these data are made available. To give DPPs better policy direction, other researchers might be able to fill the research gaps identified in this work.

Current Perceptions of Sustainable Diets in Ireland and the Outlook of Circular Eating Practices

Encouraging sustainable dietary practices is a positive step towards alleviating the negative impact of increasing food waste. This study explores consumers’ perceptions of sustainable diets and factors influencing their adoption of sustainable practices, such as circular eating. Fifteen consumers in Ireland aged 18–65+ years were recruited for a qualitative study exploring their views on sustainable diets and their opinions on the use of peels, trimmings, and other by-products from fruit and vegetables as potential new ingredients or new circular food products. Age, gender, dietary preferences and educational background were important considerations during recruitment. Online interviews were conducted, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis managed by NVivo 12. The results highlighted two overarching themes impacting circular eating, namely, food choice motives and awareness of food waste. These were linked to the participants’ knowledge of and potential adoption of sustainable diets. Daily trade-offs were evident, linked to the product and the person who was also strongly influenced by their micro-environment. Consumer education from credible sources would be required to create awareness of circular eating. Most respondents were positively disposed to the concept of circular eating, as long as food safety concerns and affordability considerations were addressed through industry transparency.

Cabot Corporation launches new Replasblak™ circular black masterbatch product family with sustainable material

On November 6, 2023, Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) announced the launch of its new REPLASBLAK™ product family of circular black masterbatches with certified material. With this launch, Cabot has introduced three products which will be sold as the company's first-ever International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS) certified black masterbatch products powered by EVOLVE® Sustainable Solutions. Cabot's recently launched EVOLVE® Sustainable Solutions technology platform is designed to deliver products that offer sustainable content with reliable performance at industrial scale. The REPLASBLAK circular black masterbatches powered by EVOLVE Sustainable Solutions should enable Cabot to deliver the reliable performance, quality and consistency that the plastics industry requires at scale for certified solutions.

Effects of green and circular products' features on consumers' choice of remanufactured smartphones

AbstractPurchasing green products is one of the cornerstones to promote sustainable development since the negative impact of these products is lower than traditional goods. In a Circular Economic (CE) context, green products begin to encompass reconditioned products reintroduced to the production and consumption cycle, such as remanufactured products. Many green products and remanufactured products' features intersect; however, the consumers' perception of these two products is not equal. The present work analyses the consumers' intention to purchase remanufactured products in the Southern Brazil, in a CE context. To that end, 228 consumers from Southern Brazil answered a stated preference questionnaire with different scenarios of remanufactured smartphones with warranty, label and discount. Results indicate that warranty, label, and discount positively impact the consumers' choice towards remanufactured smartphones. Furthermore, results indicate that consumers would be willing to give up more on the discount in order to have a scenario where the remanufactured smartphone has a label and warranty. This study contributes to the literature on consumers' perception and purchase intention towards remanufactured products in emerging economies, which is still scarce. Furthermore, the industry might benefit from this work since understanding what affects consumers' purchase intention may help redirect marketing strategies to increase demand and competitiveness.

Manufacturer’s service relationships as a gateway to circular supply chains: merging insights from two literature fields

Many manufacturers now have established service businesses to support the use of their products (created through servitization) and are now facing new pressures of sustainability and circularity. This research explores how relationships with supply chain actors may change for servitized manufacturers when implementing circular economy. Based on a structured literature review of two literature streams – servitization and circular economy – this paper provides an overview of existing concepts regarding the relationship dynamics in these settings. A framework is proposed detailing the relationships necessary for recovery, processing, and commercialization of circular products, parts or components when creating circular servitized supply chains. Specific directions for future work and wider avenues for future research are provided for creating circular servitized supply chains. The contributions of this research stem from the combining and contextualization of key insights from two literature streams and proposed conceptual framework for creating circular servitized supply chains.

The Consumer’s Role in the Transition to the Circular Economy: A State of the Art Based on a SLR with Bibliometric Analysis

Implementing the Circular Economy (CE) is largely a mirage. There are some political decisions translated into penalties and/or incentives to try to adjust the “optimal” level of circularity. The consumer’s desire to purchase circular products, given the increase in price associated with them, and the sum of associated fines and penalties, generates complex financial equations, which become unfavorable to the transition to the CE. CE-friendly solutions in use are associated with situations in which circularity contributes to lower production costs. The authors are committed to altering the course of events. They believe that the success of this transition will have the will of the consumer as its main vector. To this end, they launched an investigation that leads to clues on how, by identifying barriers, facilitators, and motivations, proposals for solutions that are focused on the consumer are designed. The research project started by surveying and systematically analyzing the existing published information, in order to reach the State of the Art. The path taken involved a systematic review of the literature and the consequent bibliometric analysis, fulfilling a methodology whose steps are not innovative, but whose relationship/sequencing of the same is insufficiently treated in the literature. As the most relevant results of the application of the proposed methodology to the subject under analysis, in addition to the recognition of a set of significant and guiding texts, explored as graphically as possible, the identification of relevant sub-themes stands out, as well as the framing of opportunities for future investigations. With this investigation, we conclude that the consumer is not the trigger for the transition from the linear economy to the CE.

