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Circular economy practices in the battery sector: Assessing EU policies, motivations and digital tools

par Losa, Riccardo
Président du jury O'Born, Reyn
Promoteur Hudon, Marek ;Torjesen, Stina
Publication Non publié, 2025-09-02

Thèse de doctorat

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Résumé :

Adopting practices aligned with circular economy (CE) can contribute to targeting the current sustainability challenges and keeping production and consumption patterns within planetary boundaries. This dissertation examines how circularity can be efficiently implemented and what kind of innovations can be introduced to facilitate a circular and sustainable transformation. Three key and complementary aspects for circular economy implementation are studied in this thesis: the set of public policies for CE established by the European Union (EU), the behaviors behind the adoption of circular business practices, and a policy instrument developed to promote the circular transition, namely the Digital Product Passport (DPP).This dissertation comprises three articles. The first paper, published on Ecological Economics, addresses the fragmentation and inconsistency of the EU public policies on CE. These policies target various aspects of circularity without being coherent with each other, leading to a suboptimal implementation of circular business practices. By performing a systematic literature review of 54 publications, I identified the legislative measures that scholars consider relevant in supporting firms in the adoption of CE, and the gaps in the current regulatory scenario that need further investigation. As a result, this paper delivers a solid knowledge base which can be used to address the issue of the laws’ fragmentation and to bring more clarity and coherence among public policies on circularity.The second article builds on motivation theory to investigate the behaviors towards circular economy to assess the attitude, enablers and obstacles towards this concept. In the battery sector, such behavioral analysis is limited, with little attention given to the distinct roles and motivations of specific actors. This study addresses that gap by examining the behavioral, normative, and control beliefs of three key stakeholders, namely re-users, recyclers, and policymakers, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). 19 semi-structured interviews were performed to collect empirical material which has been subject to a textual analysis using an inductive coding approach. The results show that the stakeholders involved have a positive attitude towards CE due to its environmental and financial benefits. However, technical barriers and policy flaws, which generate a bias towards recycling over re-use, limit a more sustainable implementation of circularity. The reason behind this phenomenon is related to Europe's objective to achieve material security. This study provides a foundation of future quantitative studies to analyze the salience of the identified beliefs and introduces an extended TPB model. It also offers insights into more balanced and effective CE strategies in the battery industry.The third paper addresses how the adoption of digital tools, specifically the DPP, promotes the implementation of circular and sustainable business practices. This study critically assesses the DPP’s role in supporting CE by interviewing 35 industry stakeholders and reviewing the current policy documents and literature. The results show that there are several challenges, such reluctance towards information disclosure, batteries design limitations, and policy flaws, which limit the DPP’s potential beneficial effects and that make it biased towards recycling, leading to an inefficient adoption of circularity. Refinements in the DPP’s CE requirements and the establishment of a solid data governance are needed to turn this tool, and digital technologies more broadly, into more effective means for the achievement of a circular and therefore sustainable transition.These research topics are analyzed adopting an interpretivist approach where qualitative research methods are applied to address the research questions. Through this methodological approach, the dissertation offers valuable insight into improving the current political landscape around circularity and into facilitating the implementation of circular business practices by companies. As a result, this thesis contributes to the emerging circular economy discourse while strengthening the connection with the management field. The findings contribute to these research domains by explaining how public policies and regulatory instruments can be strengthened to facilitate the circular transition, and by offering a new perspective for analyzing behaviors towards the implementation of circular economy. This dissertation does so in the context of the battery sector. This industry is using the principles of CE to develop in a sustainable way. Circularity is indeed perceived as an effective tool to establish profitable, fair, and ecological industrial practices in an industry which is becoming strategic for the future of humankind.To sum up, circular economy holds considerable promises to address the current sustainability challenges, but advancements are needed to foster the implementation of this concept in an industrial and political context. Particularly, the EU public policies on circularity are fragmented in inconsistent, the behaviors towards CE as still unexplored, and the DPP created to promote the development of a circular battery value chain presents several drawbacks. These facts further complicate the implementation of CE and prevent the development of innovative and effective circular strategies. Leveraging on this dissertation’s findings, academia, practitioners and policymakers can address these issues and create more solid foundations for the circular and therefore sustainable development of European industrial activities.