Consumer Behavior Change Circular Economy

Consumer Skepticism Slowing Circular Economy Growth

While the economic and environmental logic of a circular economy is compelling, a new report finds its widespread adoption hinges on a critical factor: Trust.

Published 4 months ago | About a 6 minute read

Image: Back Market's 2024 rebrand highlights the renewal aspect of electronics refurbishment. | Back Market

The British Standards Institute (BSI)’s 2025 Global Circularity study — developed in partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) — highlights current consumer sticking points around buying refurbished or secondhand products, and how building trust in quality and reliability can drive uptake of circular behaviors.

Based on a survey of 8,225 people across multiple countries, The Tipping Point: Building Trust in the Circularity Economy finds that despite growing concern around environmental issues, many consumers remain hesitant to buy secondhand, refurbished or repaired products due to concerns about quality (56 percent), safety (50 percent), reliability (49 percent) and hygiene (48 percent).

These perception issues are perpetuating the old intention-action gap when it comes to consumers aligning their purchases with their values. Although 68 percent of respondents say environmental impact motivates them to reuse, repair and recycle, far fewer are willing to purchase refurbished or recycled items:

Only 33 percent would consider buying secondhand electronics
29 percent would purchase refurbished furniture
25 percent would buy imperfect or “ugly” food.

This disconnect is slowing progress in the transition to a circular economy. The proportion of reused materials in the global economy has declined from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent in recent years, despite 76 percent of respondents acknowledging that their personal choices can contribute to greater sustainability.

While 86 percent of consumers believe governments and businesses should make the circular economy a priority, the report concludes that significant progress depends on building trust.

“The circular economy presents an immense opportunity for both people and the planet — enabling us to protect natural resources and reap economic benefits — yet trust remains a crucial barrier to adoption,” says BSI CEO Susan Taylor Martin. “While consumers routinely weigh price and quality in their purchasing decisions, reused, repaired or recycled goods introduce new questions around quality, safety and reliability.

“For circularity to thrive, businesses must move beyond sustainability messaging and bolster it by demonstrating genuine value, durability and trustworthiness – convincing consumers that circular options are as reliable as traditional products.”

Other factors fueling mistrust

Along with quality and safety concerns, other barriers hindering broader adoption of circular practices include:

Practical hurdles — such as convenience or increased cost. This (or the expectation of it) was the top factor preventing people from adopting circular behaviors or purchasing circular products (19 percent).
Information gaps, fragmented data, and fear of greenwashing — with 31.6 percent citing a lack of trust in sustainability claims as a deterrent.
Ingrained habits and attitudes — together with a lack of circularity knowledge and education.
On the business side, the complexity of transitioning to circular models and the need for intricate supply chain collaboration add further impediments.

Despite these barriers:

Consumer motivation towards circularity is robust, primarily driven by the desire to create positive environmental impacts (ranked 1st by 26 percent of respondents) and achieve cost savings (ranked 1st by 27 percent of respondents).
Financial incentives show strong potential; nearly one in two (48 percent) indicated that receiving money back for recycling would encourage participation.
While consumer awareness levels vary significantly between nations, a clear majority (86 percent) believe circularity should be a moderate or high priority for businesses and governments.

“A true circular economy requires a fundamental market transformation. It demands new business models, new value chains and the rewiring of financial flows,” says CISL CEO Lindsay Hooper. “Capital must shift decisively away from extractive, degenerative activity and towards investments that keep materials in use, regenerate natural systems and create long-term value.

“To drive system-wide change, we must move from the margins to the mainstream. Finance has a catalytic role to play,” Hooper adds. “From product-as-a-service models to repair, leasing and reverse logistics, circular business models challenge traditional ideas of ownership and asset value — they need innovative financing mechanisms to match. This report highlights where those mechanisms are emerging and what it will take to scale them.”

6 tips for brands

Encouragingly, three-quarters of consumers globally believe their purchasing behaviors can drive circular adoption, and high numbers identify as early adopters of circular choices. Circularity and the need to preserve resources are not divisive topics; the challenge is in facilitating the transition rather than making the case for it in the first place.

The report offers six takeaways for brands looking to enable the transition away from a linear to a circular economy:

Disrupt to drive change — The linear economy is embedded in all walks of life. Truly going circular will require significant disruption and a fundamental rethinking of economic models, so that the upfront costs of circularity are not prohibitive for consumers or for businesses. Existing markets — for example, clothing rental, recommerce or ‘ugly’ produce — offer models for how shaping this new economy.
Focus on quality above all — People are driven to engage in circularity by the desire to see positive environmental and sustainability outcomes, but they won’t part with their money unless they have faith in the quality and safety of the products and services in question. To get people comfortable with a whole new way of thinking about consumerism, talking about sustainability and the environmental benefits alone – while important – will not be enough to drive behavior change. For circular products and services to gain widespread acceptance, they must meet or exceed customer expectations regarding their performance, durability, reliability and overall quality.
Validate to reassure — Organizations can drive both sustainability and commercial success by building trust in the circular options they are introducing to the market. This means changing the misperception that ‘used’, ‘refurbished’ or ‘recycled’ equates to ‘inferior’ quality, safety, usability or longevity. Assurance of performance can directly confront this skepticism and provide a credible demonstration that circularity does not necessitate a compromise. Visible, recognized and trusted certification marks can help by confirming quality and performance based on objective assessment against established benchmarks.
Be transparent — Opacity creates fertile ground for greenwashing, which can diminish trust. If consumers cannot be confident that a circular option has genuine environmental benefits, they are unlikely to consider it in the first place. Again, assurance has a role to play here – in ensuring people feel claims are valid. 59 percent of consumers believe a recognized label that supports sustainability claims would build their trust in circular products’ credentials.
Money matters — Financial costs and economic incentives were identified as key drivers for the adoption of circular behaviors. Increased cost, or the expectation of this, was ranked highest as a barrier; whereas 48 percent stated that getting money back for recycling would encourage adoption. Financial elements can both encourage and discourage consumer circular behaviors – but policymakers should deploy tactics carefully. Measures such as implementing fines, for example, appear far less effective at encouraging circular behavior.
Work together — Transforming the economy is necessarily a global project. Individual companies or even countries can build a certain degree of trust, but scaling a circular economy requires industry-wide collaboration — both on platforms and technologies — and creating a common language and agreed rules of engagement. Harmonization through standardization can build trust by creating clarity, consistency and comparability.