The transition from linear to circular economy not only requires industrial and service innovations, but it also demands a change of consumption habits with daily life implications. The customer experience with circular solutions is different from the ‘take-make-dispose’ consumption processes of the linear economy: product-service systems based on rental, repair, or recirculation prolong the usage of goods compared with the throw-away culture for example. But there is an issue of customer acceptance of such behavioral changes. Very few studies investigated factors related to the customer experience in the circular economy. There needs more research on circular economy practices which environmentally concerned consumers adopt voluntarily despite the personal trade-offs and the amount of extra work these practices entail. This paper seeks to better understand the differentiating factors in traditional versus circular economy consumption habits, and the role customer experience plays in influencing key outcomes (e.g., satisfaction).

This paper is based on a framework from the customer experience literature (i.e., TCQ nomenclature developed by De Keyser et al. 2020), and on a case of ecological sanitation in urban households for the collection of human waste for transformation and valorization. The circular economy market based on recovering energy from human waste (e.g., transforming the nutrients contained in urine and feces into agricultural fertilizers) is estimated to reach $6 billion by 2030. We conducted 12 interviewees with users about their participation motives, their experience of using eco-sanitation and participating in the waste collection process (i.e., positive/negative customer values — cf. Leroi-Werelds 2019), and we collected 42 survey responses (about demographic and basic individual values, e.g., Schwartz’ PVQ) and 123 diary entries of ‘critical incidents’ providing detailed descriptions of the customer experience.

All in all, the ecological sanitation experience was perceived as mediocre, i.e., inferior to the standard sanitation system. Negative perceptions were primarily driven by unpleasant sensorial stimuli (e.g., visual, olfactive). Yet, the overall satisfaction was high. Participants derived benefits from factors unrelated to the qualities of the customer experience. While certain issues required an increased activity (i.e. “voluntary customer participation” — cf. Dong and Sivakumar 2017) and additional efforts (e.g., “bricolage” skills — cf. Witell et al. 2017), this mediocre customer experience was counterbalanced by the participants’ engagement in such pioneering citizen-driven project, their strong belief in the ecological benefits of the circular economy, and the satisfaction of contributing to sustainable consumption.

Our framework based on the customer experience literature and our customer-centric approach contributes to the relevant issue of the adoption of “closed-loops” circular solutions. Previous research on valorizing waste has concentrated on the food sector and the biogas industry, therefore, our case study and contributions are novel and unique.