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Waste generated from electrical and electronic equipment, collectively known as E-waste, remains a persistent environmental, economic and social problem. Sustainable E-waste management (EWM) has numerous benefits, such as preventing electronic waste from entering landfills, reducing the need for virgin materials by recovering valuable materials from recycling and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Circular economy (CE) practices are considered the initial steps toward sustainable EWM, but some hurdles have been reported in the adoption of these practices. Therefore, the current study aims to identify the common CE practices, sustainability of the EWM process and the challenges in EWM, and to develop a conceptual framework for effective EWM.

Very few studies have proposed frameworks that acknowledge the challenges and CE practices of EWM. To fill this gap, a systematic literature review (SLR) was performed, and 169 research articles were explored.

A total of seven challenges in the adoption of effective EWM were identified: rules and policy, infrastructure, consumer behaviour, informal sectors, community culture, technology and economy. Eight common CE practices were also found for effective EWM: reuse, recycle, remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair, reduce, recover and repurpose.

A conceptual framework guiding sustainable EWM was proposed, which includes solutions for the identified challenges, and CE practices with sustainable benefits.

India generates around two million tonnes of e-waste every year, and it is increasing at a very high rate of 30%. However, due to inefficient handling of infrastructure and limited number of collection centres along with the absence of proper incentive structure for producer and recyclers, 95% of e-waste reaches to unorganized sector for disposal. Consumers are not aware of the need of proper e-waste disposal and in absence of proper motivation and they are not inclined towards recycling process. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the best practices of e-waste take adopted all over the world to implement effective policy interventions for e-waste management in India and other emerging economies.

This paper has recommended preventive as well as curative policy interventions on the basis of best e-waste management practices of Germany, Italy and Japan; life cycle assessment of e-waste; and SWOT analysis of Indian electronic product industry.

Preventive measures include a deposit refund scheme wherein a consumer will be responsible for depositing a refundable fees during the purchase of the product. The amount should be arrived at keeping in mind cost involved in handling e-waste and ensure some motivation for the consumers to give back used product. To ensure proper tracking of the product, Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be used which will be activated at the time of sale of product and remain so until product reaches some designated recycling space or recycler and consumer is returned back his deposit fee. Subsidy to the producers and recyclers can also be provided by the government to further incentivize the whole process. An example of mobile phones has been used to understand the proposed deposit fees and associated cost structure. Curative measures to reduce the generation of e-waste in long run for managing the discussed issue have also been proposed.

This study is an initiative for proposing and implementing best e-waste take back techniques in a developing economy like India by acquiring learnings from best/advanced economies in terms of e-waste take back.

This study aims to explore how green supply chain management (GSCM) strategies can be effectively implemented for business supply chain operations, relationship management and product design to gain green competitive advantages.

An exploratory in-depth case study was conducted with one of the largest Chinese electronics manufacturers that is considered a leading GSCM adopter in the industry, to understand how the company adopts green supply chain practices across its multiple product lines.

The findings show that businesses can build different green focuses across GSCM elements of green operation, green relationship management and green product design to form diverse hybrid strategic solutions. They include green control, lean, leagile, agile and clean innovation while taking consideration of supply chain type and product lifespan. A taxonomy of four key GSCM strategic combinations is proposed based on the findings. The strategies align with green demand and supply chain characteristics balancing a series of business competitive objectives in terms of reducing pollution and waste, improving green cost efficiency, enhancing green demand innovation and building green service effectiveness.

This study lends insight into the strategic alignment relationships between product supply chain types and approaches to GSCM.

The findings of this study can support industry practitioners in formulating aligned GSCM strategies based on product types to achieve optimal results.

Optimised green supply chain design, operations and relationship management incorporating product attributes can help further minimise negative impacts of business activities on the environment.

This research provides a systematic understanding of how product supply chain types can influence GSCM strategy formulation. It gives a holistic picture of how hybrid choices of strategies with green supply chain operations, relationship management and product design can be formulated based on product and supply chain characteristics.

This study explores the sustainable supply chain trade-offs in the electronics industry.

The study employs a social media analytics approach and analyses Twitter posts from August 2017 to December 2021. Thematic analysis is applied to discover the pattern in sustainable supply chain trade-offs based on the consumers' perceptions. In addition, a chi-square test was used to measure whether a relationship exists between product groups and sustainable supply chain perceptions.

