New publication examines circular economy policy across lifecycles and sectors

A new open-access article by researchers at Linköping University examines how circular economy policy mixes can be analysed when products and materials move between different applications and sectors. The research was supported in part by THESEUS.

Published in Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, “Circular economy policy mixes: A call to combine lifecycle and multisectoral perspectives” is authored by Marianna Lena Kambanou, Annica Carlsson and Stefan Anderberg.

The article distinguishes between two ways of applying a lifecycle perspective. A product-oriented perspective focuses primarily on extending product lifetimes and preserving product value, for example through reuse and repair. A material-oriented perspective focuses on recovery, cascading uses and the circulation of secondary materials.

The authors argue that these perspectives can be complemented by a multisectoral perspective. This follows products and materials as they move between applications and sectors, where they may encounter different actors, standards, markets and governance arrangements. Combining the perspectives can help make cross-sector dependencies, competing uses for secondary materials and policy coordination challenges more visible.

The article uses construction to illustrate the approach. Alongside the stages of a building’s lifecycle, it considers materials entering construction from other sectors, such as post-consumer clothing used as insulation, and recovered materials leaving construction for new uses.

This research topic connects with THESEUS’s work on industrial and urban symbiosis across multiple value chains. Project activities include exploring recycled textiles for construction materials and construction and demolition waste for brick production. These activities provide practical contexts in which material flows cross sector boundaries.

The authors present their combined perspective as a conceptual lens for policy analysis. They call for further research into how it can be applied in different settings, including when a multisectoral perspective adds analytical value and how the boundaries of an analysis should be defined.

Read the open-access article: Circular economy policy mixes: A call to combine lifecycle and multisectoral perspectives