Extended reality for circular economy: a scoping review

1 Introduction

The past years have seen a rapid increase in the application of extended reality (XR). This is mainly because XR – including augmented (AR), virtual (VR), and mixed reality (MR) – yields a range of advantages: Previous research has demonstrated the potential of XR across multiple application areas, including increasing productivity, reducing costs, and enhancing safety in industrial contexts (Alhakamy, 2024), supporting human capabilities and decision-making processes (Casini, 2022), and facilitating education and learning (Burke et al., 2025). This is because XR provides immersive and interactive experiences that help individuals grasp complex topics (Fernández-Cerero et al., 2024) and improve both understanding and knowledge retention (Rangel-de Lázaro and Duart, 2023). In this context, a field that might profit from using XR technologies is circular economy (CE): CE has long been identified as a key part of digital transformation processes and the twin transition (Alhawari et al., 2021). It is commonly described through practices such as reducing, reusing, and recycling resources, while also emphasizing the need for systemic change achieved through greater consumer responsibility and the implementation of more sustainable business models (Kirchherr et al., 2017). CE aims to create a regenerative system that minimizes resource consumption, waste, emissions, and energy loss (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017) and, due to its potential to support sustainable development and climate goals, has found its way into institutional and political agendas (Dragomir and Dumitru, 2024). Despite this, previous work has found that members of the public often have little to no knowledge about CE and how their lives might be influenced by different circular processes (dos Santos Leite Gonella et al., 2024a). In parallel, while knowledge on and interest in CE is significantly higher across industries, there are challenges like budgetary restrictions, limited detail knowledge, or regulatory limitations (Guerra and Leite, 2021). XR technologies have been proposed as tools that can support and accelerate the transition toward CE practices by enabling immersive visualizations and simulations, promoting sustainable behaviors and decision-making, and enhancing stakeholder engagement (Soman et al., 2024). XR might help spread awareness and increase knowledge of CE for the public while at the same time offering remedies for industry challenges regarding the adoption of CE principles. Despite these suspected benefits, there is no comprehensive overview of existing XR solutions and applications that are deployed in a CE context. Such a synthesis of extant approaches, however, might help the public to understand the relevance of CE and inspire companies to conceive XR-solutions that support a more circular orientation of their practices. Additionally, understanding the gaps in research and practice might guide future fields of interest and technological advancements within CE. To close this gap, we conducted a scoping review consolidating existing work that presents CE-related XR solutions. Our results show that industry-oriented XR applications in the context of CE are much more widespread than those for the public. For industry, XR use focuses on resource planning, reuse and recycling of materials, and digital twinning, while public approaches serve education and awareness. Further, most applications are developed using technologies that are readily available in the application environment.

2 Related work

The presented review discusses two strands of research (Alhakamy, 2024): XR as an enabler for learning, decision-support and process improvements, and process improvements (Casini, 2022) and CE as a transformation paradigm that requires both social and industrial behavioral changes. Although both strands are being intensively examined in their own right, there is still a lack of a consolidated view of how XR is specifically used in CE contexts and which CE aspects are thereby addressed.

2.1 XR technologies and their application contexts

XR is an umbrella term that describes immersive technologies, including VR, AR, and MR, spanning the continuum between fully real and fully virtual environments (Rauschnabel et al., 2022). While VR usually describes technologies where the user is in a fully computer-generated environment that completely immerses them (Milgram and Kishino, 1994), AR describes technologies where digital content is integrated into the view of a real environment (Azuma, 1997). The definition of MR is not consistent across the literature (Speicher et al., 2019). Some authors use MR as an umbrella term for environments in which real and virtual elements are combined, thereby encompassing AR (Milgram and Kishino, 1994). Others define MR as a distinct technology that extends AR through advanced spatial understanding, enabling virtual and real objects to interact realistically, for example, through correct mutual occlusion and spatial anchoring (Skarbez et al., 2021). In accordance with this interpretation, and (Casini, 2022) we define MR as an XR technology in which virtual content is persistently anchored to the physical environment, and can interact with real-world geometry. While acknowledging the broader interpretations of MR, this review distinguishes between AR and MR in accordance with the terminology used in the primary studies. This approach reflects both the terminology adopted by the respective authors and the practical differences in how these technologies are implemented and used in real-world applications. Overall, XR technologies are used in a range of disciplines and in various application contexts and are increasingly viewed as a versatile socio-technical tool that can support learning, empowerment, and process-support across various application areas (Huang et al., 2025; Lin et al., 2024; Jeong et al., 2025). Outside of the CE context, the relevance stems in particular from XR’s ability to present information in an interactive, immersive, and context-specific manner. This makes complex or abstract content more tangible (Acevedo et al., 2024), which can also lead to improved learning outcomes (Conrad et al., 2024). In addition to this effect, the combination of visualization, experience and interactivity can also promote understanding, engagement, and the ability to act more effectively in many contexts compared to conventional media (e.g., magazines) (Conrad et al., 2024; Chen et al., 2024). As a result, XR is a powerful tool that not only effectively facilitates knowledge transfer but that might also help people to better understand situations, make informed decisions, and act with greater confidence.

