Track: Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

Circular economy is a way of sharing, renting, reusing, repairing, and recycling, which are given priority while generating and consuming things from already manufactured goods. Researchers' interest in the circular economy (CE) has grown recently as a result of its advantages on both the social and environmental fronts. Electronic garbage, or "e-waste," has expanded dramatically over the past 20 years as a result of recent economic growth in Bangladesh, fast technical advancement, urbanization, growing consumer electronics demand, availability, a dropping price trend, etc. The refrigerator industry in Bangladesh is one of the major e-waste producers. For the study purpose, the refrigerator industry has been considered as the focal point. The paper aims to prioritize the potential drivers and barriers of circular economy while implementing e-waste management in refrigerator industries in Bangladesh. A survey was conducted over a related target group of people. To accomplish, the basic Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method named “Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory” (DEMATEL) technique is utilized. The study's findings show that resource efficiency and business principles are the most important motivators, whereas top management's resistance to change and a lack of public awareness are the two biggest barriers to the adoption of CE in Bangladesh's refrigerator industry.