A systemic review for measuring circular economy with multi-criteria methods

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 May;29(21):31597-31611. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-18580-w. Epub 2022 Jan 10.

Abstract

Determining the circularity of a system through a criteria and indicators approach has been the focus of research in many branches of science. In this way, this work aims to review multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods employed for measuring circular economy (CE) indicators and CE aspects at different levels (micro, meso, and macro). For this purpose, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted in ISI Web of Science and Scopus databases. Further, the results summarized 22 MCDM techniques, 27 CE aspects, and 36 CE indicators The SLR provides a concept map highlighting the relation of the level of circularity implementation (subdivided into micro-, meso-, and macro-levels) and MCDM techniques and demonstrates the interaction between CE aspects and indicators. The review provides an outline as to how MCDM techniques can solve problems related to CE aspects and marks the relevance in the use of CE indicators to support circularity aspects and to construct criteria in the methodologies applied.

Keywords: Circular economy; Circularity; Decision-making; Implementation; Indicators; Multi-criteria.