Reducing Cycle Time in the Manufacturing Process of Circular Pattern Interpolar Products (CPIP) Using Special Fixtures on a 3-Axis CNC Machine

This research focuses on the design of fixture aids to support the manufacturing process of Circular Pattern Interpolation Products (CPIP), such as disk brake components, flanges, turbine disk runners, and other plate components with circular feeding patterns in the 3-Axis CNC machining process. The objective of this study is to achieve more efficient CPIP production times on 3-Axis CNC machines. The research methodology employed a design and build approach, involving the design of fixture aids, fabrication, and testing during the production of turbine disk runners on a 3-Axis CNC machine. This was done by comparing the initial workpiece setup time and the workpiece clamping transfer time using CPIP production aids versus not using CPIP production aids. The results showed that the designed CPIP Fixture significantly reduced the CPIP manufacturing Cycle Time, with a reduction of 63.11% in the initial workpiece setup time and 83.55% during the clamping transfer process.

Achieving market performance via industry 4.0 enabled dynamic marketing capability, sustainable human resource management, and circular product design

Business-to-business (B2B) firms are striving to sustain market growth and share in dynamic marketing environment with an increasing need to protect natural resources in era of sustainability and industry 4.0. Although many firms have adapted industry 4.0 technologies, circular economy and sustainability practices in their business activities, but to sustain market growth is still a challenge. They need dynamic capabilities to face the current dynamic market instead of just resources and their capabilities. This study empirically examines whether Industry 4.0-enabled dynamic marketing capabilities and sustainable human resource management (SHRM) can enable firms to implement circular product design strategies and further improve market performance. The proposed framework is based on a dynamic capability view (DCV) and tested by structural equation modeling using survey data from 424 Indian B2B manufacturing firms. The findings show that SHRM promotes Industry 4.0-enabled dynamic marketing capabilities (IDMC); IDMC and SHRM both support implementation of circular product design strategies. Circular product design is supposed to facilitate IDMC to expand market performance. But, IDMC alone is also enough to significantly enhance market performance, despite the combined positive effect of circular product design and SHRM on market performance. These findings contribute to better understanding on what type of dynamic capabilities of organizational resources should be developed and utilized to improve market performance. The study helps firms to develop dynamic marketing capabilities such as circular product design strategies, SHRM and IDMC for helping them in improving market performance while also growing sustainably.

Recycled polycarbonate and polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene feedstocks for circular economy product applications with fused granular fabrication-based additive manufacturing

Distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM) holds enormous promise for enabling a circular economy. Most DRAM studies have focused on single thermoplastic waste stream. This study takes three paths forward from the previous literature: 1) expanding DRAM into high-performance polycarbonate/ acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC/ABS) blends, 2) extending PC/ABS blend research into both recycled materials and into direct fused granular fabrication (FGF) 3-D printing and 3) demonstrating the potential of using recycled PC/ABS feedstocks for new applications in circular economy contexts. A commercial open source large-format FGF 3-D printer was modified and used to assess the different printability and accuracy of recycled PC and PC/ABS. The mechanical properties (tensile and impact) following the ASTM D638 and D6110–18 standards were quantified. A weather simulation test (ASTM D5071–06) was performed to assess outdoor performance. Finally, two applications in sporting goods and furniture were demonstrated. In general, better printability was achieved with recycled PC/ABS compared to recycled PC, as well as good dimensional accuracy at printing speeds of 30 and 40 mm/s. Minimal qualitative differences and discoloration were visible on the samples after accelerated weather exposure, with results in accordance with the state-of-the-art. The rPC/ABS results from tensile tests show similar values to those of rPC for elastic modulus (2.1 ± 0.1 GPa), tensile strength (41.6 ± 6.3 MPA), and elongation at break (2.8 ± 0.9%), which are also comparable with previous studied virgin 3-D printed filaments. Similarly, impact energy (115.78 ± 24.40 kJ/m2) and resistance values (810.36 ± 165.77 J/m) are comparable in the two tested formulations, reaching similar results compared to FFF 3-D printed filaments, as well as virgin materials for injection molding. Finally, the two demonstration products in the sporting goods and furniture sectors were successfully fabricated with rPC/ABS, achieving complex patterns and good printing speeds for recycled feedstocks. It is concluded rPC/ABS blends represent a potential high-performance feedstock for DRAM, validating its use in direct FGF 3-D printing systems and potential applications for a circular economy.

