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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.
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“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]
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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
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