What's stopping the waste-treatment industry from adopting emerging circular technologies? An agent-based model revealing drivers and barriers.

Many new circular economy technologies are gaining momentum, yet research on the complexity of adoption decisions driven by uncertainties, both at technology and ecosystem level, is lacking. In the present study, an agent-based model was developed to study factors that influence the adoption of emerging circular technologies. The case of the waste treatment industry was chosen, specifically its (non-) adoption of the so-called "Volatile Fatty Acid Platform", a circular economy technology that facilitates both the valorization of organic waste into high-end products as well as their sale on global markets.