Creative Industries and the Circular Economy: A Reality Check Across Global Policy, Practice, and Research

This paper provides a reality check on the role of the creative industries in circular economy (CE) transitions. While sectors like manufacturing and construction are increasingly central to CE policy frameworks, creative production (the process of developing creative concepts into physical, experiential, or digital outputs) remains marginal and inconsistently represented. This research triangulates evidence from academic literature (2018–2024), national policy strategies, grey literature, and an exploratory online survey of creative professionals to provide macro-level, sector business norms, and niche innovation perspectives. The analysis reveals that circular activity across creative sub-sectors, including fashion, design, and architecture, is largely framed around material strategies like recycling and reuse. More transformative approaches, including redesign, refusal, and regenerative practice, remain rare. Sub-sectors such as advertising, games, film, and createch are notably under-researched, despite growing digital resource intensity and associated environmental impact. While survey respondents report practical engagement with circular practices, there is limited strategic framing or preparedness for incoming standards and regulations. This paper argues for a broader understanding of the CE in the creative industries in terms of value retention and as active agents in terms of their power to shape audience and consumer norms and system-level change.