Interrogating the circular economy: the moral economy of resource recovery in the EU

By N. Gregson, M. Crang, Sara Fuller, H. Holmes. 2015

632 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The concept of the circular economy has gained increasing prominence in academic, practitioner and policy circles and is linked to greening economies and sustainable development. However, the idea is more often celebrated than critically interrogated. Analysis shows the concept circulates as an idea and ideal, exemplified by industrial symbiosis and extended product life. Yet, its actual enactment is limited and fragile. Instead, circular economies are achieved mostly through global recycling networks which are the primary means by which wastes are recovered as resources. European policies eschew these circuits. Resource recovery through global recycling networks is regarded as a dirty and illegal trade. In its place, EU circular economies attempt to transform wastes into resources within the boundaries of the EU. Through an analysis of two case studies of resource recovery in the United Kingdom, we highlight the challenges that confront making circular economies within the EU, showing that these are borne of a conjuncture of politically created markets, material properties and morally defined materials circuits. We show resource recovery in the EU to be framed by moral economies, driven by discourses of ecological modernization, environmental justice and resource (in)security, the last of which connects to China's resource-intensive development.

Subfields: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/22d68c8725355ef73f96a683af97f73d91824be1

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In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In Strategy and Management

Citations in the corpus

Eco‐Efficiency Analysis of a Lithium‐Ion Battery Waste Hierarchy Inspired by Circular Economy (2017, methodology): “Based on gaps identified, the results of the case study were used to set forth a roadmap for EV battery EOL management research and policy that considers issues specific to these batteries as well as goals of the CE (EMF 2013; Geiser 2001; Gregson et al. 2015; Ghisellini et al. 2016).”
The circular economy: New or Refurbished as CE 3.0? — Exploring Controversies in the Conceptualization of the Circular Economy through a Focus on History and Resource Value Retention Options (2017, neutral): “as a transformative concept would also demand a more critical perspective on approaches and methods for analysis used in connection with CE (Gregson et al., 2015).”
Critiques of the circular economy (2021, neutral): “Some see in circular economy policies a moral project built on the dual motives of subscribing to the common but unfair misperception of global recycling networks as dirty and illegal, while featuring circular EU policy frames as being able to keep waste and resources within Europe and away from the”
Re-Introducing Consumption to the ‘Circular Economy’: A Sociotechnical Analysis of Domestic Food Provisioning (2016, background): “Firstly, because the food sector is subject to a degree of scrutiny with respect to waste generation and reduction, and has featured in accounts of the circular economy [3,13–15].”
Metrics for optimising the multi-dimensional value of resources recovered from waste in a circular economy: A critical review (2017, background): “Introduction and decision-makers, failing to cut through the systemic complexity, poorly accounting for undesirable effects in other Current initiatives promoting a ‘circular economy’ build upon preceding research into resource efficiency (Ashby, 2016; Butterworth and Bleriot, 2014; EC, 2015; Ghisel”
Supply chain management and the circular economy: towards the circular supply chain (2018, neutral): “Industrial symbiosis - a field of industrial ecology literature - proposes the exchange of by-products, materials and energy between companies in the same geographical vicinity such as eco-industrial parks (Chertow, 2000) is gaining traction in China (Murray et al., 2015), although widespread diffus”