Stakeholder perspectives in transitioning to a local circular economy: a case study in Spain

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) is now more imperative than ever due to several shortcomings humanity faces due to global economic disruptions. The CE might help initiate a virtuous circle whereby waste materials would be turned into resources for other companies to create closed-loop systems. However, the CE remains a niche paradigm embraced by only a small number of companies in some areas of the world. Some authors have argued that it is essential to encourage stakeholders at different implementation levels of a CE to increase the uptake of this new model among companies, and stakeholders may provide the required framework for the shift towards a circular model. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to answer the following research question: how can the transition towards the CE be accelerated from a ‘stakeholders’ perspective? The study was undertaken in the Spanish region of Basque Country, where a CE strategy is already in place at the regional level, and some companies are already delivering circular solutions. This approach was selected to help understand the lack of widespread adoption of CE initiatives in a local system despite having a regional CE strategy. Data were collected from respondents from various stakeholders and also from desk research to ensure their reliability. The results showed the relevance of understanding how stakeholders can help speed up the transition by proactively exploring new ways to create novel conditions to work together with a broad pool of stakeholders to deepen and scale up the CE implementation.