Abstract
The ports perceiving the circular economy prospects envisaged to implement it and today they aim to become circular hotspots and incorporate them as their one of the strategies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the concepts of circular economy and perceived impacts in transition of ports as circular hubs through in-depth literature study, to develop a conceptual framework and maturity levels of circular economy implications of the seaports to assess their scope of transition. After framing the maturity levels, the scope of the circular economy at seaports are assessed. Using the multi case study as the research strategy, four seaports in the North West European region are selected and their port documents are analysed with content analysis method with the framed circular levels as the coding categories. Thus, the outcome of the analysis are presented by generating the hierarchical chart of circular levels and mapping their evolution from 2004-2018 through a graph plot. By comparing the results of four seaports it was found that North Sea Ports are more mature in their circular economy transition and would be the possible first circular port in North West Europe. Hence this study definitively answers which seaport is more mature as per the framed circular economy levels and assess their path of transition towards becoming a circular hotspot.
Keywords: Circular Economy, Circular Ports, Circular Levels, Maturity Levels, North-western European ports, sustainability, Circular hub