Volume 67

A Material-Energy-Behavior Tri-loop Design Study for Waste and Energy Management Toward Integrated Circular Economy Systems Yuriko Iida

Abstract

The global promotion of decarbonization and the circular economy (CE) calls for a new perspective on
waste reduction and energy management in an integrated way. Single-use plastics, especially beverage
containers, remain a major contributor to resource inefficiencies and environmental impacts, and life cycle
assessment (LCA) and material flow analysis (MFA) studies have quantified their environmental impact
(Busch et al., 2021; Chairat et al., 2023; Liang et al., 2023). On the other hand, policies such as the EU’s
Single-Use Plastics Directive and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) have achieved some results (European
Commission, 2020; OECD, 2022), political conflicts and difficulties in institutional adjustment have become
apparent in the social implementation stage (UK Government, 2024; BBC, 2024). Additionally, IoT-based
technologies such as smart collection devices and refill vending machines enhance resource circulation while
increasing overall facility electricity consumption, creating energy management challenges (Islam et al.,
2021; Ruan et al., 2022). Recent research has shown the effectiveness of integrating CE with energy efficiency
measures (Seljak et al., 2023), but there is a lack of design frameworks that link device-level power loads and
consumer behavior. In this study, we propose the “Material–Energy–Behavior Tri-loop Framework” to fill
this research gap. This framework simultaneously deals with the three elements of (1) material loop, (2) energy
management, and (3) behavior loop, and integrates usage data and energy data through IT and IoT platforms. This will redefine waste reduction from a “resource problem” to a “system design issue that connects energy and action” and provide new design guidelines for researchers and policymakers.

Keywords circular economy, plastic reduction, energy management, deposit return scheme (DRS), demand response (DR), behavior change