“…First, we suggest that the stakeholders' perceived fear of radical changes prevent successful circular economy transition politics. This explanation of the unambitious policy outcome of the Packaging Act builds further on the scholarly understanding of the relevant stakeholders, discussions, and underlying dynamics in the German packaging waste sector (Neumayer, 2000;Rasek & Smuda, 2018), while also adding to the scholarship on barriers for a circular economy. So far, scholars attribute the limited progress to a circular economy to a variety of cultural, regulatory, market and technological barriers (de Jesus & Mendonça, 2018;Kirchherr et al, 2018;Ritzén & Sandström, 2017).…”