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href="/textiles" class="new-navbar-23-dropdown-link">Textiles</a></div></div></nav></div></div></nav><div class="nav-23-menu-button w-nav-button"><div class="nav-23-menu-button-inner"></div></div><a data-target-location="Navigation bar" data-target="donate_button" href="/contact" class="new-button-2 for-nav-contact w-button">Contact us</a></div></div></div><div class="hero-section"><div class="contant-bg full-section"><div class="contact-bg-image home-page methodology"></div></div><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-_27f8a250-e4c6-2127-1cbf-ff79e960eb36-bdf6d2c9" class="hero-content"><h3 class="white hidden">Our methodology<br/></h3><a href="#" class="button margin hidden w-button">Join the committee</a></div></div></div><div class="section"><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-c4ae85d8-d78c-2158-6c40-a68735924d87-bdf6d2c9" class="content"><h3>About our methodology</h3></div><div id="w-node-c4ae85d8-d78c-2158-6c40-a68735924d8a-bdf6d2c9" class="content vertical-center"><div class="text">We strive to provide accurate measurement of the circular economy and contextualise it by giving holistic overviews of the material flows of the economic systems we analyse. This is most prominently expressed in the Global Circularity Metric and the mapping of global material flows in the Sankey diagrams featuring at the core of each Circularity Gap Report.<br/></div></div></div></div><div class="section white-background"><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-_65c9da6b-d75d-63d3-1015-53afb1c666f5-bdf6d2c9" class="content"><h3>Measuring<br/>and Mapping Circularity<br/></h3></div><div id="w-node-_65c9da6b-d75d-63d3-1015-53afb1c666f8-bdf6d2c9" class="content vertical-center"><div class="text">The key to the methodologies underpinning both the circularity indicator and the material flow mapping is the quality of the data that is sourced to calculate the gap metric as well as the databases on material flow volumes. Therefore, we make it a priority to choose datasets that are curated by internationally renowned institutions and triangulate aggregated material volumes with other established sources and feedback from our scientific committee.<br/><br/><a href="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/63d4468c9a1c6ea04138f206_Global%20CGR%202023%20-Methodology%20Document.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>Measuring Circularity - Technical Methodology Document (January 2023) - PDF</strong></a><br/></div></div></div></div><div class="section hidden"><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-_7118dd6e-8b5e-1afc-a95c-252ebade6773-bdf6d2c9" class="content"><h3>Circularity metric for nation states<br/></h3></div><div id="w-node-_7118dd6e-8b5e-1afc-a95c-252ebade6777-bdf6d2c9" class="content vertical-center"><div class="text">In the first edition of the global Circularity Gap Report (CGR), we launched the Global Circularity Metric. Having identified a need for a national measurement framework for circularity after launching the report, we adapted the metric to be applicable to Nation States. Our effort supports the desire of businesses and governments to be able to track their circular performance over time and put trends into context, plus engage in uniform goal-setting and guide future action in the most impactful way.<br/></div></div></div></div><div class="section"><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-_71894317-1785-7903-87f0-f2dbe2fe0fe7-bdf6d2c9" class="content"><h3>Scientific committee<br/></h3></div><div id="w-node-_71894317-1785-7903-87f0-f2dbe2fe0feb-bdf6d2c9" class="content vertical-center"><div class="text">Circle Economy makes sure to develop its methodologies, datasets and the narratives extracted from the analyses in close collaboration with a group of knowledge partners from academia and research institutes that form the scientific committee. <br/><br/>Participating organisations are consulted on a regular basis through multiple channels and include the World Resources Institute (WRI), The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), The International Resource Panel (IRP), Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Leiden (CML), Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS).<br/></div></div></div></div><section class="new-section new-faq"><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8817-bdf6d2c9" class="new-faq-content"><div class="new-faq-header"><h2 class="new-h2 w300-span">FAQ</h2><div class="_20-text for-faq">Find answers to key questions about why material tracking matters, how circularity is measured, and its connection to environmental sustainability.</div></div><div class="new-faq-drops-wrapper"><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a881e-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a881e" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">Why is it important to track how materials are extracted, used and managed at end-of-life?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>Material handling and use is responsible for 70% of global GHG emissions—but the impacts go far beyond this. Ultimately, material extraction and use is a strong proxy for environmental damage: it drives over 90% of total global biodiversity loss and water stress, for example. Therefore, tracking material extraction, use and disposal—with the aim of shaping a more efficient, circular world—is key to minimising environmental degradation.</div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="800" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8827-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8827" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">How do we track material flows in an economy?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>Material handling and use is responsible for 70% of global GHG emissions—but the impacts go far beyond this. Ultimately, material extraction and use is a strong proxy for environmental damage: it drives over 90% of total global biodiversity loss and water stress, for example. Therefore, tracking material extraction, use and disposal—with the aim of shaping a more efficient, circular world—is key to minimising environmental degradation.