At the same time, XR applications differ greatly in terms of technical characteristics, level of maturity and evaluation design (Helgert et al., 2026), and significantly differ in their field of application. For the purposes of this paper, we distinguish between public- and industry-oriented applications, as these contexts involve different stakeholders, objectives, and requirements and consequently shape how XR is used and what it is intended to support. In industrial scenarios, XR is often associated with goals such as increasing productivity, reducing cost and increasing occupational safety, for example, through assistive instructions, remote support or training-related simulations (Alhakamy, 2024). In addition, XR is described as a means to expand human capabilities and decision-making processes, e.g., through situational visualization of complex information or through experiencing difficult-to-grasp connections in immersive environments (Casini, 2022). In public-oriented scenarios, XR is often used to raise awareness, impart knowledge, and motivate (Burns et al., 2003; Helgert et al., 2021), for example, in educational experiences, museum and exhibition settings, public information campaigns, or interactive experiences addressing societal and environmental issues. By presenting information in a multimedia, immersive, and interactive manner, XR can make such topics more tangible and create experiences that differ from conventional forms of communication.

Overall, research to date shows that XR cannot be reduced to individual functionalities but rather can and should be understood as a medium for learning and informed decision-making, as well as a system for supporting processes. However, it remains unclear how the various roles of XR can be applied to the context of CE and which stakeholders are addressed to what extent.

2.2 Circular economy

CE aims to close material cycles, extend product life cycles, and reduce resource consumption through strategies such as reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling (Ekins et al., 2020). In practice, however, CE is not a monolithic goal, but rather encompasses a range of measures that differ depending on the stakeholders involved (van Bueren et al., 2023). In this regard, the distinction between public and industrial actors is particularly relevant, as both groups fulfill different roles in the transition towards circularity (Kirchherr et al., 2017; Geissdoerfer et al., 2017).

Members of the public primarily influence circularity through consumption- and use-related practices, including purchasing decisions, product care and maintenance, repair, reuse, and disposal (Shevchenko et al., 2023). However, studies indicate persistent gaps in public knowledge and understanding of CE and its implications for everyday activities (dos Santos Leite Gonella et al., 2024b). Public-oriented CE measures therefore often focus on raising awareness, communicating circular principles, and encouraging behavioral change. Industrial actors, in contrast, shape many of the structural conditions that enable circular practices through decisions concerning product design, production, logistics, maintenance, recovery, remanufacturing, and end-of-life processes (Lopes de Sousa Jabbour et al., 2019). Implementing such changes requires coordinated action at the organizational level and is associated with various practical barriers despite a generally high level of interest in CE (Guerra and Leite, 2021).

Despite these distinct roles, public and industrial actors do not operate independently. The availability, accessibility, and design of circular products and services influence whether members of the public can adopt circular practices, while consumer awareness, acceptance, and demand affect the viability of circular products and services. Empirical research therefore describes the relationship between consumers and manufacturing companies as symbiotic: consumers may encourage companies to adopt circular principles, while companies can enable circular practices and increase awareness through the products, services, and information they provide (Corsini et al., 2024).

This distinction provides an important link to the different roles of XR outlined in the previous section. While public-oriented CE initiatives may benefit particularly from XR’s potential to support learning, awareness, and engagement, industrial CE applications may draw on its capabilities for process support, training, visualization, and decision-making. Examining both application contexts can therefore reveal how the different roles of XR correspond to the distinct but interdependent roles of public and industrial actors in the transition towards circularity.

To structure these heterogeneous CE activities more systematically, we rely on the 10R-framework, as it allows us to differentiate circular measures with significantly greater granularity than general CE definitions (European Commission and Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2020). The 10R-framework enables us to identify whether XR applications are aimed more at downstream end-of-life strategies such as recycling, support reuse or refurbishment, or address higher-value strategies that avoid resource consumption. We therefore use the 10R-framework as a central classification scheme, as it allows for the greatest differentiation while also being well-established and interpretable (see Figure 1).

2.3 XR in the context of CE

CE has long been discussed as a component of digital transformation processes and twin transition (Alhawari et al., 2021). However, there is still no comprehensive overview of which XR solutions have been developed, evaluated or conceptualized in the CE context and how these solutions can be systematically classified according to stakeholders, addressed CE strategies and technical implementation. This creates two gaps for research and practice (1): the public only has limited access to understandable, tangible representations of circular connections, although knowledge deficits are documented; (2) at the same time, members of the public are employees and innovations can only be created if these individuals combine their specific professional know-how with CE ideas (Casini, 2022). Companies lack a structured map of the XR approaches that exist for circular processes and the implementation and evaluation patterns that can be derived from them, especially in the context of practical restrictions (Guerra and Leite, 2021).

