抄録
Arguably born from the Sustainable Development (SD) paradigm, Circular Economy (CE) presently stands out amongst its sister concepts. The relationship between CE and the principle of SD remains unclear, although the two are connected. Despite excelling in environmental and economic aspects, CE literature is for the most part silent regarding the third aspect of SD: social equity. This study analyzes the relationship between the two concepts and how CE litarature has attempted to fill in the gap thus far. The literature seems unanimous in acknowledging the gap, yet the body of work that attempts to fill it is minuscule. This article emphasizes the importance of integrating social consideration to CE in developing countries, taking waste pickers (WPs) as an example. Environmental Justice concept can be a key tool for such integration. The study also points out that Japan, one of the developed countries, cannot be indifferent to social consideration for its CE policies. We conclude that more research is needed concerning how social aspects could be integrated into and strengthened in CE.
