Circular Economy Ideas for Sustainable Management of Automotive Waste: Evidence and Lessons for Closing Policy and Legal Gaps in Zimbabwe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2026-4134Keywords:
Automotive Waste, Circular Economy, Environment, Sustainability, ZimbabweAbstract
The automotive industry has significant anthropogenic impacts on the environment yet the extent to which circularity strategies for the automotive industry sector are elaborately crafted in Zimbabwe is not known. To address the gap between circular economy principles and the reality in Zimbabwe, a qualitative research approach was used to explore circular economy ideas for managing solid automotive sector waste. Findings show that pioneering literature on circular economy strategies represents a largely European and Asian bias while literature on circular economy ideas on Zimbabwe is just emerging. Findings further show that circularity has various context specific definitions and therefore no universal understanding of the concept exists. Additionally, findings show that circular economy strategies in developing countries are fragmented and even though several strategies exist, they require supportive social, legal and regulatory systems to be successful. The study also establishes that circularity has overshooting effects on sustainable environment management but lack of awareness about circularity principles results in restrictive approaches that further complicate solid automotive waste management in developing countries. The study concludes that circularity is an innovative route to achieve sustainable solid waste management in the automotive sector. Based on these findings, a circular economy model for the automotive sector is proposed. The study finally recommends that the circular economy concept as well as the drivers and barriers to its implementation must be understood upfront and should inform creative green policy thinking that supports the adoption of the proposed model to realize the benefits of circularity.
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