Nudging for the circular economy? Overcoming barriers of mobile phone users in the post-consumption phase

In Germany, 200 million unused mobile phones are stockpiling in private households. These devices represent unused resources that are not put back into circulation. Hence, this research aims to identify main barriers mobile phone users face when participating in the Circular Economy in the post-consumption stage and based on this evaluates whether nudging can potentially address these barriers. To address these questions a user survey and semi-structured interviews with circular business model practitioners are carried out. The results show that a) for returning, selling, recycling, and enabling reuse a lack of knowledge, perceived behavior control, and emotional attachment, and b) for repairing a lack of social norm, and the cost are the most pronounced barriers. The interviews revealed that CBM practitioners lack knowledge about the concept of nudging. Arguments like a positive attitude towards mobile phone circularity, and the overall fulfillment of preconditions for nudging support the use of nudging. Contrastingly, for barriers like a lack of knowledge or high costs for repairing devices nudging might not be the direct fit. The research suggests that even though nudging might yield positive results, its implementation should be accompanied by further behavior change measures like education or financial incentives to address mobile phone stockpiling.