Circular economy and construction demolition waste management: a scientometric perspective

Purpose The resource-intensive nature of the Construction Industry (CI) and resultant Environmental Impacts (EIs) calls for the adoption of a Circular Economy (CE) in construction demolition waste (CDW) management. In recent times, CDW management and CE have attracted attention from researchers and practitioners. However, there is a lack of comprehensive Scientometric analysis, specifically on CDW management in CI. The study aims to provide an in-depth Scientometric analysis to investigate a comprehensive overview of CE and CDW management studies in a global context. Further, the work aims to present various CE approaches and strategies for CDW management and emerging trends. Design/methodology/approach To fill the literature gap, the present work provided an in-depth Scientometric analysis of the intersection of CDW management and CE. The analysis utilized the Scopus database for bibliographic data retrieval. R Studio Bibliometrix and VOSviewer were employed to generate and visualize bibliometric maps. A total of 982 publications retrieved from Scopus, covering the period from 2003 to 2023, were analyzed based on their titles, keywords and abstracts. Findings The findings highlight three distinct clusters in the study of CDW in CE with emphasis on recycling-based research as the main cluster. They further point out to a weak connection between research on CE-compliant materials and the domains of waste management economics and absence of robust cross-country research collaboration networks. Trending topics include the use of LCA, BIM and machine learning as waste management techniques. Recommendations for future directions for research include LCA research on degenerating resources, application of CE principles, including circular business models and circular supply chains, and studies on Meso and Macro CE in CDW management. Originality/value The originality primarily resides in its comprehensive mapping of the existing research landscape of CE in CDW using scientometric analysis for a broader time frame of 20 years. The uniqueness of this study lies in the fact that it provides a more granular view of research gaps through thematic clustering by coupling into three distinct themes and by pinpointing neglected areas such as facilitation of CE studies at meso and macro levels. The study also highlights the evolution of association of the concepts such as 3R and zero emissions over time, revealing weak linkages such as impact assessment on waste management economics. In addition, the study highlights the application of quantitative information to guide data-driven recommendations for decision-makers, practitioners and academic researchers in the frontier areas for CDW management and CE research.