2.4 Previous reviews on XR and circular economy applications

Several secondary publications provide partial overviews of XR in CE-related contexts. Chu and Pan Chu and Pan (2023) systematically reviewed XR applications for sustainable manufacturing and classified existing work according to stages of the product lifecycle. Their findings indicate that research has focused particularly on marketing and reuse or recycling, while design and product-use stages have received less attention. Caldas et al. Caldas et al. (2022) reviewed the contribution of several digital and assessment tools, including AR and VR, to circular construction and climate-change mitigation. Their review found a strong emphasis on downstream strategies such as recycling and reuse. Tan et al. Tan et al. (2026) examined CE strategies and enabling digital technologies in railway infrastructure, linking potential technological applications to the 10R-framework. In addition, Prakash et al. Prakash et al. (2025) provide a broader literature-based overview of XR for environmental sustainability, including education, conservation, public engagement, and industrial applications.

These publications demonstrate growing interest in the relationship between immersive technologies and sustainability practices. However, their scope is often broader than CE, limited to specific industrial sectors, or concerned with a wider range of digital tools rather than XR specifically. In addition, most of them do not systematically compare public- and industry-oriented XR applications.

First, it is unclear in which domains public-oriented XR applications are actually located and which CE aspects they address in relation to the 10R-framework. In addition, how these applications are technically implemented is crucial for replicability and transfer. This leads to the following research questions:

• RQ1a: What domains relevant for the public utilize XR in the context of CE?
• RQ1b: What aspects of CE relevant for the public are addressed by existing XR applications?
• RQ1c: How are public-oriented XR applications executed on a technical level?

Secondly, the same applies to industry-oriented XR applications: Here too, there is a lack of overview and systematics of which industrial domains use XR for CE goals, which CE strategies are in the foreground and which technical implementations dominate. This leads to the research questions:

• RQ2a: What domains relevant for industries utilize XR in the context of CE?
• RQ2b: What aspects of CE relevant for industries are addressed by existing XR applications?
• RQ2c: How are industry-oriented XR applications executed on a technical level?

3 Materials and methods

This section describes the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as the process of identifying articles and their screening phases according to the PRISMA guidelines (Moher et al., 2009; Page et al., 2021). The coding scheme used for the selection of relevant articles is also presented.

3.1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Primary studies that developed, described, or empirically evaluated specific XR applications related to CE were included. These included studies that implemented or developed XR applications for CE, evaluated existing XR applications for CE (e.g., in terms of usability, acceptance, effectiveness, or learning success) or investigated XR as a learning tool within CE. A study was considered CE-related if its primary application addressed CE directly or one or more of the strategies described in the 10R-framework (e.g., Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, or Recover). Applications targeting these strategies, such as reducing food waste, promoting material reuse, supporting repair activities, or improving recycling processes, were therefore considered eligible even if the term “Circular Economy” was not explicitly used by the authors. Studies addressing broader sustainability topics, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the Twin Transition (TT), were included only if the XR application could be clearly mapped to at least one of the strategies of the 10R-framework or explicitly addressed CE objectives. Secondary studies, including systematic reviews and literature-based book chapters, were not coded as individual XR applications and were excluded from the analysis. However, relevant secondary literature identified through the search was retained as contextual literature posited in the discussion section. We excluded studies that mentioned XR or CE only in passing without presenting or evaluating a concrete XR application or concept, used XR for topics unrelated to CE or any of the strategies of the 10R-framework, or were purely technical reports or surveys without a concrete CE application context. Only studies published between 2015 and 2025 were considered as this timeframe aligns with the emergence and availability of modern XR devices.

3.2 Identification of articles

The literature review was conducted using the databases ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, SpringerLink, and Web of Science in February 2026. Relevant papers cited in the references of the selected literature were additionally included. The same semantic search string was used for all databases, with only the syntax adjusted accordingly ((“Circular Economy” OR “CE” OR “Sustainable Development Goals” OR “SDG” OR “Twin Transition”) AND (“Virtual Reality” OR “VR” OR “Mixed Reality” OR “MR” OR “Augmented Reality” OR “Extended Reality” OR ‘AR’ OR “XR”). Although several abbreviations included in the search string (e.g., CE, AR, and MR) are ambiguous and may retrieve irrelevant records, a highly sensitive search strategy was deliberately adopted. This approach prioritized recall over precision, accepting additional manual screening to minimize the risk of excluding relevant studies.

The search strategy identified 8,533 records, of which 1,718 duplicates were removed. The remaining 6,815 records were screened in two stages. During the first stage, title and abstract screening was conducted independently by the three authors. The records were divided among the three reviewers due to the large number of identified studies. All reviewers applied the same predefined eligibility criteria throughout both screening stages. In the second stage, the remaining 181 records underwent full-text screening, again using the predefined eligibility criteria. Each reviewer assessed the full texts assigned to them and proposed records for inclusion. The full-text screening resulted in 28 records that were relevant to the topic of XR and CE. Following an additional classification by publication type, four records were identified as secondary literature, including systematic or narrative reviews and literature-based chapters. Consequently, the final analytical sample comprised 24 primary studies. All 24 potentially eligible records were discussed jointly by the three authors to verify their eligibility. Any disagreements regarding inclusion or exclusion were resolved through discussion until consensus was reached. The complete screening process is illustrated in the PRISMA flow diagram shown in Figure 2.

