Re-commerce to ensure circularity through social media

Abstract: Responsible consumption (SDG 12) practice is crucial to turn waste into zero and extending the usability of products through reusing from the consumer end helps to less dependent on virgin materials. People exchange second hand products which are fully functioned but not used anymore which is called re-commerce. Financial gain is not the issue but to utilize the usability of the product is significant in this aspect. This aspect is vital toestablish the cradle-to-cradle system of ensuring circular economy philosophy. Re-commerce conducts in both physical and online marketplaces. Due to the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, where physical marketplaces have limited capacity to accommodate clients, the online Customer to Customer (C2C) marketplaces have no such boundary to limit users. Facebook is considered the most popular re-commerce platform in today’s world dueto their large number of users. The study selected Facebook as the unit of analysis to assess the re-commercepractice of Facebook users of Bangladesh to ensure circular economy. For doing the review of existing literatures, the study conducted bibliometric analysis of published research documents in social media and circular economy which were indexed at Scopus database. After conducting literature review, the study considered Social Practice Theory as the required conceptual framework. The study conveniently selected 26 Bangladeshi individuals who were familiar with re-commerce practice on Facebook and formed four focus groups based on product categories (electronics, furniture, jewelry and women’s attire) they dealt with. The study conducted focus group interview through Facebook Messenger and Zoom. The study conducted thematic analysis using NVIVO12 and developed a re-commerce practice on Facebook using the theoretical frameworkof Social Practice Theory. The study concluded that, re-commerce practice is vital to ensure the circular economy from the consumer end to encourage responsible consumption of making the future world sustainable.