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Circular economy beyond manufacturing: exploring the challenges and opportunities for circularity in the hairdressing industry

Circular economy beyond manufacturing: exploring the challenges and opportunities for circularity in the hairdressing industry
Circular economy beyond manufacturing: exploring the challenges and opportunities for circularity in the hairdressing industry
The emergence of the circular economy (CE) as a transformative paradigm to achieve sustainable development has predominantly centred on manufacturing, leaving a significant void in exploring its applicability to service-based industries. Understanding the challenges and opportunities for implementing CE strategies in these contexts is crucial, as service businesses differ in their operations and often face unique challenges. This study utilises the hairdressing industry as a contextual lens to investigate the multifaceted manifestations of circularity within services. We conducted a systematic literature review of both academic and grey literature to examine CE approaches, including reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovery strategies, while emphasising their interconnections with environmental quality, economic prosperity, and social equity. Our results point to a bias toward recycling strategies with little attention being given to R-strategies like reduce, reuse and recover. We highlight a critical need to broaden circularity initiatives by coordinating resource efficient practices with waste management strategies. Additionally, we reveal a web of interrelated circularity and sustainability aspects that demonstrate both synergies (mutually beneficial interactions) and trade-offs (compromises) across and between these aspects. Our findings stress the importance of taking a systems perspective when examining CE initiatives, calling for thoughtful consideration of diverse pathways to achieve sustainability alongside careful evaluation of trade-offs against potential gains. The insights gleaned from this exploration in hairdressing hold promising implications for promoting integrated and socially equitable CE strategies in diverse service-based industries.
Circular Economy, Sustainability, Service sector, synergies, Trade-offs
2352-5509
512-521
Hodgson, Stephanie
8b03a207-71c2-4fc6-95e6-5051bd351ddf
Piscicelli, Laura
66716c61-b143-46ac-862a-2ab802139b68
Frenken, Koen
c3ab3c89-0f22-46c3-bcde-7a53d3308f21
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22
Hodgson, Stephanie
8b03a207-71c2-4fc6-95e6-5051bd351ddf
Piscicelli, Laura
66716c61-b143-46ac-862a-2ab802139b68
Frenken, Koen
c3ab3c89-0f22-46c3-bcde-7a53d3308f21
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22

Hodgson, Stephanie, Piscicelli, Laura, Frenken, Koen and Williams, Ian (2024) Circular economy beyond manufacturing: exploring the challenges and opportunities for circularity in the hairdressing industry. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 46, 512-521. (doi:10.1016/j.spc.2024.03.012).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The emergence of the circular economy (CE) as a transformative paradigm to achieve sustainable development has predominantly centred on manufacturing, leaving a significant void in exploring its applicability to service-based industries. Understanding the challenges and opportunities for implementing CE strategies in these contexts is crucial, as service businesses differ in their operations and often face unique challenges. This study utilises the hairdressing industry as a contextual lens to investigate the multifaceted manifestations of circularity within services. We conducted a systematic literature review of both academic and grey literature to examine CE approaches, including reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovery strategies, while emphasising their interconnections with environmental quality, economic prosperity, and social equity. Our results point to a bias toward recycling strategies with little attention being given to R-strategies like reduce, reuse and recover. We highlight a critical need to broaden circularity initiatives by coordinating resource efficient practices with waste management strategies. Additionally, we reveal a web of interrelated circularity and sustainability aspects that demonstrate both synergies (mutually beneficial interactions) and trade-offs (compromises) across and between these aspects. Our findings stress the importance of taking a systems perspective when examining CE initiatives, calling for thoughtful consideration of diverse pathways to achieve sustainability alongside careful evaluation of trade-offs against potential gains. The insights gleaned from this exploration in hairdressing hold promising implications for promoting integrated and socially equitable CE strategies in diverse service-based industries.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 12 March 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 March 2024
Published date: 16 March 2024
Keywords: Circular Economy, Sustainability, Service sector, synergies, Trade-offs

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 489308
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/489308
ISSN: 2352-5509
PURE UUID: f6c69f92-3c00-4f0a-86ee-acb280c81ca0
ORCID for Ian Williams: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

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Date deposited: 19 Apr 2024 16:46
Last modified: 20 Apr 2024 01:43

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Contributors

Author: Stephanie Hodgson
Author: Laura Piscicelli
Author: Koen Frenken
Author: Ian Williams ORCID iD

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