3.3 Coding scheme

Following study selection, the included records were coded using a structured codebook developed inductively from the content of the identified publications. The codebook contained operational definitions for all coding categories, which were derived from the research questions and refined during the screening process. Three authors independently coded the studies using this codebook. To ensure comparability between public- and industry-oriented applications, identical coding categories were applied to both domains.

The coding scheme comprised three main categories. First, application domain (RQ1a/RQ2a) captured the context in which XR was applied to support CE, such as awareness and participation, education, product lifecycle management, or repair and recovery. Second, CE strategy (RQ1b/RQ2b) classified the addressed principles according to the 10R-framework (e.g., reuse, repair, repurpose, and recycle). Third, technological implementation (RQ1c/RQ2c) documented the technical characteristics of the proposed solution, including the XR technology used (VR, AR, or MR), the employed hardware and the maturity of the solution (conceptual proposal or implemented application). The coded data formed the basis for the subsequent analysis, enabling a systematic comparison of public- and industry-oriented XR applications and the identification of common patterns, differences, and research gaps.

4 Results

The following discussion examines the identified XR applications in the context of CE from three perspectives: relevant domains of application, addressed CE strategies based on the 10R-framework, and the underlying technical design of the systems.

4.1 Relevant domains for public and industries for XR-CE

To answer RQ1a, the publications identified in the public-oriented context were categorized according to thematic domains. The results show that XR is primarily used in four areas in the context of CE. A key area of application concerns raising public awareness and participation of sustainability and CE issues. An identified AR application uses accessible and interactive communication to introduce CE principles and encourage public engagement with sustainable practices (Katika et al., 2022). These works also deal with the involvement of members of the public in CE-related topics and discourses by placing circular questions in context. Thus, these applications are aimed less at concrete instructions for action and more at participation, understanding, and reflection. A second field lies in the area of education and learning. The available work covers both the education of students (Lee et al., 2025) and children (Karyono et al., 2024; Balcha et al., 2025). In these applications, XR primarily functions as a didactic medium that allows users to interactively experience circular principles, material cycles, and sustainability-related decisions. However, applications that focus on behavioral change and consumer behavior are becoming more common. These include VR applications that address plastic consumption, draw attention to its consequences, and link CE-relevant aspects (Chirico et al., 2020). Sustainable food consumption is also addressed by XR, for example, to prevent food waste (Hsaio et al., 2025) or to raise awareness for this issue (Zulkarnain and Gere, 2025). The final area of application is in the field of resource-related everyday practices, particularly with regard to water, waste, and food. Here, MR applications are used to visualize circular water systems and draw attention to water waste (Lee et al., 2025). AR applications are also used to make waste problems visible and transfer them into creative artistic contexts (Karyono et al., 2024). There are also applications that promote an understanding of food storage conditions in the refrigerator and thus indirectly contribute to the reduction of food waste (Bordegoni et al., 2026).

To answer RQ2a, the publications were categorized according to their areas of application in industrial and professional sectors. The results show that XR is frequently used in CE contexts in the areas of construction and architecture, product life cycle, dismantling, repair and reuse, as well as training and further education. Starting with the first area of construction and architecture, XR has been used for the planning of sustainable buildings (Wibranek and Tessmann, 2022), for VR visualization of circularly usable building materials in a digital twin (O’Grady et al., 2021), and for visualization of buildings and associated data in digital twins (Schützenhofer et al., 2024). Support for the composition of support beams for later reuse also belongs in this field (Zahiri, 2024). Finally, there are also applications in the field of sustainable product and design decisions, such as the design and creation of user-centered furniture and sustainable urban furnishing (Yu et al., 2025). In the second major area, the product life cycle applications for sustainable manufacturing and the life cycle assessment and dismantling of batteries and rechargeable batteries were addressed (Scheffer et al., 2025). The visualization of end-of-life data in a virtual twin (Sul et al., 2025; Wieser et al., 2024) was also identified. In the next focus area, dismantling, repair, recovery, and reuse, AR applications were identified that addressed the dismantling and recovery of washing machines (Lorenz et al., 2025), as well as reuse, repair, and replacement scenarios in test environments (Mao et al., 2025). An XR application was also identified that explicitly supports and extends CE strategies such as repair and maintenance through remote functionalities (Ciano et al., 2025). Similar to the focus in the public sector, training and education are also important anchors in the industrial sector. Training courses using VR/AR for CE (Acerbi et al., 2026; Horváth et al., 2023) and continuing education approaches for industrial design in the context of the life cycle of building materials (Zhang et al., 2024) are presented. Table 1 shows the domains.