On Hermite-Hadamard-Type Inequalities for Subharmonic Functions Over Circular Ring Domains

In this note, we study the so-called Hermite-Hadamard inequality for the class of subharmonic functions. We first prove an inequality of this type for subharmonic functions over circular ring domains. Next, a new Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality over a disk is deduced. Moreover, we introduce the class of subharmonic functions on the coordinates, which includes the class of convex functions on the coordinates, and establish several new integral inequalities for this class of functions over various product domains: product of disks, product of circular rings and product of a disk and a circular ring.

C2CAplus: A One-Pot Isothermal Circle-to-Circle DNA Amplification System.

Rolling circle amplification (RCA) is a widely used DNA amplification method that uses circular template DNA as input and produces multimeric, linear single- or double-stranded DNA. Circle-to-circle amplification (C2CA) has further expanded this method by implementing product recircularization using restriction and ligation, leading to a higher amplification yield and enabling the generation of circular products. However, C2CA is a multistep, nonisothermal method, requiring multiple fluid manipulations and thereby compromises several advantages of RCA. Here, we improved C2CA to implement a one-pot, single step, isothermal reaction at temperatures ranging from 25 to 37 °C. Our C2CAplus method is simple, robust, and produces large quantities of product DNA that can be seen with the naked eye.

Sustainable Transition through Circular Textile Products: An Empirical Study of Consumers’ Acceptance in India

The robust Indian textile industry results in prodigious consumption followed by equivalent waste, leading to environmental deterioration. The solution is circular textile production/products (CTPs), but their existence is almost absent in the Indian market due to a lack of focus on consumers’ acceptance of CTPs. To bridge the literature gap, the TPB model was extended to explore the antecedents that directly and indirectly influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards CTPs. The PLS-SEM (using Smart-PLS) was used to assess the structural model with the 409 samples collected through an online survey from the NCR of India. The findings revealed that personal benefits, environmental consciousness (except risk perception), perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms significantly and directly influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards CTPs. In addition, attitude significantly and indirectly mediates the relationship between “environmental consciousness, personal benefits (except risk perception)” and purchase intention towards CTPs. The finding offers pertinent information about the antecedents of CTPs that help the companies, marketers, and government to promote CTP acceptance and attain sustainability in the production and consumption of textile products in the Indian economy. Despite having product-specific and regional limitations, this research contributes significantly to the current literature on CTPs and their acceptance.

Identifying the motivating factors to promote socially responsible consumption under circular economy: A perspective from norm activation theory

Businesses have started to green-transform linear production operations by adopting innovative, responsive, and disruptive approaches under the circular economy. This transition requires appreciation and high acceptance by consumers to promote circular products for steady sustainable production and societies. The current study proposes dynamic socio-psychological, motivational, and contextual factors grounded in norm activation theory to investigate the consumers’ cognitive positioning to buy circular products. The empirical results are based on 994 consumer responses from China. The study supports the path suggested by norm activation theory, where alternative routes along with additional contextual factors significantly explain circular product buying. Environmental CSR initiatives, perceived consequences, and consumer green innovativeness significantly influence personal norms and green self-identity. Personal norms explain circular product buying more than green self-identity from the proposed paths. Green values strengthen the relationship between personalnormsm, green self-identity, and circular product buying. The study provides emphasizes to incorporate identity based activators along with ethical activators. Practical insights are provided for businesses promoting responsible consumption under the circular economy.

