Vol. 36 (2026): Volumen 36
Artículos de revisión

Circular Economy and its alignment with sustainable development: a systematic literature review

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  • Adalberto G Del Ángel Lara,
  • Arturo Briseño García,
  • Ana Luz Zorrilla del Castillo,
  • Joel Alejandro Cumpean-Luna
Adalberto G Del Ángel Lara
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
Arturo Briseño García
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
Ana Luz Zorrilla del Castillo
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
Joel Alejandro Cumpean-Luna
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2026.4665

Published 2026-03-18

How to Cite

Del Ángel Lara, A. G., Briseño García, A., Zorrilla del Castillo, A. L., & Cumpean-Luna, J. A. (2026). Circular Economy and its alignment with sustainable development: a systematic literature review. Acta Universitaria, 36, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2026.4665

Copyright (c) 2026 Adalberto G Del Ángel Lara, Arturo Briseño García, Ana Luz Zorrilla del Castillo, Joel Alejandro Cumpean-Luna

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The literature on circular economy (CE) and sustainable development exhibits uneven coverage of the three sustainability dimensions (social, economic, and environmental), with the social dimension being the least addressed. This article aims to analyze the congruence between CE practices and sustainable development as well as to identify a coherent theoretical link between those practices and the three dimensions. To this end, a systematic literature review was carried out, drawing primarily on Web of Science (WoS) and incorporating studies on sustainability, CE, and carbon performance. A systematic approach was applied to classify and examine the retrieved papers, integrating conceptual elements and theoretical frameworks. Results show a consistent theoretical articulation between CE and sustainability while confirming the comparatively limited attention to the social dimension in the literature. Finally, the study offers a rigorous and comprehensive synthesis of the state of the art and highlights relevant gaps for future research.

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