TABLE 1. Mapping identified application domains to associated public- and industry-oriented XR publications.

4.2 Circular economy strategies covered in XR research for public and industry

Regarding RQ1b and RQ2b, identified publications in the public and in the industrial sector were categorized according to the CE strategies of the 10R-framework shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2. Mapping CE strategies to associated publications obtained during the Review

Concerning RQ1b, our analysis showed that only four out of the ten CE strategies were addressed by the publications we evaluated. In the strategy Rethink, XR technologies are used to change how individuals perceive environmental issues and their own role in sustainable systems. Katika et al. (Katika et al., 2022) use an AR application to introduce CE principles to the public and engage them with sustainable practices. Similarly, immersive technologies can support sustainable food consumption by educating users about the environmental impacts of food production and encouraging more responsible consumer choices (Zulkarnain and Gere, 2025). The CE strategy Reduce was discussed the most in the evaluated publications. Reduce aims to decrease resource consumption and waste by influencing the public’s awareness and everyday decision-making. For example, XR can be used to illustrate the impacts of plastic consumption and waste (Chirico et al., 2020). While other publications focus on reducing food waste through interactive systems that inform users about surplus food or encourage more sustainable purchasing and storage practices (Hsaio et al., 2025; Bordegoni et al., 2026). In addition, AR-based educational applications may promote zero-waste lifestyles by encouraging users to reduce disposable materials (Karyono et al., 2024). Reuse is addressed by using XR to encourage individuals to extend the life cycle of materials, components, and resources through alternative use cases and applications. For instance, AR-based educational approaches demonstrate how plastic waste can be transformed into creative art projects (Karyono et al., 2024). Similarly, AR was used to educate about the possibilities of reusing different materials (Katika et al., 2022). In educational contexts, immersive technologies can be used to illustrate circular systems, for example, in water management (Lee et al., 2025). Finally, the strategy Recycle played a role in four publications. Here, XR is used to promote the public’s awareness of recycling opportunities and strategies. Immersive technologies are used to visualize the environmental consequences of plastic consumption and waste (Chirico et al., 2020). In an educational AR application users are taught how waste can be sorted properly (Balcha et al., 2025), while a VR system informs users about how materials can be processed and reintegrated into production processes (Zhang et al., 2024). Additionally, using AR to show how plastic waste can be turned into artworks is also a form of recycling (Karyono et al., 2024).

Regarding RQ2b, we found that in the industrial sector, one of the main focuses of research in XR lies on the Reuse of components, infrastructure and technical assets. For example, AR systems that guide technicians in deciding if a component should be reused, repaired, or replaced based on diagnostics data (Mao et al., 2025) or AR disassembly systems that help recover reusable parts from appliances such as washing machines (Lorenz et al., 2025). Other research addresses reuse at the level of buildings and infrastructure, for instance, by developing digital frameworks and visualization tools that assess the potential to repurpose existing industrial buildings instead of demolishing them (Reisinger et al., 2024). In similar contexts, digital tools such as BIM and virtual agents are used with XR technologies to support lifecycle-oriented decision-making that prioritizes reuse and reduces the need for new resources (Schützenhofer et al., 2024). XR research also focuses on Repair, the use of immersive technologies to assist technicians in identifying faults and performing repair tasks more effectively. For example, augmented reality systems can provide real-time diagnostic information and visual guidance during maintenance procedures (Mao et al., 2025). Additionally, educational approaches using immersive technologies aim to train future engineers in sustainable practices, including maintenance and repair-oriented thinking as part of CE principles (Horváth et al., 2023). Recycling also receives a lot of attention from researchers. Recycling is primarily addressed for the purpose of promoting material recovery, waste reduction, and improved lifecycle decision-making. XR applications can assist stakeholders in identifying recycling opportunities across product lifecycles and supporting sustainable manufacturing practices (Lorenz et al., 2025). XR is also used in the context of building infrastructure, where immersive technologies help to evaluate circularity for construction (Schützenhofer et al., 2024). Similarly, VR can aid in the process of upcycling (Yu et al., 2025). Recover received a little less attention from researchers within the publications we evaluated. When it comes to recovery, XR technologies can be used to make building materials like wood and steel recoverable, when a building is disassembled (O’Grady et al., 2021; Sul et al., 2025). In addition, there are VR-based educational applications that aim to increase the awareness regarding sustainable materials and their lifecycles (Zhang et al., 2024). In the context of Rethink, XR technologies provide the opportunity to encourage stakeholders to reconsider existing production, design and consumption practices. Publications included in our analysis focus on the utilization of XR to foster CE mindsets and the adoption of more sustainable practices and solutions (Acerbi et al., 2026; Horváth et al., 2023; Rumeser, 2025). For example, one publication utilizes a serious game that allows participants to explore the environmental impacts of decisions and reflect on more sustainable alternatives in the planning of port infrastructure (Rumeser, 2025). For several circular economy strategies, only a very small number of relevant publications were identified. Specifically, we found only one or two publications addressing the strategies Refuse, Reduce, Refurbish and Repurpose. In these publications XR is shown as a way to help reduce resource consumption, enable sustainable manufacturing practices, and explore alternative uses for materials or products (Horváth et al., 2023; Schützenhofer et al., 2024; Yu et al., 2025; Mao et al., 2025). Remanufacture was not discussed at all in the identified publications.

