Circular Economy and Sustainability: What Are They Saying About It? – A Literature Review

Circular economy (CE) and sustainability are two interrelated concepts that are increasingly gaining attention in the fields of business, economics, and environmental studies. Although both concepts share similarities as they both aim to reduce the negative impact of human activities on the environment and promote sustainable development, they have predominantly been addressed separately as two independent areas of knowledge, and continue to be ambiguous. Their relationship in literature has not been clarified, which may be obfuscating their overall usage. The aim of this article is to clarify the concepts of circular economy and sustainability, to examine how these two constructs have evolved in the last decades, and to identify their similarities and differences. In this regard a specific literature review was performed. For this purpose, 48 publications were identified, and a content analysis was conducted. Based on the aforementioned literature review, key findings relatively to circular economy and sustainability are presented.