Circular Economy in China: Translating Principles into Practice

Marco Pesce, Ilaria Tamai, Deyan Guo, Andrea Critto, Daniele Brombal, Xiaohui Wang, Hongguang Cheng and Antonio Marcomini
Additional contact information
Marco Pesce: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy
Ilaria Tamai: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy
Deyan Guo: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy
Andrea Critto: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy
Daniele Brombal: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy
Xiaohui Wang: EHS Academy, Lingnan College, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Hongguang Cheng: School of Environment, State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Antonio Marcomini: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-31

Abstract: The concept of circular economy (CE) has recently gained momentum in the political, scientific, and economic debate, especially in China and Europe. As a result, organizations and scholars have started to establish different sets of principles for its adoption. For this reason, it is important to identify and assess the differences and similarities among existing sets of CE principles, and how organizations and individuals understand and translate them into practice. In this paper, we firstly present a brief review and analysis of the coherence among six existing sets of principles. Our analysis finds that, despite the mixed degree of coherence, all sets describe the necessity to implement CE principles at all levels of a company. We then present the results of an in-depth qualitative survey that investigates how 19 key informants representing small, medium, and multinational companies based in China understand and carry out the CE principles laid out by the BSI standard BS 8001:2017; how these principles can transform the culture and processes of these companies; and what are the opportunities and threats that such transformation can bring. Results describe a good awareness and knowledge of the CE principles and an optimistic outlook concerning their adoption. At the same time, numerous barriers and threats that the implementation of these principles might entail are presented. Overall, respondents confirm the complexity of implementing the principles of the CE in an integrated and consistent way in the management and strategies of Chinese companies and highlight the challenges that might arise during their implementation.

Keywords: circular economy; principles; Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs); China; circular innovation; drivers and barriers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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