The Regeneration Ecosystems as a Holistic Approach to Overcoming the Barriers of the Circular Economy

Circular economy (CE) is widely promoted as a sustainable alternative to the traditional linear economy. However, its industrial implementation faces persistent challenges, notably due to the lack adaptability and holistic integration of the current solutions. This paper identifies eight major barriers to CE deployment, considering the products in their changing technical, social, and financial environment. While closed‐loop supply chains have emerged as a partial solution to these barriers, they often fall short in addressing systemic complexity and dynamic adaptation needs. To overcome the remaining limitations, we propose the concept of regeneration ecosystems. These ecosystems aim to support the sustainable valorisation of product across multiple use phases, while considering social, environmental, and economic impacts. This paper highlights the properties of regeneration ecosystems and argues for their potential to enable an evolutive implementation of CE at the industrial level.