The DOI matches its Crossref record; 61 of the 61 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Does the Circular Economy Grow the Pie? The Case of Rebound Effects From Smartphone Reuse
Open accessAbstract
The environmental benefits of the circular economy (CE) are often taken for granted. There are, however, reasons to believe that rebound effects may counteract such benefits by increasing overall consumption or ‘growing the pie’. In this study, we focus on two main rebound mechanisms: (1) imperfect substitution between ‘re-circulated’ (recycled, reused, etc.) and new products and (2) re-spending due to economic savings. We use the case study of smartphone reuse in the US to quantify, for the first time, rebound effects from reuse. Using a combination of life cycle assessment, sales statistics, consumer surveying, consumer demand modelling, and environmentally-extended input-output analysis, we quantify the magnitude of this rebound effect for life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. We find a rebound effect of 29% on average, with a range of 27% to 46% for specific smartphone models. Moreover, when exploring how rebound might play out in other regions and under different consumer behaviour patterns, we find that rebound effects could be higher than 100% (backfire effect). In other words, we estimate that about one third, and potentially the entirety, of emission savings resulting from smartphone reuse could be lost due to the rebound effect. Our results thus suggest that there are grounds to challenge the premise that CE strategies, and reuse in particular, always reduce environmental burdens.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Recently, Makov and Vivanco [204] estimated that one third, and potentially the entirety, of emission savings resulting from smartphone reuse could be lost based in part on this imperfect substitution [204].”
From Material efficiency strategies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, and electronics—a review (2019) · cites this paper as [204]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The Circular Economy–A new sustainability paradigm?
Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. P., & Hultink, E. J. (2017) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048 · Cited by 9,360
Ghisellini, P., Cialani, C., & Ulgiati, S. (2016) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007 · Cited by 6,536
Deaton, A. (1980) · Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford) · Cited by 4,172
Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy
Bocken, N. M. P., de Pauw, I., Bakker, C., & van der Grinten, B. (2016) · Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering · doi:10.1080/21681015.2016.1172124 · Cited by 4,002
Circular economy: The concept and its limitations
Korhonen, J., Honkasalo, A., & Seppälä, J. (2018) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.06.041 · Cited by 3,961
Miller, R. E., & Blair, P. D. (2009) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676212 · Cited by 2,841
Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2 °C
Meinshausen, M., Meinshausen, N., Hare, W., Raper, S. C. B., Frieler, K., Knutti, R., Frame, D. J., & Allen, M. R. (2009) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature08017 · Cited by 2,775
Going green to be seen: status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation
Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., & Van den Bergh, B. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0017346 · Cited by 2,174
Zink, T., & Geyer, R. (2017) · Journal of Industrial Ecology · doi:10.1111/jiec.12545 · Cited by 1,210
Stadler, K., Wood, R., Bulavskaya, T., Södersten, C., Simas, M., Schmidt, S., Usubiaga, A., Acosta‐Fernández, J., Kuenen, J., Bruckner, M., et al. (2018) · Journal of Industrial Ecology · doi:10.1111/jiec.12715 · Cited by 1,024
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Jenkins, 2011, Energy Emergence: Rebound and Backfire as Emergent Phenomena.
- Stahel, 1994, The utilization-focused service economy: resource efficiency and product-life extension, 178
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 101–160 of 160
Vivanco, D. F., & Makov, T. (2020) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190949501.003.0010 · Cited by 7
Self-citationBieser, J. C. T., Burkhalter, L., Hilty, L. M., Fuchs, B., & Blumer, Y. (2021) · doi:10.31880/10344/10165 · Cited by 7
Viholainen, N., Lundberg, P., & Korsunova, A. (2025) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-025-00587-3 · Cited by 5
Replaying the circular economy orchestra: The echoes of R and the symphony of I
Samani, P. (2024) · Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences · doi:10.1080/1943815x.2024.2440156 · Cited by 5
“The findings from a study conducted by (Makov and Font Vivanco 2018) indicated that the reuse of smartphones could result in an average rebound effect of 29% in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
Circular Design for a Transition to a Sustainable Circular Society: Defining a New Profession
Melles, G. B., & Velenturf, A. P. M. (2023) · Design science and innovation · doi:10.1007/978-981-99-7532-7_7 · Cited by 6
Harris, S. E., Romare, M., & Zhang, Y. (2025) · Sustainable Production and Consumption · doi:10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.023 · Cited by 5
Second-hand smartphones reduce carbon emissions, yet shorter use times limit actual gains
Amatuni, L., Clemm, C., Sprecher, B., Tukker, A., & Mogollón, J. M. (2026) · Communications Earth & Environment · doi:10.1038/s43247-025-03170-8 · Cited by 4
“15 .”
