Plastic waste poses a critical challenge in the healthcare sector due to its predominant reliance on a linear "make-use-dispose" model, where plastics are typically incinerated or landfilled. This study examines Swedish healthcare waste management practices, encompassing Swedish and EU regulatory frameworks, hospital protocols, disinfection methods, and recycling processes. A key barrier to recycling healthcare plastic waste (HCPW) is the uncertainty surrounding effective decontamination. To overcome this, the paper proposes a circular solution involving on-site microwave-assisted disinfection and shredding, followed by chemical recycling through pyrolysis. This approach considers operational, legal, and technological landscapes and underscores the need for a multidisciplinary solution to enable the transition. This paper also presents a stakeholder collaboration and value capture matrix, identifying the shared value in collaboration among key stakeholders, including hospitals and healthcare service providers, on-site disinfection machine manufacturers, waste management firms, and chemical recycling companies, to advance recycling and foster a circular economy for HCPW.

This chapter presents a guiding framework for circular economy implementation in supply chains. Closing the loop for resource efficiency is a well-known practice in the industry. To concretize the circular economy implementation strategies, closed-loop thinking requires innovation and adaptation. Circular supply chains (CSCs) are one of the key enablers in closing the loop by design or intention for value recovery and profit maximization. CSC is an emerging area, and the view of CSC where forward and reverse supply chain is seamlessly integrated with the overall aim to achieve system-wide circularity is missing in the academic debate. By offering a cross-functional and systemic perspective of circular supply chains, we present a guiding framework to structure and understand the underlying complexities and highlight the crucial elements of circular supply chain implementation. The framework categorizes the circular supply chain into four building blocks: systemic approach, main drivers, levels of decision making, and mechanisms to manage the full loop closure and minimize the inherent uncertainties of a complex system. We conclude the chapter by illustrating the applicability of the circular supply chain framework using two industrial cases that are transitioning toward the circular economy.

The transition to circular manufacturing systems (CMS) is crucial for achieving sustainable growth, addressing the environmental concerns and resource scarcity challenges. Shifting towards CMS requires a systemic approach that integrates value proposition models, product design, and supply chains (SCs). Circular supply chains (CSCs) emerge as a core pillar of CMS, incorporating value delivery, use, recovery, and reuse. CSCs are inherently more complex and dynamic than linear SCs requiring a holistic analysis approach to capture their complex and dynamic attributes. This research proposes an integrated analysis framework combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore the complexities and dynamics of CSCs and assess their economic, environmental, and technical performance. Through the lens of two different CMS implementation case studies, one in automotive parts remanufacturing and one in white goods manufacturing, this research illustrates the framework's applicability. In the automotive case, centralizing core management activities was found to improve economic performance by 50-54 %. However, the introduction of regional logistics hubs, while economically efficient, led to a 20 % increase in CO2-equivalent emissions. On the other hand, the white goods case study highlighted the trade-offs in centralizing end-of-life recovery facilities, where financial savings of up to 60 % were offset by increased transportation costs and increased CO2 emissions. The analysis of CSCs in these two distinct manufacturing sectors underscores the relevance and flexibility of the proposed framework, providing decision-makers with a tool to examine how different CSCs configurations and strategies impact overall performance. This guidance is crucial for developing optimal CSCs design and implementation strategies.

Closing the loop for resource efficiency is a well‐known practice in the industry. To concretize the circular economy implementation strategies, closed‐loop thinking requires innovation and adaptation. Circular supply chains (CSCs) are one of the key enablers in closing the loop by design or intention for value recovery and profit maximization. CSC is an emerging area, and the view of CSC where forward and reverse supply chain is seamlessly integrated with the overall aim to achieve system‐wide circularity is missing in the academic debate. By offering a cross‐functional perspective of CSC, this paper presents a CSC guiding framework to structure and understand the underlying complexities and highlight the crucial elements of the CSC implementation. Thus, this framework lays the basis for CSC within the systemic implementation of CE by closing the loop by design or intention. The framework categorizes the CSC into four building blocks, namely, systemic approach, main drivers, levels of decision making, and mechanisms to manage the full loop closure and minimize the inherent uncertainties of a complex system. The building blocks of the framework are synthesized from various streams of supply chain literature and recurring concepts in the circular economy literature. The CSC framework applicability is illustrated using two industrial cases that are transitioning towards the circular economy.

Stretchable electronics is a new innovation and becoming popular in various fields, especially in the healthcare sector. Since stretchable electronics use less printed circuit boards (PCBs), it is expected that the environmental performance of a stretchable electronics-based device is better than a rigid electronics-based device that provides the same functionalities. Yet, such a study is rarely available. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to perform a comparative life cycle analysis of stretchable and rigid electronics-based devices. This research combines both the case study approach and the research review approach. For the case study, a cardiac monitoring device with both stretchable and rigid electronics is used. The ISO 14044:2006 standard's prescribed LCA approach and ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (Hierarchist) are followed for the impact assessment using the SimaPro 9.1 software. The LCA results show that the stretchable cardiac monitoring device has better environmental performance in all eighteen impact categories. This research also shows that the manufacturing process of stretchable electronics has lower environmental impacts than those for rigid electronics. The main reasons for the improved environmental performance of stretchable electronics are lower consumption of raw material as well as decreased energy consumption during manufacturing. Based on the LCA results of a cardiac monitoring device, the study concludes that stretchable electronics and their manufacturing process have better environmental performance in comparison with the rigid electronics and their manufacturing process.