4.3 Technical design

Addressing RQ1c and RQ2c, examining the type of technologies used to design rich XR environments and applications for XR reveals both similarities and differences between applications for public and industrial use. Table 3 shows an overview of which publications obtained as part of the review deal with MR, VR, and AR, and whether they present a fully developed application or merely a conceptual development of XR use cases.

TABLE 3. Mapping XR technologies and development status to associated publications obtained during the review.

It becomes apparent that–at least in part due to the higher number of publications presenting industrial rather than public applications–the range of applications for public contexts is considerably smaller than that for industrial applications: While there are examples for at least one concept and concrete application per type of XR (AR, MR, VR) in industrial settings, there are no AR concepts and neither ideas nor developed software using MR.

Beyond this high-level examination of technologies, the coding of obtained publications allows for deeper insights into technological and developmental approaches: First, the HoloLens 2 by Microsoft is used as an HMD for AR purposes for the public (Lee et al., 2025), all the while it is being used for MR purposes in industry settings (Zahiri, 2024; Sul et al., 2025). When the HoloLens 2 is not used, many applications rely on mobile phones to display AR content for both public (Karyono et al., 2024; Balcha et al., 2025; Hsaio et al., 2025) and industry (Wibranek and Tessmann, 2022) applications. One advantage of this technical implementation lies within reduced costs for additional HMD hardware–especially for wide-spread public-oriented applications. Software developed for the HoloLens 2 usually uses the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) provided by Microsoft (Sul et al., 2025), at times combined with the Rhino Grashopper software (Zahiri, 2024) and Fologram (Zahiri, 2024; Yu et al., 2025) for object and layer manipulation of virtual models and objects. Industry MR applications further used Unity (Sul et al., 2025) as a game engine, as well as META-LIVE for environment design (Yu et al., 2025) and Visual Studio for general-purpose coding (Sul et al., 2025).

For VR applications for the broader public, our single identified publication used an Oculus Rift HMD (Chirico et al., 2020). In contrast, in industry settings, HMDs such as the HTC Vive (O’Grady et al., 2021) and Oculus Quest 2 (Zhang et al., 2024) were used. In these settings, Unity was most commonly used as a development engine (Zhang et al., 2024; O’Grady et al., 2021; Schützenhofer et al., 2024), followed by supplementary uses of Revit (O’Grady et al., 2021), the 8xr Game Engine (Yu et al., 2025), and Autodesk 3ds Max (O’Grady et al., 2021).

5 Discussion

While the use of XR in CE is an emerging field of research, our analysis shows that not all CE strategies receive equal attention. Research on XR applications for CE is unevenly distributed across the two primary stakeholder groups, public and industry, with public-oriented applications concentrated in four main domains: awareness and participation, education and learning, and consumption related behavioral change in everyday practices such as food, waste, or water management. In contrast, XR research in industrial contexts covers almost all CE principles, with at least one publication.

5.1 Public-oriented XR applications for circular economy

Regarding RQ1, the findings indicate that, in the public context, XR is primarily used to raise awareness of environmental and CE issues, to educate individuals about these topics, and to encourage reflection that may facilitate behavioral change. These aspects represent the areas with which individuals most frequently interact with in everyday life and consumption practices. In contrast, CE strategies such as Repurpose or Remanufacture play a comparatively minor role in private, household, or non-industry public contexts. The identified publications regarding the strategy of Rethink challenge existing perceptions of production, consumption, and resource use. By visualizing complex systems and environmental impacts in interactive and accessible ways, these applications encourage users to reconsider established linear practices and reflect on alternative circular approaches. Five of the analyzed studies focus on the principle Reduce. This comparably strong representation in the literature may be explained by the fact that individual consumption behavior plays a crucial role in environmental impacts. Household consumption patterns directly shape production systems and contribute significantly to resource use and emissions, since individuals regularly make consumption-related decisions in everyday life (Nita et al., 2017). Supporting individuals in reducing waste and managing their consumption more consciously is therefore considered a promising approach to promoting more environmentally sustainable behavior. A similar observation applies to the principle of Reuse. Increasing awareness and educating individuals about opportunities to reuse products and resources can foster more reflective consumption and attitudes. Recycling is again a topic the public is confronted with on a regular basis. Therefore, the analyzed studies focus on fostering knowledge about correct waste sorting and recycling synthetic and organic materials and resources.