</div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8830-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8830" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">What does it mean to take a ‘consumption-based’ perspective?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>This means that we measure material use at the place of consumption, instead of where extraction or production occurs. High-income economies, for example, tend to import more raw materials than export. This implies that they consume more materials than they produce, meaning that resource extraction is ‘externalised’ to other countries to fulfil their own societal needs. Our <em>Circularity Gap Reports</em> use consumption-based accounting to derive an economy’s Material Footprint. The same principle is applied to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to derive the more widely-known Carbon Footprint.</div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a883c-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a883c" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">How is the Circularity Metric calculated?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>The Circularity Metric, also known as Socioeconomic cycling, is the proportion of secondary materials out of an economy’s total material consumption (raw or primary material consumption plus secondary material consumption). The Circularity Metric represents the amount of technical and biological materials that remain within the technical cycle. All biological materials that are returned in any form (i.e. solid, liquid or gaseous) to the environment are considered by another indicator: Ecological cycling potential.</div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8845-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8845" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">What data is used to calculate the Circularity Metric?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>For each <em>Circularity Gap Report</em>, we combine global databases—such as EXIOBASE, IRP and Eurostat—with data from national and regional statistical offices. However, each country is different and therefore each <em>Circularity Gap Report</em> has a unique configuration of information. At the highest level, the data consists of information in physical units (for example, mass) and monetary units (for example, euros). At a more granular level, the data includes the extraction of raw materials, monetary value and physical volume of traded commodities, expenditure by industries and final demand actors (such as households, governments or capital investments), and all forms of release to the environment (in the form of waste, emissions or dissipative use, for example). </div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8854-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8854" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">Do materials recycled abroad ‘count’ towards the Circularity Metric?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>As we take a consumption-based perspective, we only credit recycling efforts occurring in a given economy. This includes materials an economy imports for recycling. Waste collected and prepared for recycling abroad is not included as part of the Circularity Metric. It may be less feasible for small economies to have domestic recycling facilities: this means they often have lower Circularity Metrics. </div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a885d-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a885d" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">Why doesn’t the Circularity Metric include ecologically cycled biomass? </div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>Biological materials that are returned to the environment (for example, through spreading on land) can only be considered circular if both carbon and nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are guaranteed to be fully circulated. As of yet, there are methodological limitations to guarantee nutrient cycling. For this reason, only biomass that is ‘technically’ recycled—such as recycled wood—is accounted for in the Circularity Metric.</div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8866-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8866" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">Is 100% circularity possible?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>No, it is not feasible to achieve 100% circularity—as far as this is defined as a system that only consumes secondary materials. There is a practical limit to the volume of materials we can recirculate—in part due to technical constraints—and therefore also for the degree to which we can substitute virgin materials with secondary ones. Some products, like fossil fuels, are combusted through use and therefore can't be cycled back into the economy, while others are locked into stock, like buildings or machinery, and thus aren't available for cycling for many years. Products that can be cycled, such as metals, plastics and glass, may only be cycled a few times, as each cycle degrades quality. For these reasons, we will always need to use <em>some</em> virgin materials. </div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="500" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8872-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a8872" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">How does the Circularity Metric differ from Eurostat’s Circularity Material Use Rate (CMUR)?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>Firstly, the Circularity Metric is a life-cycle indicator based on Raw Material Consumption (RMC), while the CMUR is an indicator based on Domestic Material Consumption (DMC). DMC represents the physical weight of material consumption and imports and exports, while RMC represents all the raw materials used for each component of the DMC, in terms of Raw Material Equivalents (RMEs). For example, a smartphone may weigh only a couple hundred grams, but requires far more resources to produce.