Fujii, Y., Matsuoka, K., Koide, R., Shinojima, N., & Murakami, S. (2025) · Journal of Industrial Ecology · doi:10.1111/jiec.13623 · Cited by 4
“Inaddition,GHGemissionsareusedasarepresentativeindicatorofenvironmentalimpact to quantitatively evaluate the rebound effect identified in previous studies (Amasawa et al., 2020; Makov & Font Vivanco, 2018; Sai et al., 2023).”
Rebound effects in circular business models: A review of cases and mitigation strategies
Das, A., Guzzo, D., Pigosso, D. C. A., & Bocken, N. M. P. (2025) · Open Research Europe · doi:10.12688/openreseurope.21309.1 · Cited by 4
Addressing Psychological Needs in Designing for a Sustainable Circular Economy
Wölfel, C., & Burmester, M. (2023) · Design science and innovation · doi:10.1007/978-981-99-7532-7_9 · Cited by 5
Return to Reintegration? Towards a Circular-Economy-Inspired Management Paradigm
Angelis, R. D., & Peattie, K. (2022) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-022-00245-y · Cited by 4
“More prosaically, Makov and Vivanco (2018) [59] consider the impact of “rebound effects” caused by both imperfect substitution between “re-circulated” (recycled, reused, etc.) and new products, and also the “re-spending” of economic savings.”
BackgroundZanon-Zotin, M., Fortes, P., Corbier, D., Deetman, S., Edelenbosch, O. Y., van Engelenburg, M., Hauenstein, C., Hertwich, E. G., Jiang, M., von Köckritz, L., et al. (2026) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2026.109053 · Cited by 3
Lynch, J., & Serrenho, A. C. (2023) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139746 · Cited by 3
Rethinking replacement, rebound and environmental impact in reuse practice
Isenhour, C., Berry, B., & Scruton, E. (2024) · Consumption and Society · doi:10.1332/27528499y2024d000000036 · Cited by 3
Circular Economy Contributions to Decarbonizing the US Steel Sector
Walzberg, J., & Carpenter, A. C. (2024) · doi:10.1002/9781394214297.ch54 · Cited by 3
The Rise of the (Mc)Circular Economy
Godelnik, R. (2021) · Rethinking Corporate Sustainability in the Era of Climate Crisis · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-77318-2_4 · Cited by 4
Sufficiency-related Strategies and Activities of Small Finnish Clothing Companies
Härri, A., Levänen, J., & Linnanen, L. (2024) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-024-00442-x · Cited by 2
“Whether reuse can actually contribute to sufficiency and decrease material flows can be debated, however, because it carries rebound risks because of, for example, the respending effect and buying second-hand in addition to —not instead of —primary products [13 , 36 ].”