Behavioral spillover in the circular economy: The importance of consumer goals

The transition to a circular economy requires that consumers take responsibility for both the acquisition and disposal of what they consume. In Europe and around the world, there has for a long time been a focus on reducing and recycling waste, including from households. This implies a responsibility for households to source-separate their waste and take the recyclable fractions to designated containers or collection points, with the dual purpose of reducing landfills and reusing products and materials. However, for the latter to work, and for the economy to become truly circular, consumers must buy used products or products with recycled materials (i.e., circular products). Some consumers reject circular products, assuming they are of lower quality, while others value their environmental friendliness. In this study, we test the hypotheses that (a) the more consumers recycle, the more inclined they are to also buy circular products, and vice versa, and (b) that this behavioral spillover is mediated through strengthening the goal of waste reduction. These hypotheses are tested in a cross-lagged panel structural equation model by means of a two-wave online panel survey in Denmark (Copenhagen) and Portugal (Lisbon) (n ≈ 500 in wave 1 in each country). In both countries, we find a significant and positive cross-lagged effect from recycling to buying circular products, and in Portugal also the other way round. These “spillover” effects are mediated by commitment to and perceived progress toward the goals of waste reduction and saving resources – in Denmark primarily by goal commitment and in Portugal primarily by perceived goal progress. This suggests that communications to engage consumers in the circular economy should emphasize the logical connection between recycling and buying circular products, and in particular the superordinate waste and conservation goals to which both contribute.

Circular business cannibalization: A hierarchical Bayes conjoint analysis on reuse, refurbishment, and subscription of home appliances

Despite the growing expectations of the transition to a circular economy, consumer preferences and the potential for circular products in a market in which multiple circular business models coexist are not well understood. Accordingly, here, in a case study of refrigerators in Japan, we applied a hierarchical Bayesian choice-based conjoint analysis to compare: i) purchasing brand-new, ii) purchasing reused, iii) purchasing refurbished, and iv) using a subscription to acquire products without a transfer of ownership. The estimated part-worth utilities show that older circular products are more accepted by consumers under the subscription or refurbished models than under the traditional reuse model. Four distinct consumer segments—subscription-prone (12%), price-sensitive (13%), balanced decision-makers (25%), and brand-new stubborn (51%)—were identified using ensemble clustering based on individual-level part-worth utilities. Market simulations under eight scenarios revealed significant cannibalization among multiple business models, such as reduced sales of reused products due to the introduction of a subscription system. Consequently, the potential market share of circular products was shown to be at most 35% when there are coexisting circular business models, which is less than the sum of the shares and assuming separate business models. The potential market share across consumer segments is quite diverse (e.g., as much as 50–90% for the ‘subscription-prone’ and ‘price-sensitive’ segments, whereas ‘brand-new stubborn’ consumers never choose circular products). However, if consumers screen out alternatives that are not in their awareness set (known alternatives) or consideration set (alternatives evaluated in the last phase of decision-making), the potential market share could be as low as 11%, implying that approaching the early phase of screening in the consumer decision-making process is crucial. The proposed approach can be used to improve the design of business models and policies for a circular economy that considers cannibalization among multiple circular models, consumer heterogeneity, and bounded rational decision-making.

The Dark Side of Green Marketing: How Greenwashing Affects Circular Consumption?

Nowadays, we are witnessing the growth of the production and consumption of circular products. However, greenwashing is a marketing practice of presenting products as environmentally responsible without actually being so. This practice can influence consumer perceptions and attitudes toward the consumption of circular products. This study aims to explore the influence of companies’ greenwashing behaviors on the intention of circular consumption when mediated by environmental concerns and pro-circular information seeking by consumers. To this end, a sample of 826 valid responses from Portuguese consumers was collected. A quantitative methodology was used and the Partial Least Square method was applied. Our study found that greenwashing positively affects consumers’ environmental concerns and their propensity to seek sustainable information. These factors, in turn, positively impact their intentions toward circular consumption. The findings challenge the traditionally negative perception of greenwashing, suggesting its paradoxical contribution to promoting sustainability. The study provides valuable insights into consumer behavior related to sustainability and has practical implications for companies and policymakers in shaping effective circular economy strategies.

Double-edged circularity: Comparative assessment of circular and non-circular consumers

Circular consumption and disposal practices by consumers are increasingly viewed as more than just a current necessity. Nonetheless, the impacts of the marketing mix perception on perceived value, purchase intention, and circular purchase behavior and the impact of perceived risk on purchase intention and circular purchase behavior remain underexplored separately for circular and non-circular consumers. Similarly, few empirical studies have examined factors that affect circular disposal. Therefore, this study seeks to bridge these research voids and proposes a conceptual model with ten related research hypotheses. We collected data from 558 circular and 595 non-circular consumers in India. The structural equation modeling approach was employed to assess the strength of the proposed hypotheses separately for both consumer groups. The results confirm the positive impact of the marketing mix perception on purchase intention and self-reported purchase behavior for both consumer groups. Notably, the positive impact of the marketing mix perception on self-reported purchase behavior was found significant only for circular consumers. Moreover, the impact of purchase intention on self-reported purchase behavior was found insignificant for non-circular consumers. The results support the negative impact of perceived risks on both consumer groups' perceived value and purchase intentions. Lastly, the results reveal that circular disposal is positively impacted by self-reported purchase behavior and disposal convenience, and negatively impacted by disposal costs. However, the extent of these impacts varies significantly between circular and non-circular consumers. These results have important managerial implications for aligning non-circular consumers' perceptions, purchase intentions, and purchase and disposal behaviors toward circular products with those of circular consumers.