5.2 Industry-oriented XR applications for circular economy

Regarding RQ2, our analysis shows that there is at least one study for all but one of the CE strategies of the 10R-framework. This may be explained by the fact that each strategy aligns with one or more phases of the industrial product lifecycle. From an industrial perspective, all strategies therefore represent relevant intervention points for improving resource efficiency and extending product lifetimes. At the same time, the reviewed studies reveal an uneven emphasis among the strategies. In particular, Reuse and Repair receive substantial attention. This may be the case because these strategies are closely tied to operational activities such as inspection, maintenance, and component replacement, where XR technologies can provide immediate practical benefits. XR systems are well suited to support these tasks by overlaying contextual information, guiding technicians through complex procedures, and visualizing hidden structures or system states. This supports circular economy goals by helping organizations prioritize repair and maintenance over premature replacement, ultimately prolonging asset lifecycles and reducing resource consumption.

In regard to Recycling in industrial contexts, XR technologies are applied to support the identification, separation, and recovery of materials and components at the end of product lifecycles. Through augmented visualizations and digital models these systems assist workers and designers in understanding material compositions, guiding disassembly processes, and evaluating recycling or recovery options. These applications align with the broader trend toward digitally supported material management, especially in the construction sector (Keles et al., 2025). Strategies such as Rethink, Refurbish, and Recover appear less frequently but highlight XR’s potential to support more systemic CE interventions. For example, immersive environments can help stakeholders explore complex resource flows, simulate lifecycle impacts, or develop new competencies related to circular production systems. The fact that these strategies did not receive as much attention aligns with previous work, highlighting the fact that research on CE often disregards the systemic change that is necessary for the adoption of CE practices (Kirchherr et al., 2017).

The strategies Refuse, Reduce, and Repurpose are only sparsely represented in the reviewed literature. Existing studies indicate that XR technologies can support refuse and reduce by enabling evaluation of material choices and product designs in early stages, helping to avoid unnecessary production and resource use. In repurpose scenarios XR and AI tools support the redesign of discarded materials into new products through visualization and AR-assisted fabrication. The relatively small number of publications may be explained by the fact that XR applications are currently more often implemented in operational tasks such as repair or recycling.

5.3 Technical design of extended reality inventions for circular economy

The limited technological diversity observed in public-oriented XR applications may reflect the need for broadly accessible and scalable solutions. The wide availability of smartphones may be beneficial to lower the barriers for adoption among the public. In contrast, industry settings can integrate highly specialized XR hardware more easily. Crucially, a number of papers do not disclose the software and hardware solution(s) used for their projects (e.g., Horváth et al., 2023; Bordegoni et al., 2026; Wibranek and Tessmann, 2022; Lorenz et al., 2025, and more). This not only makes answering research questions RQ1c and RQ2c more difficult, but also limits reproducibility of the developed applications and feasibility of XR concepts. There further does not seem to be a common standard for developing XR applications for CE purposes; instead, it seems that researchers tend to use soft- and hardware that is currently available to them (e.g., through projects, their labs, or application environments).

5.4 Comparison between public and industry applications

The distinction between public- and industry-oriented applications should not be understood as a strict separation between two independent fields. Previous research emphasizes that circular demand and supply can reinforce each other, as consumer interest may encourage companies to expand circular products and services, while companies can facilitate circular behavior by making such offerings accessible and understandable (Corsini et al., 2024).

This interdependence also provides a different perspective on the uneven coverage of the 10R strategies in the reviewed XR literature. The absence of public-oriented applications for strategies such as Refuse and Repair does not necessarily indicate that these strategies are irrelevant to members of the public. Consumer-oriented CE research explicitly identifies refusing unnecessary products, selecting repairable alternatives, maintaining products, and engaging in repair as relevant consumer contributions to circularity (Shevchenko et al., 2023). Rather, their absence from the identified XR publications indicates an application gap. Some functions currently found in industry-oriented XR systems may therefore be transferable to public contexts. For example, AR-supported fault diagnosis, component identification, and repair guidance developed for professional technicians could also be utilized to help consumers assess whether household products can be repaired rather than replaced. Similarly, industrial applications that visualize lifecycle data could be translated into consumer-oriented tools that communicate durability, repairability, resource use, or available circular alternatives before purchase. Industrial applications regarding disassembly practices could also improve the public understanding of recycling pathways and end-of-life processes. Conversely, concepts developed for public education and awareness may also have value in industrial settings. Immersive applications that visualize environmental consequences could be adapted for the training of employees or decision-makers, thereby supporting the understanding of CE practices within an organization.

5.5 Comparison with previous secondary research

The findings of the present review are partly consistent with previous secondary research, while also providing a more differentiated view of XR applications in CE. Chu and Pan (2023) identified a comparatively strong concentration of XR research in the marketing and reuse or recycling stages of the product lifecycle. This corresponds with our finding that Reuse, Repair, and Recycling are recurring themes in industrial applications. Similarly, Caldas et al. (2022) found that circular construction research predominantly addresses closing-loop strategies, particularly Reuse and Recycling. Our study synthesis supports the relevance of these strategies in industry related XR applications in general. Tan et al. (2026) outline a broad potential role for digital technologies across all strategies of the 10R-framework in railway infrastructure. However, our analysis of primary XR studies indicates that the existence of such potential should be distinguished from evidence provided by implemented or empirically evaluated XR applications as not every strategy is represented by a concrete XR application or empirical investigation.