Optimal non-exclusive trade-in rebates design for a profit-maximizing company
Liu, Z., Ashtab, S., & Agarwal, S. (2025) · Expert Systems with Applications · doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2025.129468 · Cited by 2
Designing the Sustainable Circular Economy: From Products to Politics
Melles, G. B., & Wölfel, C. (2023) · Design science and innovation · doi:10.1007/978-981-99-7532-7_1 · Cited by 3
The rebound effect and path dependencies
Wiesmeth, H. (2020) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821798-6.00012-0 · Cited by 2
Dehghan, O., & Shokouhyar, S. (2025) · Environment Development and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s10668-025-06827-8 · Cited by 1
Metic, J., Guzzo, D., McAloone, T. C., & Pigosso, D. C. A. (2026) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-026-00877-4 · Cited by 1
Alberich, J. P. (2022) · Journal of Innovation Economics & Management · doi:10.3917/e.jie.pr1.0125 · Cited by 1
The Need for Realistic Behavior Modeling in Life Cycle Assessment
Miller, S. A., & Makov, T. (2026) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.5c15967 · Cited by 1
Self-citationImandojemu, K., & Orole, F. A. (2026) · Sustainable Development · doi:10.1002/sd.71597 · Cited by 1
Wasserbaur, R. (2020) · Linköping studies in science and technology. Dissertations · doi:10.3384/diss.diva-171908 · Cited by 1
Towards a Sustainable Circular Economy
Peñalver, S. M. R., & Antón, J. M. R. (2021) · Practice, progress, and proficiency in sustainability · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-8482-8.ch010 · Cited by 3
The Role of Postal Operators in the Circular Economy
Arlandis, A. (2022) · Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-82692-5_19 · Cited by 1
van der Velden, M. (2025) · Proceedings of the 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE2025) · doi:10.54337/plate2025-10296 · Cited by 1
Makov, T., & Meshulam, T. (2025) · Proceedings of the 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE2025) · doi:10.54337/plate2025-10421 · Cited by 1
Self-citationReuse of ICT devices as commons: A property rights and governance model for collective access
Roura, M., Navarro, L., Meseguer, R., & Ochoa, S. F. (2025) · ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies · doi:10.1145/3770067 · Cited by 1
“Environmental gains require that reused devices efectively substitute new ones; otherwise, rebound efects arise, ofsetting the expected beneits [40, 70].”
Circular Economy Rebound Effect in the Food Sector: an Agent-based Model
Bertolotti, F., Colicchia, C., Viscardi, S., & Creazza, A. (2025) · IFAC-PapersOnLine · doi:10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.09.050 · Cited by 1
Identifying rebound effects in consequential LCA
Henao, V., & Andres, J. (2021) · Cited by 1
Análisis de señales de medida para la mejora del cálculo de la eficiencia energética
Mejías, O. A. A. (2021) · doi:10.20868/upm.thesis.69409 · Cited by 1
Wiedenhofer, D., Wieland, H., Leipold, S., Aoki‐Suzuki, C., Edelenbosch, O. Y., Zanon-Zotin, M., Kaufmann, L., Fortes, P., Haas, W., & Streeck, J. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5034599 · Cited by 1
Property Rights in Servitisation: A Practical Assessment with Reused Computers
Roura, M., Navarro, L., & Meseguer, R. (2022) · Progress in IS · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-18311-9_2
Stefano, C. D., Elia, S., Garrone, P., & Piscitello, L. (2024) · Progress in international business research · doi:10.1108/s1745-886220240000018020
Beyond the Economic Growth: From the Sustainability’s Rhetoric to the Bioeconomics’ Effectiveness
Ciervo, M. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-72866-2_12
Miao, Z. C., Sakaguchi‐Söder, K., Sonnemann, G., & Zeller, V. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5271997
Strong Circularity through Degrowth: Reimagining Innovation for Well-BeingPreprint
Narayan, R., & Laine‐Kronberg, A. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5549561
What is My Share? Using Market Data to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Secondary ConsumptionPreprint
Makov, T., Wolfram, P., Althaf, S., & Blass, V. D. (2022) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4160513
Self-citationClosing the gap between circular economy talk and walk
Geyer, R. (2026) · Cell Reports Sustainability · doi:10.1016/j.crsus.2025.100557
Alkki, L., Jonker‐Hoffrén, P., & Sairanen, M. (2026) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-026-00781-x
Toscani, A. C., Agrawal, V. V., Atasu, A., & Wassenhove, L. N. V. (2026) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-9160077/v1
On the Effects of Buy-Back Policies: A Model of the Smartphone Circular Economy
George, T., Bechler, A., Touati, M., Coupechoux, M., & Thorin, M. (2026) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su18094410
Circular Economies and Social Justice: A Framework for Transformative Transitions
Koumparou, D. (2026) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-026-00962-8
“Finally, degrowth perspectives challenge the growth imperative that often undermines circular initiatives through rebound effects [97, 143 ] and efficiency-driven approaches that fail to address absolute resource limits.”
