A Circularity Toolset for Benchmarking Consumer Electronics, Using Headphones as a Case Study

In response to the growing awareness of a circular economy, various tools for measuring circularity have been developed. Nonetheless, most tools are only useful for measuring circularity at the company-level. The available product-level tools require company specific and often sensitive data, which limits the possibility of using these tools for benchmarking in a commercial context. As companies are pressured to develop more circular products, understanding their market position with respect to their major competitors will help them develop a circular product strategy. This study created and tested a circularity toolset for benchmarking consumer electronics. Its target groups are corporate designers and engineers in the electronics industry. The aim of this paper is to describe the circularity toolset and results of the case study. Product circularity is difficult to measure with a single tool because of its broad concept. Therefore, we developed a new tool (Product Journey Mapping tool) and adapted existing tools (Circular Product Readiness tool and Disassembly Map tool) for benchmarking. These tools correspond to three levels of product circularity: product flow (macro-level), business strategy (meso-level) and product design (micro-level). A case study using two headphones was conducted to confirm the usefulness of the toolset. Through benchmarking headphones with the toolset, we got a comprehensive analysis of circularity based on quantitative and qualitative findings.