The results indicate that environmental practices are the most frequent topic among consumers on social media. Further, although basic sustainable supply chain practices are prioritised in the environmental aspect, advanced sustainable supply chain practices take precedence over basic ones in the social dimension. The result from the chi-square independence test reveals that there is no significant relationship between different products and perceptions of consumers except for economically advanced sustainable supply chain practices.

The main implications of the present study are to offer a fast and efficient method to marketers and companies for discovering customer perceptions. In a way, they can identify where the quality of practices needs to improve in their supply chains to gain customer satisfaction. Additionally, the authors suggest industries declare their trade-off preferences between sustainable supply chain practices transparently.

The findings extend the abundance of sustainable supply chain literature by identifying the sustainable supply chain trade-offs among consumer electronics. Also, the reason for customers' dissatisfaction is provided. In the end, six propositions are presented based on the explorations.

The circular economy is a production and consumption model that encourages people to share, lease, reuse, repair, refurbish and recycle existing materials and products for as long as possible. The blockchain-based circular economy is being used in many industries worldwide, but Indian electronic MSMEs face many problems in adopting a blockchain-based circular economy. The research aims to discover the barriers the electronic MSMEs face in adopting a blockchain-based circular economy and pull back from achieving environmental sustainability in their operations.

Fifteen barriers are identified from the literature review and finalized with experts' opinions. These barriers are evaluated by using interpretive structural modeling (ISM), MICMAC analysis and fuzzy TOPSIS method.

Lack of support from distribution channels, lack of traceability mechanism and customer attitudes toward purchasing remanufactured goods are identified as the most critical barriers.

The study will benchmark the electronic MSMEs in achieving environmental sustainability in the blockchain-based circular economy.

It is a study that not only establishes a hierarchical relationship among the barriers of blockchain adoption in Indian electronic MSMEs but also verifies the results with fuzzy TOPSIS method.

Circular economy (CE) disclosure is becoming urgent for firms, but an accepted and recognized approach to address it is still missing, especially at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) level. This study aims to contribute to this issue by exploring the potential of the adoption of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards as a standardized approach for CE disclosure. The paper proposes a framework that identifies the existence of specific relationships between the topics included in GRI 300 Standards and CE strategies, which can be considered as managerial guidelines for CE strategy disclosure by companies.

The paper uses an explorative research methodology based on the content analysis of secondary data taken from the sustainability reports of the SMEs listed in STAR segment of Borsa Italiana.

The analysis shows that GRI Standards are currently adopted to disclose the CE strategies by Italian SMEs across different economic sectors including construction, food, automotive, retail, personal and household goods, industrial goods and services, electronics, media and technology. In particular, GRI 301 is used for the disclosure about Recycling, Reuse, Reverse logistics, Industrial Symbiosis, Eco-Design, Product as a Service and Refurbishing/Reconditioning/Remanufacturing. GRI 302 is suited to disclose CE strategies about Eco-Design, Renewable Energy and Industrial Symbiosis. GRI 303 can be useful to disclose about Reuse and Industrial Symbiosis. GRI 305 is appropriate for Eco-Design, Renewable Energy, Product as a Service, Industrial Symbiosis and Recycling. Finally, GRI 306 is useful to communicate the CE strategies of Recycling, Reuse, Reverse Logistics, Eco-Design, Industrial Symbiosis, Maintenance/Repair, Refurbishing/Reconditioning/Remanufacturing.

The paper includes implications concerning how to report the implementation of a wide range of CE practices, mainly using GRI 301, 302, 303, 305 and 306. These implications are mainly addressed to SMEs in different economic sectors.

The use of the proposed framework, by improving the transparency and communication of the CE strategies used by companies, may contribute to accelerate the consumer awareness on CE practices fostering the CE transition, especially of SMEs, with a positive effect on society and environment.

This study extends the literature on CE by developing one among the few standardized approaches using the GRI Standards for the disclosure of CE strategies, a topic mainly investigated in the literature with reference to large companies in a few industries. The framework is also useful to explore the implementation of CE strategies across SMEs in different industrial sectors.

The present paper examines the barriers hindering the implementation of circular economy practices in Indian automotive industries and identifies the most critical barriers to be eradicated during the circular economy implementation.

Using a questionnaire survey-based analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, 21 barriers to circular economy implementation are identified through a literature review and ranked using the opinions of relevant industrial experts.

