Edinburgh Napier University

  Waste generated by building construction and demolition (BCD) activities contributes to the major proportion of urban solid waste. A large amount of the waste is still sent to the landfill or downcycled globally. The adoption of circular economy (CE) in the building construction industry (BCI) could leverage significant gain in managing the waste from BCD activities. While studies have been conducted on CE in the BCI, a comprehensive review of the barriers to CE adoption in building construction and demolition waste (BCDW) management is thus far limited. Hence, to bridge this research gap and provide an improved understanding, the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guideline was adopted to systematically explore related literature towards the development of a web of barriers, integrated framework, and implementation strategies for CE adoption in BCDW management. The barriers to CE adoption in BCDW management were gleaned from 23-countries and consolidated as institutional and regulatory barriers, technological and information barriers, and organizational barriers, among others. A blended conceptual framework indicating the causality and interrelationship among the groups of barriers was determined using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. Ultimately, integrated implementation strategies were put forward to combat the identified barriers. Theoretically, this study has created a distinct character of the barriers to and strategies for the comprehensive promotion, implementation, and diffusion of CE in BCDW management. It has made a useful contribution to the existing literature through the mapping of a comprehensive co-existence and relationship among the barriers. This study has triggered a variety of empirically based research studies on the barriers, and success factors to promote CE in BCDW from a developed and developing economies' perspective in the future.