Circular economy in construction: A systematic review of knowledge gaps towards a novel research framework

The current growing interest in the circular economy (CE) offers extensive opportunities to promote the adoption of more sustainable consumption and production practices across industries, which is a top priority in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The construction sector’s shift towards circular models is key to reducing carbon emissions and resource depletion but brings along considerable complexities and challenges, given the industry`s fragmented and conservative nature. Research on CE in construction has been growing exponentially over the past few years, producing a substantial amount of new knowledge in a short time. This study conducted a systematic review to map and synthesise the reported knowledge gaps in the literature. The analysis included forty-one (41) articles published between 2017 and 2022. One hundred fifty-five (155) knowledge gaps were identified and categorised according to seven (7) CE research dimensions—economic, environmental, governmental, methodological, societal, sectoral, and technological—and twenty-six (26) thematic sub-clusters. Findings critically analyse knowledge gaps’ frequency of occurrence over time and across dimensions. A new framework for CE implementation is proposed to support critical discussion and identification of future research trajectories towards a systemic transition to a circular economy in the construction sector. The framework identifies three innovation domains: circular product, circular process, and circular platform.

Food from waste: The effect of information and attitude towards risk on consumers' willingness to pay

Circular economy is presented in the agri-food industry as a new paradigm that could alleviate the food waste alarming problem by reintegrating the industry’s waste into the food chain. However, more needs to be done to better understand how to improve social acceptability of food product made waste. This research first tests the effect of the level of innovation as well as the attitude towards risk of consumers on the willingness to pay for upcycled food products. The study then examines the effect of information and informational framing to better understand the most important factors in consumer evaluation of these products’ prices. Finally, we measure inattention bias in participants' responses to assess the quality of the study data. To achieve these objectives, 1,014 participants were recruited to take part in the study by randomly completing one of three variations of the questionnaire, varying each in the level of innovation: incremental, disruptive and radical innovation. The results show that consumers' willingness to pay for circular food products is lower than their conventional counterparts and that risk-averse individuals are willing to pay less for these products than risk-taking individuals. Furthermore, positive (negative) information on the circular economy can improve (deteriorate) the willingness to pay of risk-averse (risk-taking) individuals. Finally, positive information formulated in an environmental or health context has a greater effect on the willingness to pay for upcycled foods than those centered on the economy.

Review of mineral resource management in a circular economy infrastructure

Purpose is to substantiate foundations of sustainable management of mineral resources while implementing a circular economy model. Methods. The study has applied following research approaches: synthetic method (unification of the singled out aspects); induction method (analysis of a circular economy features); life cycle assessment (evaluation of the product influence on the environment from the viewpoint of each stage of its life cycle); circular economy toolkit (determination and evaluation of the periodicity of circular economy products and indicators); and circular economy indicator prototype (evaluation of the cyclic product efficiency). Findings. Circular economy is one of the key directions of a sustainable development policy as for conservation and protection of mineral resources; it is aimed at more efficient use and improvement of raw material extraction from industrial waste. Formation of a market infrastructure of the circular economy has been proposed based upon mining sector waste use to process it and reduce as well as to repurpose wasteless production and secondary processing of raw materials. The need has been substantiated to contribute to conservation of mineral resources for their sustainable use on the basis of the development of market infrastructure of a stable economy and mining sector waste use to process it and reduce as well as to repurpose wasteless production and secondary processing of raw materials. Originality. A concept for further development of the circular economy market infrastructure has been specified as a platform of production waste supply/demand to optimize the use and conservation of mineral resources on the principles of sustainable growth. It has been proposed to analyze assessment of business development along the lines of a circular economy while calculating parameters when manufacturing is applying primary mineral resources and industrial waste as a raw material for its further processing. Practical implications. The proposed approach of interaction between economic entities on the basis of a circular economy will provide rational use of mineral resources and contribute to the development of a sector of industrial waste processing. The abovementioned will help terminate decrease in the availability of mineral resources and form new milestones of social development on the principles of environmental friendliness and rationalism in the process of interaction with nature.