REVIEW article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Sustainable Design and Construction
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1603851
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Circular Economy in the Construction Sector for SustainabilityView all articles
BRIDGING THE POLICY-PRACTICE DIVIDE: GLOBAL SYSTEMATIC MAPPING OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IMPLEMENTATION IN CONSTRUCTION WASTE
Provisionally accepted
- Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
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The construction industry generates over one-third of global waste and consumes 36% of global energy, highlighting the urgent need for a circular economy transition. Despite increasing government intervention, a persistent gap exists between policy development and operational implementation in construction and demolition waste (CDW) management. This systematic mapping study analyzed 1,842 high-relevance papers (2015-2025) selected from 5,417 publications to assess government-driven circular economy transitions. Advanced analytical methods appear in 32.4% of studies. However, only 12% provide validated tools for real-world policy deployment, exposing a stark implementation deficit. Geographic analysis reveals imbalances: policy-leading economies (China 28.4%, EU 31.8%, US 16.7%) dominate research, while high-waste countries like Brazil and India (3.7%) remain underrepresented. Economic policy instruments and cross-jurisdictional coordination mechanisms exhibit the largest research-practice gaps. We identify three critical priorities: mathematical optimization models for policy calibration, frameworks tailored to developing contexts, and coordination mechanisms for multi-stakeholder governance. This study proposes a tiered research agenda addressing both immediate operational needs and long-term systemic integration. The methodology offers a replicable approach for systematically identifying research-practice translation gaps and prioritizing implementation-focused research directions in sustainability policy domains.
Keywords: Construction and demolition waste, Circular economy, Government intervention, Policy Analysis, bibliometric analysis
Received: 01 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Al-Kaabi, Abdella and Gunduz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mohammed Al-Kaabi, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
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