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Ecologically embedded design in manufacturing: Legitimation within circular economy

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posted on 2020-05-26, 10:24 authored by Hana Trollman, James ColwillJames Colwill, Alan Brejnholt
Circular economy has gained momentum since the 1970s as a regenerative alternative to the traditional linear economy. However, as the circular economy has gone mainstream, circularity claims have become fragmented and remote, consisting of indirect contributions, such as the life extension of other products and the use of waste as feedstock, without addressing the actual cause of waste. The present study aims to identify the strategic motivations of manufacturers participating in the circular economy and the corresponding relationship to ecological embeddedness. This paper explores the circular economy in manufacturing through existing products on the market and their relationship to eco-design by considering the product, packaging, and its production. Legitimacy is found to be a decisive factor in whether the type of circular economy strategy manufacturers adopt yields ecological benefits. The results from the case study of products clearly indicate the superiority of ecological embeddedness, as a form of circularity supporting strong sustainability. Finally, a novel template is proposed to support the implementation of ecological embeddedness in manufacturing.

Funding

EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food : EP/K030957/1

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Sustainability

Volume

12

Issue

10

Pages

4261

Publisher

MDPI AG

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© The authors

Publisher statement

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by MDPI under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2020-05-20

Publication date

2020-05-22

Copyright date

2020

eISSN

2071-1050

Language

  • en

Depositor

Mrs Hana Trollman. Deposit date: 22 May 2020

Article number

4261

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