Actors' Perspectives on Circular Economy: A Case Study of Uppsala City
2019
Friedl, Stella
The Circular Economy was developed as a response to the prevailing linear model of material use. The goal of the concept is to eliminate waste and mitigate environmental impacts by transforming the economic system into one that pursues a circular flow of materials and resources, in contrast to the current make-use-waste paradigm. While the concept has gained some momentum in the past years, there is still no definition that is agreed upon by scholars and practitioners. While the goal of the Circular Economy is clear, the perspectives on how this can be achieved differ. This study focuses on the Circular Economy at the city level via a case study of Uppsala, Sweden. The aim of this study is to gather the perspectives of actors active in circularity and to determine whether they agree on how the Circular Economy can be achieved. While there are a large number of actors involved in Circular Economy in Uppsala, this study focuses on two actor groups: the municipality and businesses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the actors' responses were analysed in regard to the actor's underlying ideology, their role within Circular Economy and their perception on how a transition to a circular system should occur. The study's results reveal that the actors in Uppsala lack an overall consensus on how the Circular Economy should be achieved, even though they tend to agree on some aspects. Furthermore, the interviewed actors do not take into account the systemic perspective of the transition. In response to this finding, the waste hierarchy was updated with the aim to draw attention to this notion. Additionally, it is found that most of the interviewed actors mention co-operation among different organisations as being the key to achieving the Circular Economy, which could help to promote the Circular Economy in the future.
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