Investigating barriers to adoption of circular economy practices in Scotland

Transitioning to a circular economy has wide environmental, economic and social benefits, yet more needs to be done to ensure businesses of all sizes across Scotland can engage with circular economy practices.

To understand the conditions for businesses in Scotland to bring about this transition, Zero Waste Scotland recognised the need to gain a deeper understanding of what barriers to adoption of circular economy practices existed for businesses in Scotland.

Objectives

Resource Futures was commissioned to research viewpoints on the uptake of circular economy practices, looking from the point of view of organisations with experience or knowledge of engaging businesses based and operating in Scotland.

The aim was to build a picture of where the greatest challenges currently lie and what interventions may be required to provide the right conditions for the adoption of circular economy practices to flourish in Scottish businesses.

Approach

Fundamental to the research was adopting a circular economy ecosystem model as the framework for investigation and analysis, accounting for interactions between material, social and cultural elements of the ecosystem.

Nine elements were investigated:

culture and leadership
prevailing measure of value
networks and support
finance
knowledge
talent
institutions
markets
infrastructure

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a wide range of stakeholders, ranging from organisations with experience of providing support to businesses to subject matter experts in Scotland. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis performed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step approach as guiding principles.

Outcomes

Several barriers to change were put forward by interviewees. Further analysis of relationships between the barriers identified a widespread understanding among stakeholders of the ecosystem elements being an interconnective ‘web’ of relationships.

Barriers were identified across all ecosystem elements that would need to be addressed in a co-ordinated fashion.

The research identified a set of actionable insights for the different ecosystem elements that could result in a ripple effect due to the importance they hold for stakeholders.

The outputs and findings from this body of research have been integrated into wider circular economy ecosystem research for Zero Waste Scotland. The overarching ecosystem report is now published and available through Zero Waste Scotland.

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“Using an ecosystem framework allowed us to investigate the external influences on businesses with regards to the adoption of circular economy practices.

“This provided an understanding of the environment within which businesses operate (the ecosystem), broken down into areas of influence (elements) and helped us to build a picture of the barriers to circular economy practices.”

Excerpt from the report