Quantifying the Circular Economy Potential of Prolonging Lifetime in Energy Using Products: the Washing Machine case

Circular Economy contributes to sustainable development by decoupling economic growth from resource use and waste generation. Many circular strategies result in an extension of products lifetime. For energy using products, i.e. products that consume resources during their usage, life extension does not necessarily lead to economic and environmental gains. This is particularly relevant for washing machines, where several Circular Economy solutions such as pay per wash or the purchasing of refurbished appliances are becoming popular. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide an estimation of the economic and environmental potential of such Circular Economy alternatives against the current linear economy scenario, encompassing the effect of prolonging lifespan for an energy using product like washing machine. To do so, this research develops an assessment model to compute the economic and environmental impacts (in terms of users total cost of ownership and global warming potential) in the current households setting and in pay-per-wash and refurbishment alternatives, adopting the customer point of view and considering different washing habits. In the model, both alternatives lead to a washing machine life extension: in the first case, pay-per-wash offers high-quality and long-lasting products while, in the latter, refurbishment gives a second-life to washing machines. Then, a users’ survey is designed to collect the main data related to washing habits. Data from more than 150 Italian households are collected and used to feed the simulation model. Results show that, on average, both Circular Economy alternatives allow reducing CO2 emissions, but economic viability is far from obvious: only refurbishment allows achieving also economic savings to users.