Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling
Summary: The circular economy is vital for sustainability, yet its resilience to unexpected socio-economic shocks is not well understood. This study explores the impact of one of the major global disruptive events, the COVID-19 pandemic, on the circular economy by focusing on copper recycling. Using...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-02-01
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| Series: | iScience |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224029407 |
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| author | Xiao Li Xuezhao Chen Junming Zhu Peng Zhang Haijia Shi Marian R. Chertow |
| author_facet | Xiao Li Xuezhao Chen Junming Zhu Peng Zhang Haijia Shi Marian R. Chertow |
| author_sort | Xiao Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: The circular economy is vital for sustainability, yet its resilience to unexpected socio-economic shocks is not well understood. This study explores the impact of one of the major global disruptive events, the COVID-19 pandemic, on the circular economy by focusing on copper recycling. Using transaction-level data from a waste trading platform and causal inference methods, we evaluated how the pandemic disrupted copper scrap supply and transactions. The findings indicate significant and enduring negative effects, including reduced trading volumes, prices, and material diversity. The disruption was uneven across sectors: labor-intensive industries were most seriously affected, while technology-intensive and capital-intensive sectors demonstrated greater resilience. To enhance recovery and strengthen the resilience of a circular economy, we recommend coordinating policy and market signals, incentivizing resilience-enhancing practices, and balancing efficiency, sustainability, and resilience goals. By mitigating adverse effects from unexpected disruptions, these strategies aim to foster a more resilient circular economy. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0b18c33fcd834f40b6ada5e4718ef5c7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2589-0042 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | iScience |
| spelling | doaj-art-0b18c33fcd834f40b6ada5e4718ef5c72025-01-18T05:05:05ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422025-02-01282111713Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recyclingXiao Li0Xuezhao Chen1Junming Zhu2Peng Zhang3Haijia Shi4Marian R. Chertow5School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China; System Behavior and Management Laboratory of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratory of the Ministry of Education of China, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China; Corresponding authorSchool of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710049, ChinaSchool of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Corresponding authorShenzhen Finance Institute, School of Management and Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province 518172, ChinaSouth China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province 510535, China; Corresponding authorCenter for Industrial Ecology, School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USASummary: The circular economy is vital for sustainability, yet its resilience to unexpected socio-economic shocks is not well understood. This study explores the impact of one of the major global disruptive events, the COVID-19 pandemic, on the circular economy by focusing on copper recycling. Using transaction-level data from a waste trading platform and causal inference methods, we evaluated how the pandemic disrupted copper scrap supply and transactions. The findings indicate significant and enduring negative effects, including reduced trading volumes, prices, and material diversity. The disruption was uneven across sectors: labor-intensive industries were most seriously affected, while technology-intensive and capital-intensive sectors demonstrated greater resilience. To enhance recovery and strengthen the resilience of a circular economy, we recommend coordinating policy and market signals, incentivizing resilience-enhancing practices, and balancing efficiency, sustainability, and resilience goals. By mitigating adverse effects from unexpected disruptions, these strategies aim to foster a more resilient circular economy.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224029407EngineeringEconomics |
| spellingShingle | Xiao Li Xuezhao Chen Junming Zhu Peng Zhang Haijia Shi Marian R. Chertow Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling iScience Engineering Economics |
| title | Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling |
| title_full | Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling |
| title_fullStr | Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling |
| title_short | Resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling |
| title_sort | resilience of the circular economy to global disruptions in scrap recycling |
| topic | Engineering Economics |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224029407 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT xiaoli resilienceofthecirculareconomytoglobaldisruptionsinscraprecycling AT xuezhaochen resilienceofthecirculareconomytoglobaldisruptionsinscraprecycling AT junmingzhu resilienceofthecirculareconomytoglobaldisruptionsinscraprecycling AT pengzhang resilienceofthecirculareconomytoglobaldisruptionsinscraprecycling AT haijiashi resilienceofthecirculareconomytoglobaldisruptionsinscraprecycling AT marianrchertow resilienceofthecirculareconomytoglobaldisruptionsinscraprecycling |