In recent years, electrical and electronic products (e-products) have been central to the discussion of resource sustainability due to their growing demand, use of critical resources, and challenges in managing the resulting waste stream (e-waste). As such, the concept of circular economy, which seeks to ‘design out’ waste by better products, practices and business models, is deemed to be very relevant for e-products. The nature of circular systems mandates a collective effort of businesses, consumers, and governments. While the techno-economic sides of the circular economy have attracted large attention in recent years, the role of consumer behavior – a critical factor in defining the long-term success of ‘sustainable production and consumption’ initiatives – remains less explored. In this context, this paper explores the potential of integrating lessons from behavioral sciences to facilitate circular economy in e-waste management. It offers a review of prominent behavioral theories and their application in the context of sustainable consumption and pro-environmental behaviors. Finally, the paper identifies opportunities for behavioral interventions in improving e-waste management and in achieving a more circular economy.
The treatment of ideas of repair in circular economy literature is critically reviewed, revealing instrumental understandings of repair as a tool to extend product life-spans and reduce waste. These framings are interpreted as an expression of the dominant technocratic and post-political discourses of circular economy as an intervention to sustain industrial capitalism in the face of sustainability constraints. The review contrasts these understandings of repair derived from a review of circular economy literature with richer and contested interpretations found in sociological, ethnographic and political literatures examining material repair in practice. Drawing on the emerging sociology of repair and applying more distinct concepts of restoration, remediation, reconfiguration and reconciliation derived from these literatures, the paper argues that the understandings of repair in circular economy literature are limited and restrictive, generally supporting a view of repair as sustaining, consumerist and nostalgic; and thereby overlooking potentially transformative, political and future-oriented roles for repair in a circular economy. In the restorative and remedial modes most commonly understood in the circular economy, repair is seen to enable new forms of capitalist commodification, notably of waste and domestic labour. Learning from contestation in other arenas of repair by contrast, understanding repair as encompassing ideas for reconciliation and reconfiguration, and adopting values of integrity, care and legibility, opens up repair in the circular economy to constructive critical discussion and reflection and offers new insights for policy makers.
The existing building stock represents a huge accumulation of physical resources: a material 'reserve' that could be mined in the future to improve resource efficiency. However, in the absence of systematically collected information about materials deposited in the built environment, the ability to manage and exploit them is limited. An approach to quantification of material stocks based on the use of secondary data from external research bodies, national statistics and a housing stock management database is used to estimate the timber stock in residential buildings constructed in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets before 1992. Results show a total timber accumulation of almost 67,000 tonnes across 68,000 dwellings, with a material intensity for timber between 20−34 kg/m2 of building floorspace (6.8–11.2 kg/m3 of gross building volume) for terraced houses and 5.4−11 kg/m2 (1.8–3.6 kg/m3) for flats and maisonettes. Generally, there is more timber in floors and roofs, and in older buildings. This method appears to be robust, as it results in comparable timber intensities to those determined using other methods in previous studies. It can be used for other materials and may be useful in other contexts where data is available (i.e., other scales, building types and materials), and capable of contributing to the growing understand of existing buildings as material banks.
Several independent assessments have identified rare earth elements (REEs) as critical materials, notably neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), and dysprosium (Dy) used in permanent magnets. Factors affecting their criticality include expected growth in demand arising from their unique performance-enhancing properties in consumer, energy, and military applications and the supply risk associated with China's dominance in their production. We demonstrate the use of Argonne's Global Critical Materials (GCMat) agent-based model to explore the possible consequences to REE market dynamics of different types of regional supply disruptions including a temporary loss of production, shutdown of capacity, and diversion of supply. Results suggest that supply disruptions may foster earlier and more REE mine starts outside of China, although some of these mines may not be able to sustain operations post disruption. Further, price and associated market responses such as production, capacity, and demand tended to extend beyond the disruption period. Such market impacts in the magnet supply chain could affect the costs and availability of a number of emerging clean energy technology applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. In the future, GCMat could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies — including recycling, conservation, product substitution, and diversification of supplies — on reducing the severity of disruptions in REE markets.
