Implementation of Circular Economy Strategies within the Electronics Sector: Insights from Finnish Companies

Abstract

There is an increasing call for products following circular economy principles. Despite growing pressure, understanding of the current situation and development vectors is largely missing. In this study, circular economy workshops were arranged for six industrial companies manufacturing electronics and operating in Finland to obtain an empirical understanding of the current state of circular economy implementation. During the workshops, each company assessed the state of the circular economy for a chosen product using a set of 51 circular economy strategies, i.e., the circularity deck. The results indicated that circular economy principles were implemented in only 25% of the cases. This is mostly related to the production of smaller, thinner, and lighter products. The results also indicate a large improvement potential of 36% for the participating companies. This is the share of cases that are planned for implementation. Those strategies mostly relate to the use of recycled inputs, the development of products made of a single material, and the design of products suitable for primary recycling. The least relevant or even irrelevant strategies were those related to the use of information technologies and artificial intelligence, despite electronic products being the enablers of such strategies for the other companies. Therefore, to further increase the circularity of electronic products and to meet the demands and interests of the manufacturing industry, research work on the technologies and services enabling the use of waste as raw materials should be emphasized to close the loops. Finally, the results imply the necessity for a more widespread assessment of circular economy strategies among companies, with consequent development of action plans for their implementation.