A Whole Life Cycle Approach to Circular Economy Interventions in the Residential Sector: Systematic Literature Review

The residential sector is responsible for substantial resource consumption, waste generation, and pollutant emissions. This is largely due to the conventional linear economy model, which relies on resource extraction and generates significant waste and emissions through a "take-make-dispose" approach. This linear market approach is incompatible with a low-carbon future. In contrast, the Circular Economy (CE) promotes a sustainable closed-loop system that prolongs and optimises resource utilisation, benefiting economic, environmental, and social domains as required for a low-carbon future. The concept of CE remains under-explored in the residential sector. This paper presents a systematic literature review of existing CE interventions in the housing sector. This review analysed 50 published papers identifying thirteen CE interventions among seven building layers, and four life cycle stages. In particular, the analysis identified research gaps in integrating CE concepts across construction layers and whole life cycle stages. The findings of this paper support academia, policymakers, and industry stakeholders in understanding how fragmented CE interventions can be implemented holistically and practically in the residential sector globally.