Circular Economy Frameworks for Manufacturing Industry- A Review

Abstract

Manufacturing industries have been played a significant role in terms of production in attempt to improve economy worldwide. However, in a traditional linear economy setting, it becomes unrealistic prove to achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns. The concept of circular economy has been proved to be the only way out in the present environmental issues and unavailability resources, it aims at eventually severing this link, through keeping resources in the loop. Through a systematic literature review, this paper attempts to revisit the concept of circular economy in the manufacturing industries in order to determine whether the body of research has improved beyond framework development and into verified implementation in manufacturing industry. The review shows that the research field has indeed advanced from purely conceptual framework into empirical studies and research into implementation tools. However, in empirical studies and framework development the sustainability impact of CE practices is completely addressed only through the environmental issues, neglecting the social dimension, economic dimension and even the percentage of virgin material usage for production is neglected. Further, a key finding is that the generality of narrow approaches to sustainability in manufacturing results to a risk that circular economy implementation efforts will become difficult if percentage of virgin materials usage by industries are not evaluated. Holistic approaches are needed to avoid the implementation of solutions that may be framed as circular, but neglect the sustainability component.