Barriers, minimal or no proper economic incentives, difficulty in ensuring product quality and costing of CE products are identified as top barriers to be eliminated first to boost the chances of successful implementation of circular economy practices in Indian automotive industries.

The study not only offers a roadmap on the order of elimination of barriers towards a circular economy but also provides insights from industrial experts on how these barriers can be eradicated and the ill effects of each barrier from an automotive industry perspective.

The authors develop a theoretical framework for barrier analysis for circular economy implementation in the Indian automotive sector using the classic AHP approach to identify the most critical barriers against successful implementation. Further, this study offers managerial implications on how these barriers can be eradicated in real.

The authors explore the impact of an emerging technology, blockchain technology, on diverse governance mechanisms and sustainable supply chain practices and how its relationships with the linkage of these elements.

The methodology incorporates a literature review and a qualitative empirical analysis of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) standards. Expert opinions from various firms and organizations within the electronics sector are assessed. Through a thematic analysis, the relationships are identified and examined.

Data immutability, transparency and traceability capabilities of blockchain technology enhance the relationship between environmental standards and ecological supply chain sustainability practices. Although immature, the blockchain can influence the governance of supply chain sustainability practices. Immaturity of technology, lack of expertise, sharing information and trust have delayed adoption.

There is limited empirical evidence regarding blockchain's impact on governance mechanisms, specifically hybrid public-private mechanisms and sustainable supply chain practices. The study further evaluates how particular blockchain features may exert varying influences on these aspects and different sustainable supply chain traits. As an exploratory study, it proposes new areas for further research, including how blockchain's traceability function can improve sustainability standard adoption. Additionally, there is a call for integrating blockchain with technologies like IoT and sensors which may influence supply chain governance mechanisms, standards and sustainability practices.

The purpose of this study is to develop a holistic optimization model for an integrated sustainable fleet planning and closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network design problem under uncertainty.

A novel mixed-integer programming model that is able to consider interactions between vehicle fleet planning and CLSC network design problems is first developed. Uncertainties of the product demand and return fractions of the end-of-life products are handled by a chance-constrained stochastic program. Several Pareto optimal solutions are generated for the conflicting sustainability objectives via compromise and fuzzy goal programming (FGP) approaches.

The proposed model is tested on a real-life lead/acid battery recovery system. By using the proposed model, sustainable fleet plans that provide a smaller fleet size, fewer empty vehicle repositions, minimal CO₂ emissions, maximal vehicle safety ratings and minimal injury/illness incidence rate of transport accidents are generated. Furthermore, an environmentally and socially conscious CLSC network with maximal job creation in the less developed regions, minimal lost days resulting from the work's damages during manufacturing/recycling operations and maximal collection/recovery of end-of-life products is also designed.

Unlike the classical network design models, vehicle fleet planning decisions such as fleet sizing/composition, fleet assignment, vehicle inventory control, empty repositioning, etc. are also considered while designing a sustainable CLSC network. In addition to sustainability indicators in the network design, sustainability factors in fleet management are also handled. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no similar paper in the literature that proposes such a holistic optimization model for integrated sustainable fleet planning and CLSC network design.

This study proposes a systematic and comprehensive circular economy (CE) performance measure as an instrument to operationalize and quantify circularity. It seeks to evaluate the relative contribution of blockchain technology to evaluate various measures in this study. A general research agenda for investigating blockchain capabilities to performance assessment in CE is presented.

Empirical survey data from 32 CE and blockchain experts are collected to inform this study. Inductive reasoning, heatmaps, and a middle-range theory building approach are utilized to generalize theoretical patterns for blockchain support of CE performance assessment and measurement. A series of propositions are then developed as a middle-range theory for the true, false, perceptible, and hidden affordances of blockchain technology capabilities for CE performance measurement.

Overall, sixteen performance measures and metrics are identified and examined. The authors find most of these measures and metrics – based on literature and expert opinion – can be supported using blockchain technology capabilities. Four major blockchain capabilities, transparency and traceability, reliability and security, smart contracts, and incentivization and tokenization are shown to have varying potential support for CE performance assessment. There needs to be an evaluation of true, false, perceptible, and hidden affordances of blockchain technology capabilities for CE performance measurement in future studies.

Blockchain application for CE, and specifically performance measurements, is a new area. Research and practice evaluation on this issue is important but needs substantially additional investigation to help CE progress. This study provides a framework for evaluation and a foundation for future research at the nexus of CE, blockchain technology, and performance measurement.