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Digital Technology's Role in Circular Waste Management: A Systematic Review

Business Strategy and the Environment

Published online on

Abstract

["Business Strategy and the Environment, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCombining circular economy ideas with digital tools offers a game‐changing way to tackle global sustainability problems. This paper focuses on how digital changes and circular economy models link up. A review has been conducted for 112 articles from 2021 to September 2025, using PRISMA‐2020 methodology. This study covered new tech like AI, IoT, blockchain, big data, and machine learning. It has been checked how these are used in environmental, social, and economic areas with respect to sustainable development goals (SDGs). The study shows that digital tech greatly boosts environmental advantages, mainly impacting responsible consumption/production (SDG 12) and climate action (SDG 13). This review points to job creation as a main socioeconomic advantage (SDG 8). However, there are still big problems in putting these ideas into action, like requiring lots of investment, keeping data safe, making systems work together, and handling tech waste. Moreover, a new three‐level idea that matches digital changes with SDG goals has been put forward. This idea gives a clear sense of how digital tools and circular economy ideas relate, while fixing some holes in past research methods. The research includes real‐world testing and mixes different fields for strong academic work. The results give key information for researchers, politicians, tech experts, and professionals who work on making circular economy systems digital. By showing clear links between tech progress and sustainability results, this study helps policy‐makers make smart decisions to create circular systems that are efficient, sustainable, and good for the economy worldwide.\n"]