5.6 Implications for research and practice

The results highlight a difference in how XR technologies are currently applied across stakeholder groups. This suggests that XR fulfills different functional roles within CE, depending on the stakeholder context: as an educational and engagement medium in the public sector and as a decision-support and process optimization tool in the industrial sector. Researchers and industrial actors developing XR solutions for CE should therefore consider the specific stakeholder context and design applications that address the different needs of these groups. At the same time, the findings indicate that XR may also serve as a bridge between these stakeholder groups. By increasing the number and accessibility of XR applications that communicate CE principles, knowledge gaps among members of the public could be reduced, potentially leading to a broader understanding of circular practices and their points of intervention. This could, in turn, create new opportunities for industry, as a more informed public can foster acceptance of, and participation in circular solutions, driving the adoption of CE practices. The technological analysis shows that XR applications in CE often rely on established development environments. This indicates that XR for CE is currently shaped more by available technological systems than by specific design frameworks. This highlights that CE interventions can utilize already widely available tools. At the same time, the absence of standardized XR development frameworks for CE promises an opportunity for researchers and designers to develop such frameworks.

5.7 Future research

The results of this review highlight several promising directions for future research. First, future studies could explore XR applications that address currently underrepresented CE strategies, particularly those related to early design stages such as Refuse, Reduce, and Remanufacture. Additionally, future research should examine how successful XR concepts can be transferred across the boundary between circular public and industrial contexts. Second, additional research is needed to investigate how XR applications can support broader societal engagement with CE concepts. While several existing studies focus on awareness and education, there is still limited evidence on how XR experiences influence long-term behavioral change or sustainable decision-making with regard to CE principles. Third, the review itself provides a foundation for a broader research agenda at the intersection of XR and CE. By evaluating various work across public and industrial contexts, it becomes possible to identify not only underrepresented CE strategies, but also missing connections between stakeholder groups. One promising direction would therefore be to develop XR applications and research programs that more explicitly link public education, professional training, and industrial implementation. A broader understanding of CE principles among members of the public, workers, and decision-makers may help to identify intersections between stakeholders as well as more areas where CE principles may prove beneficial. Finally, more empirical evaluations of XR applications in real-world industrial or societal contexts are needed as many of the identified publications focus on concepts or prototypes and do not evaluate the impact of XR applications in long-term or in-field deployments.

5.8 Limitations

This scoping review has several limitations. First, the search strategy was restricted to five databases. Although these represent major publication venues relevant to HCI research, it is possible that additional relevant studies published in other sources were not captured. Second, the coding process involved a degree of subjective interpretation, particularly when mapping the identified circular economy strategies to the 10R-framework. As multiple classification approaches for CE strategies exist, the use of the 10R-framework represents only one possible perspective. Alternative classification schemes exist that conceptualize circularity through different categories. Consequently, the categorization of individual studies may vary depending on the framework applied, which could lead to slightly different interpretations. Third, the review focuses on studies published since 2015. While this timeframe aligns with the emergence and broader availability of modern XR technologies, it may have excluded earlier relevant work. Fourth, the reviewed literature itself shows considerable differences in reporting detail. Several publications do not clearly describe the hardware, software, or development frameworks used in their XR applications. This lack of transparency limits the reproducibility of the reported systems and makes it difficult to compare the evaluated publications on a technological level and to fully assess the technological feasibility of all observed XR systems. Finally, the review may be affected by publication bias. Publications tend to report successful prototypes or promising applications, while research work on unsuccessful XR implementations or those with no significant results may remain unpublished. As a result, the reviewed literature may overrepresent positive outcomes or technically feasible applications.

6 Conclusion

This scoping review provides an overview of how XR technologies are currently applied in the context of CE. By analyzing 24 publications, this review highlights how XR is used in the public sector and in the industrial sector. The findings indicate that XR applications for the public mainly aim to make CE concepts more understandable and relatable in everyday contexts while industrial applications primarily support operational activities across product lifecycle management, including component recovery and system upkeep. At the same time, the distribution of addressed CE strategies is uneven, with some strategies receiving considerably more attention than others and with the public sector receiving less attention than the industrial sector. These results indicate the potential of XR technologies to make complex circular processes more understandable and applicable for different stakeholders.

Generative AI statement

The author(s) declared that generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.

Any alternative text (alt text) provided alongside figures in this article has been generated by Frontiers with the support of artificial intelligence and reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, including review by the authors wherever possible. If you identify any issues, please contact us.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Footnotes

Edited by: Karen Elliott, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Reviewed by: Noradila Nordin, University of East London, United Kingdom

Nuno Trindade, University of Lisbon, Portugal