Transformative principles for circular economy transitions in the Global South
Waste management is critical for addressing interconnected social and environmental crises associated with urbanisation, pollution, and climate change. Circular Economy (CE) is a popular approach in policy-making and the private sector to re-envision waste management beyond current take-make-dispose models. Despite the potential to promote radical reconfiguration of unsustainable regimes of resource extraction and consumerism, CE is critiqued as a techno-centric, top-down model with ambiguous environmental and social outcomes, particularly for marginalised communities in the Global South. This paper develops a transformative approach to CE transitions integrating systems change and social justice dimensions, informed by CE, sustainability transitions, and participatory design literatures. Based on a review of 33 empirical cases centring Global South perspectives, we propose and illustrate 10 transformative principles. We conclude that these principles offer a promising, sustainable, and just approach to operationalise CE in Global South contexts whose relevance should be tested through deliberate design of CE initiatives.
Authors
- Paris Hadfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9755-2650)
- Britta Denise Hardesty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1948-5098)
- Tanvi Maheshwari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0805-2951)
- Jane Holden
- Michaela F. Prescott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0048-2519)
- Osha Ombasta
- Diego Ramírez-Lovering (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0774-4929)
- Dwinanti Rika Marthanty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4992-8144)
- Reni Suwarso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7594-0644)
- Dianty Ningrum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0213-6740)
- Rob Raven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6330-0831)
- Cindy Rianti Priadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5423-3446)
- Tony Wong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7759-0585)
- Carissa Eukairin Purnomo
- Farhan Dzakwan Taufik
- Melissa Skidmore
- Dicky Tanumihardja
- Bagus Aditya
Institutions
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- University of Tasmania (AU)
- University of Indonesia (ID)
- Centre for Marine Socioecology (AU)
- CSIRO Manufacturing (AU)
- Monash University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Urban Sustainability
- Published
- 2025-06-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-025-00225-9
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Innovation and Socioeconomic Development
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 12.23
Funders
- Veski
- Monash University