If there is waste, there is a system: Understanding Victoria's circular economy transition from a systems thinking perspective
Akvan Gajanayake and
Usha Iyer-Raniga
Ecological Economics, 2025, vol. 227, issue C
Abstract:
Governments around the world have started adopting circular economy policies with the aim of transitioning production and consumption systems to be more circular. This transition requires a holistic approach to overcome a multitude of interdependent challenges. To understand how the State of Victoria, Australia is transitioning to a circular economy, this paper uses a systems thinking approach to analyse the current ecosystem. Using data from multiple sources, Causal Loop Diagrams to depict sub-systems were developed and validated through focus group workshops. We found that there is a heavy reliance on the resource recovery and recycling sector, both at industry level and policy interventions. Common misconceptions that circular economy is an advanced recycling strategy was found to be a major barrier for the transition. Policies to overcome these misconceptions and developing accepted circularity indicators focusing on the design stage and upfront considerations of downstream end of life impacts would enable a holistic transition.
Keywords: Australia; Circular economy; System dynamics; Circular transitions; Causal loop diagrams (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924002921
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:227:y:2025:i:c:s0921800924002921
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108395
Access Statistics for this article
Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland
More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().