Circular economy 10R strategies in aviation waste management: a systematic review of implementation logic and service implications

Purpose This study aims to identify, categorizes and explains how circular economy (CE) 10R strategies are implemented in aviation waste management and why adoption differs across airline-airport service systems. It distinguishes aviation waste management from broader carbon-oriented aviation sustainability debates and examines how circular waste practices may affect service reliability, stakeholder coordination and service quality. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was used as the methodological approach. Scopus and Web of Science were searched for peer-reviewed English-language journal studies published between 2000 and December 2025. After deduplication and screening, 39 studies were retained for bibliometric mapping and 34 studies for qualitative content analysis. VOSviewer keyword co-occurrence analysis, descriptive bibliometric profiling and theory-informed coding were combined to synthesize CE 10R strategies, enablers, barriers, success factors and service-system implications. Findings The synthesis shows that aviation waste research remains concentrated in environmental and operational outlets, with limited engagement with service quality scholarship. Adoption is uneven across the 10R hierarchy: Recycle and Recover dominate, whereas Refuse, Rethink and Reduce remain less developed because of biosecurity rules, safety standards, fragmented airline-airport governance, turnaround-time pressures and limited sector-specific digital tools. The review therefore interprets 10R adoption as a context-dependent feasibility logic rather than a simple hierarchical progression. Evidence linking CE practices to service quality and passenger experience remains mostly indirect and requires empirical validation. Practical implications The findings suggest that managers should treat CE waste initiatives as service-process redesign tasks rather than stand-alone environmental projects. A staged approach is recommended: map waste-stream boundaries, test upstream refuse/reduce options where safety and biosecurity permit, align airline-airport contracts and responsibilities and use digital monitoring and standardized performance indicators to connect circular outcomes with service reliability. Originality/value The review provides a positive synthesis of what has not previously been integrated: the 10R hierarchy, aviation waste streams, bibliometric knowledge structure and service-system feasibility conditions. It identifies the mechanisms that explain why downstream circular practices dominate and clarifies where service-quality claims are evidence-based, inferential or still absent from the corpus.