</div></div></nav></div><div data-hover="false" data-delay="800" id="w-node-c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a887b-bdf6d2c9" data-w-id="c3b8e476-24c5-7249-6074-4d86b10a887b" class="new-faq-dropdown w-dropdown"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-toggle w-dropdown-toggle"><div class="_20-text for-faq for-drop">How do the results of the analysis link to national emission reduction targets?</div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/652571a510faf129a16e5dd4_Icon-arrow.svg" loading="lazy" alt="" class="new-faq-dropdown-arrow"/></div><nav style="height:0px" class="new-faq-dropdown-list w-dropdown-list"><div class="new-faq-dropdown-list-inner"><div>Our scenarios model the extent to which circular economy strategies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, taking a consumption-based perspective. National emission reduction targets (aligned with the Paris agreement) typically only address production-based emissions: emissions stemming from production activities within a country’s borders. This means that goals to achieve net-zero emissions do not consider emissions associated with production abroad for products that are then imported. Therefore, emission reduction targets of many countries should not be compared directly to the emission reduction potential calculated in the <em>Circularity Gap Reports</em>. However, it’s worth noting that many of the scenario results contribute to national emission reduction targets, although not all. </div></div></nav></div></div></div></div></section><div class="footer"><div class="grid"><div id="w-node-c4dde193-8b09-416d-0fa9-d8ef6c868200-6c8681fe" class="footer-content"><div class="footer-text">The Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative is an initiative of <strong>Circle Economy</strong>, an impact organisation dedicated to accelerating the transition to the circular economy.<br/><a href="http://www.circle-economy.com" target="_blank" class="link-2">www.circle-economy.com</a></div><a href="http://circle-economy.com" target="_blank" class="new-logo w-inline-block"></a><div class="_2008-2019">© 2008-2024</div></div><div id="w-node-c4dde193-8b09-416d-0fa9-d8ef6c868206-6c8681fe" class="footer-content"><a href="/privacy-policy" class="footer-link">Privacy policy</a><a href="/contact" class="footer-link">Contact us</a><a href="/press" class="footer-link hidden">Press & Media</a><a href="/endorsements" class="footer-link">Endorsements</a><a href="/faq" class="footer-link">FAQ</a></div><div id="w-node-c4dde193-8b09-416d-0fa9-d8ef6c86820d-6c8681fe" class="footer-content"><div class="footer-social"><a href="http://facebook.com/circleeconomy" target="_blank" class="social-icon facebook w-inline-block"></a><a href="http://twitter.com/circleeconomy" target="_blank" class="social-icon twitter w-inline-block"></a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/organization/1671305" target="_blank" class="social-icon linkedin w-inline-block"></a><a href="http://medium.com/circleeconomy" target="_blank" class="social-icon medium w-inline-block"></a><a href="http://instagram.com/circleeconomy" target="_blank" class="social-icon instagram w-inline-block"></a></div></div></div></div><script src="https://d3e54v103j8qbb.cloudfront.net/js/jquery-3.5.1.min.dc5e7f18c8.js?site=5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82" type="text/javascript" integrity="sha256-9/aliU8dGd2tb6OSsuzixeV4y/faTqgFtohetphbbj0=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script><script src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e185aa4d27bcf348400ed82/js/webflow.4a35bbd97.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-NM75P5X" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>   <noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-N8WJP5WS" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>   <script type="text/javascript" charset="UTF-8" src="//cookie-script.com/s/c5bae1b549d40dd7e5ab2070500d6960.js"></script>   <script type="text/javascript"> _linkedin_partner_id = "6049732"; window._linkedin_data_partner_ids = window._linkedin_data_partner_ids || []; window._linkedin_data_partner_ids.push(_linkedin_partner_id); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> (function (l) { if (!l) { window.lintrk = function (a, b) { window.lintrk.q.push([a, b]); }; window.lintrk.q = []; } var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; var b = document.createElement("script"); b.type = "text/javascript"; b.async = true; b.src = "https://snap.licdn.com/li.lms-analytics/insight.min.js"; s.parentNode.insertBefore(b, s); })(window.lintrk); </script> <noscript> <img height="1" width="1" style="display: none" alt="" src="https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=6049732&fmt=gif" /> </noscript>  <script type="text/javascript" src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.0.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-migrate-1.2.1.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/slick-carousel/1.9.0/slick.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fullPage.js/3.0.9/vendors/scrolloverflow.min.js" integrity="sha512-pYyQWhzi2lV+RM4GmaUA56VPL48oLVvsHmP9tuQ8MaZMDHomVEDjXXnfSVKXayy+wLclKPte0KbsuVoFImtE7w==" crossorigin="anonymous"></script> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fullPage.js/3.0.9/fullpage.min.js" integrity="sha512-Gx/C4x1qubng2MWpJIxTPuWch9O88dhFFfpIl3WlqH0jPHtCiNdYsmJBFX0q5gIzFHmwkPzzYTlZC/Q7zgbwCw==" crossorigin="anonymous"></script> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-nice-select/1.1.0/js/jquery.nice-select.min.js"></script> <script> $(document).ready(function() { $('.nice-change').niceSelect(); }); </script> <script> Webflow.push(function() { $('.inc-modal').click(function(e) { $.fn.fullpage.setAllowScrolling(false); }); $('.ro-modal-cross-wrapper').click(function(e) { $.fn.fullpage.setAllowScrolling(true); }); }); </script></body></html>