Parolin, G., Helldén, E., Guzzo, D., Andrew, E. M., der Loo, I. G. H. V., Mckay, L., Triller, B., & Pigosso, D. C. A. (2026) · Proceedings of the Design Society · doi:10.1017/pds.2026.10505
“…explored rebounds in other reuse contexts (e.g., textiles, electronics, furniture), they have focused primarily on economic mechanisms, such as income effects, sometimes estimating rebound magnitudes of over 100%, indicating a backfiring effect (Bubinek et al., 2025; Makov & Font Vivanco, 2018).”
Guzzo, D., & Pigosso, D. C. A. (2026) · Journal of Industrial Ecology · doi:10.1007/s44498-026-00110-3
“…across several circular strategies, sectors, and regions: (i) imperfect substitution and re-spending offsetting gains in smartphone reuse (Makov & Vivanco, 2018), (ii) closed-loop systems igniting additional production and consumption (Zink & Geyer, 2017), (iii) repair and access-based…”
Electronic Waste Management in Megacities: A Review
Aachhera, S., Tiwari, S., Verma, P., & Gahana, C. S. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-28583-6_10
Secondhand e-commerce reduces carbon emissions in clothing industry
Tang, L., Yang, K., Zeng, D., Li, L., Yang, J., Wang, S., & Mi, Z. (2026) · Fundamental Research · doi:10.1016/j.fmre.2026.07.003
The circularity paradox in secondhand markets: value retention, allocation, and rebound effects
Laurenti, R. (2026) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2026.109077
Decomposing Circular Economy Rebound Effects: An Ex-Ante Assessment Model for Policy Evaluation
Gue, I. H. V., Lamberte, A. E., & Baquillas, J. C. (2026) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-026-01105-9
“Existing works show CERs reduce savings in reusing smartphones [ 34] and in circular fashion [ 35 ].”
der Loo, I. G. H. V., Dorner, Z., & Pigosso, D. C. A. (2026) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.7327569
Nonlinear Effects of Circularity on Dematerialization and Resource Use in the European Union
Tudor, V. C., Mărcuţă, A., Mărcuţă, L., TINDECHE, C., Tiu, V., Micu, M. M., Smedescu, D. I., Petre, I. D., & Grecu, B. (2026) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su18178847
Clemm, C., Amatuni, L., Chun, Y.-Y., Moon, D., & Kishita, Y. (2026) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2026.109156
Driving impact? How imperfect displacement shapes heterogeneous rebound in carsharing
Meshulam, T., Cossey, J., Vivanco, D. F., & Makov, T. (2026) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.109256
Self-citationAnand, K., Ryan‐Fogarty, Y., & Fitzpatrick, C. (2026) · Journal of remanufacturing · doi:10.1007/s13243-026-00175-0
“Sensitivity analysis examines how variations in key parameters or assumptions influence outcomes, helping to identify influential inputs and assess model responsiveness [25, 73 ].”
Metadata
- Authors
- Makov, T., & Font Vivanco, D.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- ORCID
- Makov, Tamar
- Venue
- Frontiers in Energy Research
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2018-05-09
- Volume
- 6
- ISSN
- 2296-598X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2799409500
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 18.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Frontiers in Energy Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (702869)
- Yale University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies
- Keywords
- circular economy, rebound effect, product reuse, life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, imperfect substitution, consumer behavior
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
