How digital technologies can support a circular economy

The role of digital technologies, such as IoT, 3D printing, and digital platforms, holds significant potential for supporting a circular economy. However, digital technologies are not a magic fix that can instantly change how physical resources are used and produced to prevent waste and promote a circular economy.

In her doctoral thesis, Ida Eyi Heathcote-Fumador explores digitally mediated circular practices within ecosystems to understand the human–material interactions involved in enabling a digitally mediated circular economy. Heathcote-Fumador will defend the thesis on November 5.

Circular economy focuses on managing the use and creation of physical resources, products, residual materials, and by-products to prevent them from ending up in landfills as waste, while ensuring that organic materials safely return to the environment.

What challenges do you focus on in your research?

Material resources and their sustainable management are central to the circular economy, while digital technologies are often seen as more intangible, flexible, and having multiple functions. When examining the role of digital technologies, we often overlook the material characteristics that shape these technologies, as well as the human activities involved in ensuring that technological and material configurations align with the principles of sustainable material management.

How do you address the problem?

I studied two ecosystems, or groups of organizations working together: one in Ghana, Africa, and the other in Europe, specifically Sweden and Portugal. Both focused on using digital technologies to support the sustainable recovery of waste from the environment.

Through interviews, observations, and document analysis, I examined how physical materials, digital technologies, and human activities influence each other to create digitally mediated circular practices. I used a human-material tuning approach to understand the mutual roles of materials, digital technologies, and human actions in establishing circular practices.

What are the main findings?

I developed a model showing that the circular principles of resource care are central to activities leading to the emergence of digitally mediated circular practices. Human actions involve the collective imagination of sustainable futures for production and consumption, the prospecting of suitable materials and digital technologies, and their shaping to realize these visions. This shaping process, referred to as tuning—a term first introduced by Andrew Pickering (1993)—is akin to adjusting a radio to obtain a preferred signal.

For instance, the organizations I studied shared a strong commitment to reducing environmental waste by converting it into new products with the help of digital technologies. They identified discarded materials such as fishing nets and selected technologies like 3D printing to transform these wastes into new products.

However, because 3D printers are typically optimized for virgin materials, the process requires extensive experimentation to adapt the technology to recycled inputs. This perseverance, driven by care for both the material and the environment, enabled the successful realization of digitally mediated circular practices.

What do you hope your research will lead to?

My research aims to encourage both scholars and practitioners to consider the material and human activities of the circular economy when examining how digital technologies enable it. Circularity is based on specific principles, with materials at its center. Recognizing and documenting their influence can enhance our overall understanding of how material, digital, and human components interconnect, shaping digitally mediated circular practices. This comprehensive recognition will result in solutions that effectively promote a circular economy.