Progress towards a circular economy: new metric for circularity measurement based on segmentation of resource cycle

摘要

In a circular economy, the material and product's value maintenance implies providing a unique way for their multiple transformations in an economy. This study is based on the assumption that preserving the value of a material and product in the economy for as long as possible is the result of the development of the structure of total resource cycles of a territory in terms of closing and slowing of material loops. Development of a resource cycles' structure occurs due to the reconstruction of the already existing cycles as well as the formation of new ones. In order to measure the improvements in the structure of resource cycles of a territory, which are the consequence of closing and slowing of material loops, the resource cycle segmentation as a tool could be applied. The paper attempts to develop the methodological approach in the measurement of materials and products' circularity based on the resource cycle segmentation. The findings contribute to the extension of the metric apparatus to measure the circularity that, as a phenomenon, is continuously changing in space and time.