118 5 Result of Analysis and Interpretations
prevents circulatable products from entering the mass market. Price is still one of
the main criteria in the buying decision. As long as circular products are not able
to compete with conventional ones price-wise, it will be hard to reach critical mass.
Only if the demand for circulatable resources increases, and production volumes
rise will resources become cheaper. If circulatable resources are cheaper, the price
of the resulting product will be lower or at a comparable level, as described by the
interviewee in case Delta: “This much is certain: prices will adjust in certain areas
when the demand increases. In our case, the polymer we produce is more expensive
because we only produce 200 tons per year. The next threshold to make it cheaper is
2000 tons. If we produced 2000 tons instead of 200 we could reduce the costs of this
polymer at a rate of 1/3. If we produced 10000 tons we could reduce the costs around
40 percent” (see Appendix: German Quote 74).
The last challenge identified and a sub-category of the nascent stage of conceptis the insufficient practical experience with the concept and circulatable products,
due to the longevity of their products. Data revealed that organizations are able
to produce circulatable products but don’t know how to handle them at the end of
their lifecycle. Several questions remain to be answered by organizations in order to
implement the concept comprehensively. Case Gamma is an example of where this
challenge arose. The interviewee said that products are expected to be returned for
the first time in eight to ten years: “From today’s point of view it [circular economy]
is a theoretical approach. We expect the delivery of used floors in 8-10 years, so we
thought far into the future because our products are just very durable” (see Appendix:
German Quote 75).
To sum up, because the concept is still at an early stage and organizations haveonly recently started to implement the circular economy approach this presents
a challenge.
5.3.2 Lacking Coordination of Concept Implementation
The second challenge is the lack of coordination in implementing circular economy.
Two sub-categories have been identified (as depicted in Figure 6): missing legal
regulations and poor collaboration within industries and beyond.
What can be done in the face of growing concerns about serious environmentalproblems? This question leads to the role of legal regulations in combating environ-
mental problems, a highly controversial topic between economists and non-econ-
omists. Several organizations believe policies and legislation must be introduced
to support the transition towards circular economy. Policies and legislation e.g. to
internalize externalities and force organizations to pay higher prices when using