78842 20200716101427.0 doi 10.3390/ijerph16050851 sideral 111201 ART-2019-111201 eng (orcid)0000-0003-4045-5918 Garcés-Ayerbe, C. Universidad de Zaragoza Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies 2019 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted The Circular Economy is a paradigm shift attempting to replace the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and to slow down, close and narrow material and power loops. This concept is much discussed in the academic literature, but limited progress has been accomplished so far regarding its empirical analysis. The objective of this work is to study circular economy practices and analyze in depth the circular economy behavior in European firms. We find that firms' circular economy behavior is a gradual process where measures are implemented gradually, starting with activities involving control measures and ending with putting preventive practices in place. We discovered also that the most proactive companies in implementing circular economy measures generally come across certain common barriers such as administrative processes, regulations and a lack of human resources to perform these practices, while firms that have not implemented circular economy measures view financing, investment and cost¿benefit barriers as the most significant. Significant efforts need to be undertaken by firms to accomplished circular economy. Also circular economy regulation should be improved to make it easier for companies to implement strategies that will make them more sustainable. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI-FEDER/ECO2016-77-P info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/S42-17R-CREVALOR info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/ECO2013-48496-C4-3-R info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/ECO2017-86305-C4-3-R info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ 2.849 2019 0.739 2019 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH 32 / 170 = 0.188 2019 Q1 T1 Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis 2019 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 105 / 265 = 0.396 2019 Q2 T2 Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health 2019 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH 58 / 193 = 0.301 2019 Q2 T1 Pollution 2019 Q2 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion (orcid)0000-0001-9319-5895 Rivera-Torres, P. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0001-5003-4039 Suárez-Perales, I. Universidad de Zaragoza Leyva-de la Hiz, D.I. 4012 650 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Direcc.Organiza.Empresas Área Organización de Empresas 4011 095 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Direc.Mark.Inves.Mercad. Área Comerci.Investig.Mercados 16, 5 (2019), 851 [15 pp] Int. j. environ. res. public health International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 1661-7827 664061 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/78842/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 107310 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/78842/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:78842 articulos driver 2020-07-16-08:45:29 ARTICLE