Governing the Solid Waste Management System: A Thematic Analysis of Literature on Circular Economy

Abstract

Background: Modernization induced ever increasing consumption and priority for affulance over environmental conservation have globally increased municipal solid waste and authorities are challenged to its successful management. However, these wastes often end at the landfill, representing can be valuable resource of Circular Economy.

Purpose: This paper addresses the systemic failure of solid waste management system, in terms of Circular Economy.

Design/methodology/approach: The results are based on systematic reviews of 43 peer-reviewed, open access articles published between 2015 to 2025. At first, we identified and sorted articles meeting inclusion criteria, followed by reviewing and open coding and axial coding afterwards, which led to code-grouping, and developing of six themes: governance and policies, methodologies, strategies, context, environmental impacts, and challenges and barriers.

Findings: The regulatory gaps such as institutionalism and path dependency have created institutional resistance in Circular Economy. The exclusion of informal waste actors has limited social equity and operational efficiency of the system. Furthermore, while Life Cycle Assessment dominates methodological approaches in circular economy literature, it warrants urgent integration of social dimensions. Achieving systemic circularity is attached to the Integrated Sustainability Assessment. However, methodological fragmentation of meso-level quantitative tools such as Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing, caused failure in achieving holistic integration of stakeholders and accurate evaluation of the complex trade-offs such as environmental, economic, and social costs on poor practice of circular economy.

Conclusion: Structural impediments in solid waste management and material recovery are hindering the effective operationalization of Circular Economy principles, particularly in the Global South. While effective Waste to Energy strategy is prevailing in the North, it has several negative consequences in environment and in material recovery. Therefore, this paper asks to develop and implement a detailed roadmap for structural reform in solid waste governance that emphasizes Circular Economy.

Keywords: Environmental impacts, global south, life cycle sustainability, material recovery, policy-practice gap, zero-waste city (ZWC)