Taking the circular economy and the Journal of Industrial Ecology to the next level

Abstract

as editorial partners in the publication of the JIE." DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE CIRCULAR ECONOMYIn the introduction to the 2017 special issue on the circular economy (Bocken et al., 2017), the editors urged that researchers, advocates and practitioners take the circular economy (CE) to the next level-moving beyond enthusiasm and promotion to also grapple with the complications and challenges of this emerging framework. 1 This special feature presents recent research that does just that.The special feature includes analysis that provides a systematic understanding of what has already been done, but often overlooked. This includes a comprehensive review of 280 circular economy-related policies by Zhu and colleagues (2018) showing that China has a both a long history and continuous development in this domain. Korea also has a significant and sometimes overlooked history of systematic CE development-of industrial symbiosis-as Park and colleagues (2018) show in their examination of 15 years of Korean eco-industrial park development. Bruel and colleagues (2018) examine the intersection of long-established bodies of research-industrial ecology and ecological economics-as a foundationfor the circular economy and find that a reconciliation of these two fields could increase both the theoretical and practical framework of CE.Several authors look closely at the application of the circular economy to electrical and electronic equipment. Alev and colleagues (2018) examine a form of CE policy toward e-waste. They provide a detailed case study on a market-based implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) in Minnesota. Their analysis details the benefits and trade-offs generated by the operating rules for the EPR scheme. Focusing on photovoltaic panels and wind turbines, Lapko and colleagues (2018) ask why recycling rates of critical raw materials are very low and engagement of companies in closed loop supply chains for such materials is limited. Gallagher and colleagues (2017) also grapple with the concern that renewable energy technologies require large amounts of material resources. They apply life cycle assessment to circular economy strategies targeting hotspots in the systems' life cycle to reveal where potential impacts lie across a variety of environmental indicators. Van der Voet and colleagues (2018) also address the long-term availability of metals through a life-cycle-based scenario analysis. Environmental impacts related to metal production, according to their projections, will increase steeply over the period 2010 to 2050. While recycling will reduce emissions, their analysis indicates it will become effective only in mitigating impacts in the latter half of the twenty-first century. They conclude that "The circular economy 1 See the issue at http://bit.ly/JIE-Circ.

Extraction of nanostructured sodium nitrate from industrial effluent and their thermal properties

“…This will help us to evaluate and maintain the value of extracted product or material as long as possible at the end of the product cycle while minimizing the generation of secondary waste (Martínez‐Martínez et al, 2020; Perrotta, 2016). The goal of the circular economy is to create economic and sustainable systems for industrial‐scale process development (Lifset, 2019). Among all the industries, chemical industries generate a considerable amount of corrosive and toxic effluent (US EPA, 2019).…”