Analysing the roadblocks of circular economy adoption in the automobile sector: Reducing waste and environmental perspectives

Abstract

The automobile industry is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in our society. The increase in demand for vehicles drives the growth of the automobile sector worldwide. Fabrication of vehicles consumes an enormous amount of water, energy and resources, thereby increasing carbon emissions. Nonbiodegradable and manufacturing waste after the end of life usage results in a significant contribution to incineration, landfills, air acidification and water eutrophication. The adoption of circular economy (CE) initiatives can play a significant role in dealing with increasing waste and environmental pollution. The main goal of CE is to recycle and reuse materials to reduce waste and also to minimise environmental impacts. This article strongly supports the adoption of CE in the Indian automobile industry. For the successful adoption of CE in the Indian automobile sector, first, it is important to analyse roadblocks to the adoption. Twenty potential roadblocks towards the adoption of CE have been identified from a literature review and in consultation with experts in the field. To capture the vagueness of the data and to carry out a robust analysis, a Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method with Fuzzy theory is employed. The results reveal that roadblock ‘lacking ability to deliver high‐quality remanufactured products’ is ranked first among all considered roadblocks. This study will help the Indian automobile industry, decision makers, research practitioners and government officials develop effective strategies for adopting CE in Indian automobile companies. A sensitivity analysis has been conducted to validate the stability of results.

Circular economy and sustainability: The role of organizational behaviour in the transition journey

“…• encourage, engage and influence employees for successful execution of the CE vision and goals (Agrawal et al, 2021;Ahuja et al, 2019;Brones et al, 2020;Obal et al, 2020); and…”

Assessing people‐driven factors for circular economy practices in small and medium‐sized enterprise supply chains: Business strategies and environmental perspectives

“…As previously mentioned, SCs are one of the key business elements that, when managed effectively, can be a major driver for change towards implementing a more sustainable business model (EMF, 2012). By effectively identifying and integrating CE as a strategic business model, this can be a major influencing factor for organisational development (Agrawal et al, 2020). For instance, a practitioner literature review conducted by EMF suggests that transition to a CE could reduce the consumption of primary materials in the food, construction and manufacturing sectors from 32% by 2030 to 53% by 2050 in the European Union (EU).…”

Analyzing barriers for the adoption of circular economy in the manufacturing sector

“…The concept can be illustrated as a closed-loop system in which the flow of material and energy is circulated in a closed-loop through various channels (Nadeem et al , 2017). Initially, CE is introduced with the phenomenon of product life cycle management through the adoption of 3R schemes of CE such as reuse, reduce and recycle of the product (Agrawal et al , 2021). CE is now becoming more popular among economists, ecologists and environmentalists because of its benefits of the triple bottom line.…”

“…Technological advancement and expended production are consequences of the reduction of natural resources, being damage to the social ecology (Garza-Reyes et al , 2019). There are high needs for natural resources such as energy, water, real estate, minerals, oils and gas (Agrawal et al , 2021). To tackle such type of situation, there is a need to implement effective strategies and policies of the resource management framework.…”