Circular Economy and Supply Chain Sustainability

Introduction

Being a global village with a revolutionized industrial era, today’s child starts to get oxygen to live in a polluted environment caused by unplanned urbanization, massive use of fossil fuel in operating automotive engines or machinery, and so on. But, an enormous increment of industrial unrefined waste is pushing toward a situation where human existence can all be seen to the moon.

Today's kids begin to acquire oxygen to live in a polluted atmosphere that is created by unplanned urbanization, the large use of fossil fuel in running vehicle engines or machines, and other factors. This is because we live in a global community that is experiencing a revolutionized industrial period. However, a significant increase in the amount of manufacturing waste that has not been purified is bringing about a situation in which the existence of humans may be observed all the way to a new planet over this existing one. Among all the hazardous factors involved in building this world unlivable, increasing waste is becoming an alarming predicament. The global population is expected to exceed 3539 million by 2045 (United Nations, 2019), resulting in a total of 3.40 billion tons of waste (Raut et al., 2023). The enormous amount of garbage that is generated every day as a result of industrial waste is an important hurdle on a worldwide scale. trash generated by industrial processes can take several forms, including solid trash, liquid waste, gaseous waste, electronic waste, byproducts, and residuals. Each of these types of garbage has the potential to directly cause harm to the environment. Because industrial or manufacturing waste is not being disposed of in an environmentally appropriate manner, this has led to the beginning of damage to framing land, huge degrowth in harvests, poisoned drinking water, air that is not breathable, and most importantly, the loss of ecological equilibrium.

In alignment with the waste generation by traditional manufacturing plants, their massive use of fossil fuels, minerals, and water is nothing but natural resource depletion (Mızrak, 2024) One may say that those manufacturing plants are providing our regular commodities. They are serving us with commodities, but they are pushing us towards an unpleasant world without employing the Circular Economy concept. According to American economic and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin, “Using less of the Earth’s resources more efficiently and productively in a circular economy and making the transition from carbon-based fuels to renewable energies are defining features of the emerging economic paradigm. In the new era, we each become a node in the nervous system of the biosphere.”

In a circular economy, the main focus is placed on making efficient use of the resources that nature provides and transitioning to alternatives to fossil fuels. If we give Jeremey Rifkin's words a lot of attention, we can say that this is correct. In this approach, humans contribute to the sustainability and well-being of the planet as interconnected components of the circulatory system of the environment. This method embodies a social duty that individuals have.

Over the course of the past several years, the idea of a circular economy has garnered a lot of attention as a potentially useful solution to the urgent problems of environmental degradation and low resource availability. In the context of supply chain management, the adoption of concepts of circular economies presents a way forward towards increased sustainability and resilience. This chapter investigates the nexus between circular economy strategies and supply chain sustainability, shedding light on the creative approaches and revolutionary possibilities that these strategies offer for organizations and industries all over the world.

Worldwide, a significant quantity of industrial waste is generated annually. The vast amount of rubbish that is deposited on common property presents several environmental risks. Using these industrial wastes for water treatment is an efficient, economical, and environmentally responsible way to use them. Recently, the Circular Economy has gained global attention because of the necessary urgency for balancing the advancement of the industry, ecological situation, quality of life, and financial stability created by establishing a production-consumption paradigm based on sustained expansion and growing resource throughput.

This chapter aims to highlight the concept of circular economy and how circular economy can help boost supply chain sustainability within the industry and work towards a future that is more egalitarian, ecologically aware, and resilient.