Circular Economy (CE) promotes trading functions of a product as aservice instead of selling the product in conventional ways. For a product like ababy stroller, the function means ensuring mobility with infants without needingto own a stroller. This approach of acquiring functions only when needed opensup the possibility to share the same products with multiple users. For a manufacturer that has built its business on a conventional sales model over the decades,this shift may be too radical. Therefore, for the manufacturers, it is important tounderstand consumer perceptions of the service-oriented business model beforeentering this unknown territory. To develop a thorough understanding of consumerperceptions of leasing a stroller instead of buying one, a survey among 200 parentsin Stockholm is conducted. The survey brings out quantitative results such as 39%of respondents are open to leasing and identifies key influencing factors such asconvenience and environmental image that play a key role for the remaining 61%of respondents to choose leasing. This research concludes that a large numberof consumers are open to leasing if a high level of service and environmentallysustainable strollers are offered at a competitive price.

Circular manufacturing systems (CMS) constitute complex value networks comprising a large and diverse set of stakeholders that collaborate to close the loop of products through multiple lifecycles. Complex systems modelling and simulation play a crucial role in providing quantitative and qualitative insights into the behaviour of such systems. In particular, multi-method simulation modelling that combines agent-based, discrete-event, and system dynamics simulation methods is considered more suitable to model and simulate CMS as it allows to capture their complex and dynamic nature. This paper provides a step-by-step approach on how to build a CMS multi-method simulation model in order to assess their economic, environmental, and technical performance for enhanced decision-making. To model and simulate CMS three main elements need to be considered: • A multi-method model architecture where the CMS stakeholders with heterogeneous characteristics are modelled individually as autonomous agents using agent-based, discrete-event, and system dynamics. • An agent environment defined by a Geographic Information System (GIS) to establish connections based on agents’ geographic location. • The product journey resulting from the product's interaction with various CMS stakeholders in the circular value network is traced throughout its multiple lifecycles.

A transition towards circular manufacturing systems (CMS) has brought awareness of untapped economic and environmental benefits for the manufacturing industry. Conventional manufacturing systems already present a high level of complexity in terms of physical flows of materials and products as well as information and financial flows linked to them. Closing the loop of materials and products through multiple lifecycles, as proposed in CMS, increases this complexity manifold. To support practitioners in implementing CMS through enhanced decision-making, this research studies CMS from a complex adaptive systems (CAS) perspective and proposes to exploit methods and tools used in the study of CAS to characterise, model and analyse CMS. By viewing CMS as CAS composed of autonomous, interacting agents, this research proposes a multi-method model architecture for modelling and simulating CMS. The different CMS stakeholders are modelled individually as autonomous agents by integrating agent-based, discrete-event, and/or system dynamics modules within each agent to capture their diverse and heterogeneous nature. The applicability of the proposed multi-method approach is illustrated through a case study of a white goods manufacturing company implementing CMS in practice. This case study shows the relevance and feasibility of the proposed multi-method approach as a decision support tool for the systemic exploration and quantification of CMS. It also shows how a transition towards CMS necessitates a lifecycle approach in terms of costs, revenues and environmental impacts to identify hotspots and, therefore, design circular systems that are viable in both economic and environmental terms. In fact, the analyses of the simulation results indicate how decisions in terms of business models, product design, and supply chain affected the CMS performance of the case company. For instance, implementing a service-based model led to a high number of usecycles (on average six usecycles per washing machine), which, in turn, led to high lifecycle costs and emissions due to more frequent transportation and recovery operations. Similarly, the deployment of long-lasting washing machines, which is a core principle of CMS, led to high manufacturing costs. Due to the high initial costs and a time mismatch between revenues and costs in the service-based model, it required a longer time for the company to reach the break-even point (approximately 23 months). Overall, the case study shows that multi-method simulation modelling can provide decision-making support for a successful implementation of CMS.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used frequently as a decision support tool for evaluating different design choices for products based on their environmental impacts. A life cycle usually comprises several phases of varying timespans. The amount of emissions generated from different life cycle phases of a product could be significantly different from one another. In conventional LCA, the emissions generated from the life cycle phases of a product are aggregated at the inventory analysis stage, which is then used as an input for life cycle impact assessment. However, when the emissions are aggregated, the temporal variability of inventory data is ignored, which may result in inaccurate environmental impact assessment. Besides, the conventional LCA does not consider the environmental impact of circular products with multiple use cycles. It poses difficulties in identifying the hotspots of emission-intensive activities with the potential to mislead conclusions and implications for both practice and policy. To address this issue and to analyze the embedded temporal variations in inventory data in a CE context, the paper proposes calculating the emission intensity for each life cycle phase. It is argued that calculating and comparing emission intensity, based on the timespan and amount of emissions for individual life cycle phases, at the inventory analysis stage of LCA offers a complementary approach to the traditional aggregate emission-based LCA approach. In a circular scenario, it helps to identify significant issues during different life cycle phases and the relevant environmental performance improvement opportunities through product, business model, and supply chain design.

Linear production is related to resource scarcity and negative environmental impacts. Circular Economy (CE) emerged for society transition towards sustainability, based on regenerative systems and multiple life cycle products. Product Life cycle Management (PLM) supports the whole life cycle with the aid of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). A literature review analyzed the role of ICT enabling CE based on PLM, identifying challenges and opportunities, active and passive PLM, system perspective, stakeholder's role, and sustainability. Concluding that ICT enables the CE transition.