The circular economy could transform how industry and society approach resources and waste, resulting in significant environmental justice (EJ) implications. However, there are few resources for analyzing the EJ impacts of new circular economy technologies before they are deployed. This work presents an EJ framework tailored for early stage circular economy technologies and showcases its capabilities through a case study on enzymatic plastic recycling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe growing number of end-of-life (EOL) wind blades could further strain US landfills or be a valuable composite materials source, depending on stakeholders' behaviors. Technical solutions based on circular economy (CE) principles have been proposed but are not guaranteed to solve the issue of EOL management. Transitioning to CE implies changing how business models, supply chains, and behaviors deal with products and waste.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF