Why Critical Circular Supply Chain Initiatives Stall
Circularity was once framed mainly as an environmental imperative, but it is no longer just about sustainability. In addition to reducing industrial emissions, cutting waste and saving valuable, dwindling resources, circularity can strengthen resilience, grow businesses and economies, drive competitiveness and create jobs. It is no longer about simply doing less harm; it is about doing better business.
Supply chain leaders are integral to the transition to a circular economy. From sourcing and production to logistics, recovery and reuse, supply chains play a key role in determining whether resources, products and their components are consumed once or kept in circulation for longer.
Circular supply chains are especially vital in Africa where they have the potential to create 11 million green jobs and boost the informal sector, the lifeblood of many African economies. This is according to Armand van Oostrom, a supply chain and ecosystem transformation advisor and senior lecturer and senior researcher at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. He was in South Africa to share his insights at the 2026 SAPICS Conference in Cape Town. Hosted annually by supply chain industry body SAPICS, this conference is Africa’s leading event for the supply chain profession. This year’s 48th annual SAPICS Conference saw 600 supply chain professionals from across Africa and beyond convene to learn, share knowledge and network.
Van Oostrom told attendees that 40% of South Africa’s municipal recycling is by informal recyclers. In Ghana, the informal e-waste trade is a USD100 million a year business. Managing the more than 100 million tonnes of waste generated in Africa annually is a further benefit of circular supply chains, he asserts.
The nine Rs of circularity are refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose and recover. He notes that while these provide direction, the performance of circular supply chains depends on coordination. Most organisations are falling short when it comes to designing circular supply chains. One reason is complexity. “Many good circular initiatives stall because there are too many actors, no single owner, conflicting incentives and objectives and partial fixes. One solution is to move from a chain to a system,” Van Oostrom says.
Two lenses are essential to making this shift work: ecosystem mapping and systemic co-design. Because circular supply chains depend on coordination across multiple actors, factors and policies, collaboration, ecosystem thinking and systemic co-design are essential to turn circularity ambitions into measurable impact. Without alignment between businesses, suppliers, customers, policymakers, investors and other stakeholders, promising circular initiatives can remain fragmented and struggle to scale.
The first step is mapping. Mapping is the first step to developing a successful circular ecosystem. It makes hidden actors, dependencies and bottlenecks visible, he says. Co-designing the system is the next step. “Frame the challenge using the ecosystem map. Align the actors. Run bounded experiments and learn from what works and what doesn’t,” Van Oostrom advises.
The talent gap is another challenge to overcome, Van Oostrom asserts. “We are currently dealing with isolated training, vague role profiles, little practical experience and weak coordination. This leads to slow pilots, stalled scale up and dependence on a few experts. What is needed is not just hiring talent, but building capability systemically,” he says.
To close the talent gap, he recommends starting with one “bounded talent experiment”. “Map one circular value stream and define three critical roles. Then, bring together one employer, one education partner, one intermediary and a policy institute. Test one work-based learning pathway with shared measures. Evaluate this, taking learnings to continue local experiments or as input for scaling experiments. “Since circularity is systemic, talent must be built systemically, too,” he stresses.