Enhancing Sustainable Consumption Models and Circular Economy Engagement: Consumer Behaviour Analysis, Perspectives and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

The transition toward sustainable models of production and consumption has been advocated more and more at various international, national, and local levels and formalized within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and more recently confirmed at European level within the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) which “provides a future-oriented agenda for achieving a cleaner and more competitive agenda for achieving a cleaner and more competitive Europe in co-creation with economic actors, consumers, citizens and civil society organization” (European Commission, 2020).

Within this framework, empowering consumers and enhancing their participation in the various steps needed to implement complete circular economy processes—above all, the phases linked to purchase, use, and end-of-life management—represents one of the challenges launched by the CEAP and to which, in our opinion, a response contribution from the scientific literature is necessary.

Bearing the above in mind, ensuring that “consumers receive trustworthy and relevant information on products at the point of sale, including on their lifespan, and on the availability of repair services, spare parts and repair manuals” (European Commission, 2020) as well as providing in circular business models, deciding to repair, reusing functional broken products, and appropriately and correctly disposing products with no possibility of re-use represent examples of benchmark behavior that must be investigated, analyzed, and therefore encouraged from the consumer side perspective.

Our Special Issue aims at exploring how behavioral sciences can facilitate the transition toward a circular economy, the adoption of sustainable consumption models, and related circularity practices.

An accurate knowledge and picture of the state of the art from the consumers’ side based on both secondary or primary data can be of help to: i) producers in thinking, realizing, and promoting eco-friendly and sustainable products; and ii) policy makers in effectively training and informing consumers on the specific advantages of sustainable models of production and consumption and, ultimately, putting forward behavioral interventions to improve circularity, thus achieving fully sustainable consumption models. 

Potential contributions to this Special Issue may address but need not be limited to the following topics:

• Sustainable design and ecological impacts of a product: consumer attitudes and knowledge ;
• Consumer practices regarding upcycling, recycling, and downcycling;
• Consumers’ circular economy practices at home and out of home;
• Consumer behavior toward food purchase, food re-use, recycling, and food waste;
• How behavioral theories can be applied to sustainable consumption and pro-environmental behaviors;
• Behavioral interventions to improve sustainable consumption and circularity;
• What we can learn from sustainable consumption that can help or, on the contrary, problematize the overall idea promoted in the circular economy (i.e., food sharing models at retail or food service level to redistribute food, thus improving overall waste management).

REFERENCES

European Commission (2020). “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A new Circular Economy Action Plan. For a cleaner and more competitive Europe”. Brussels, Belgium: European Commission

Michelini, L., Principato, L., & Iasevoli, G. (2018). Understanding food sharing models to tackle sustainability challenges. Ecological Economics. Vol. 145, pp. 205-217.

Parajuly, K., Fitzpatrick, C., Muldoon, O., & Kuehr, R. (2020). Behavioral change for the circular economy: A review with focus on electronic waste management in the EU. Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X, 100035. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590289X20300062

Pirani, E., & Secondi, L. (2011). Eco-Friendly Attitudes: What European Citizens Say and What They Do. International Journal of Environmental Research, 5(1), 67-84.

Principato, L., Ruini, L., Guidi, M., & Secondi, L. (2019). Adopting the circular economy approach on food loss and waste: The case of Italian pasta production. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2019(144), 82–89.

Secondi, L. (2020). A Regression-Adjustment Approach with Control-Function for Estimating Economic Benefits of Targeted Circular Economy Practices: Evidence from European SMEs. Studies of Applied Economics, 39(2).

Secondi, L., Principato, L., Mattia, G. (2019a). Can digital solutions help in the minimization of out-of-home waste? An analysis from the client and business perspective. British Food Journal. Vol. 122 No. 5, pp. 1341-1359

Secondi, L., Principato, L., Ruini, L., & Guidi, M. (2019b). Reusing food waste in food manufacturing companies: the case of the tomato-sauce supply Chain. Sustainability, Vol. 11, No. 7, pp. 2154.

Prof. Luca Secondi
Guest Editors

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