Rotimi, Funmilayo EbunPurushothaman, Mahesh BabuWarkaka, Yakubu George2026-04-012026-04-012026-04-01Buildings, ISSN: 2075-5309 (Online), MDPI AG, 16(7), 1399-1399. doi: 10.3390/buildings160713992075-5309http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20862<jats:p>The built environment continues to encounter significant challenges related to waste generation and resource depletion, driving increased interest in circular economy strategies that extend material lifecycles and mitigate environmental impacts. This systematic review synthesises findings from 60 studies on waste-to-resource innovations across construction and household contexts. Although the existing literature predominantly addresses construction and demolition waste, this review foregrounds household operational waste, an area that remains insufficiently explored despite its importance for everyday resource recovery. The analysis examines how materials generated through routine use, maintenance, and minor renovation activities can be captured and redirected into productive resource streams, with particular attention to governance mechanisms such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The findings indicate that effective waste-to-resource systems depend on coherent regulatory frameworks and enforcement, economic incentives, enabling technologies, community engagement, and product design that facilitates reuse and disassembly. Key barriers include low public awareness, fragmented supply chains, high recovery costs, weak compliance mechanisms, and materials that are difficult to separate. The review concludes that improving waste-to-resource outcomes in the built environment requires coordinated action among producers, households, local authorities, and technology providers, and it articulates policy-relevant and community-oriented pathways to support more effective resource recovery systems.</jats:p>Copyright: © 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.1201 Architecture1202 Building1203 Design Practice and Management3301 Architecture3302 Building4005 Civil engineeringwaste-to-resourceEPRSDG 11SDG 12household wastesustainable buildingcircular economyresource recoveryJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3390/buildings16071399