By Jack McCarthy Head of Research & Adam BolandResearch Officer The Rediscovery Centre
The term “Circular Economy” has become increasingly prominent in public and political discourse in recent years. In this short piece we want to provide an overview of how circularity is currently measured in the EU and why we should care.
What is the Circular Economy?
The Circular Economy is defined at an EU level as an economic system in which materials and products are circulated for as long as possible and the generation of waste is minimised through processes and practices such as repair, reuse, industrial symbiosis, by-product utilisation, reducing consumption, and recycling. There are, however, more elaborate definitions available that consider other dimensions including regeneration of eco-systems, social justice and more
In 2015 the EU introduced a Circular Economy Action Plan, and since then the concept of a Circular Economy has become increasingly prominent in EU and Irish policy. This has included policies like: A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy 2020-25 (2020); The Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy (2021); The Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act (2022); and, The National Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy (2024).
How is Circularity measured?
As new policies have emerged, so too have questions about how to measure progress towards the goal of circularity. There have been many attempts to measure circularity. Indeed, a 2021 review by the OECD identified 474 different circular economy metrics, highlighting the diversity of approaches to this task. The European Union’s Circular Material Use Rate (CMUR), and Circle Economy’s Circularity Gap Report (CGR) have emerged as two key summary metrics that seek to assess aggregate circularity at a national level.
In the past year, two separate analyses have interrogated Ireland’s circularity performance in relation to these metrics. Research carried out by the Rediscovery Centre, the Clean Technology Centre and Circle Economy has assessed Ireland’s performance in relation to the CMUR. A second piece of research carried out by Circle Economy assessed Ireland’s performance using their own CGR metric.
While the CMUR and CGR metrics differ in important ways, Ireland’s score on both is low compared with its EU counterparts. As of 2023 Ireland’s CMUR was 2.3% circular, while the CGR gave Ireland a slightly higher score of 2.7%.
For anyone interested in exactly how these metrics work, it is worth reading the methodology documents and relevant reports and consulting the European Environmental Agency’s Circularity Metrics Lab.
In summary, CMUR calculates a ratio between the total amount of material we recycle and the total amount of material we consume in a given economy. CGR takes a similar overall approach but with an additional nuance in relation to accounting for trade and sectorally specific factors.
Why should we care?
There are three main reasons why we should pay attention to these metrics.
What gets measured, matters: The very existence of circularity metrics means that circularity is represented in a way that enables policy makers, businesses and others to develop interventions, products, and innovations that improve Ireland’s circularity performance in terms of these metrics.
It is also crucial to understand the details of what circularity metrics are actually measuring. For example, the CMUR metric, which now informs national and EU policy, only measures direct consumption and recycling. It does not directly measure important circularity actions such as reuse or repair.
An absence of accurate and/or comprehensive data for these activities means that there is no baseline against which to measure the effect of potential policy interventions.
Metrics allow us to evaluate government performance: Transparent and robust metrics give civil society organisations, researchers, and others a framework through which to evaluate government performance in relation to policy.
Although such metrics are not perfect, it is still possible to observe and compare Ireland’s progress in relation to the rest of the EU. For example, Ireland’s CMUR rate sat at around 2% as of 2022 compared to an EU average of 12%.
It is also possible to interrogate Ireland’s progress toward stated policy objectives, such as achieving a CMUR above the EU average by 2030, or achieving 20kg of reuse per person by 2030.
Progress in this regard provides an indication as to whether current policy design is effective or ambitious enough, and what changes might be needed.
Circularity metrics provide a starting point for deeper analysis: As mentioned, Ireland has a relatively low CMUR score compared to its EU counterparts. Importantly, the data underpinning this score and the methodology through which it is calculated is publicly available.
In research carried out by the Rediscovery Centre we unpacked specific portions of Ireland’s CMUR score and compared them with other EU countries.
Through this process we identified that 1) drawing on the Austrian context, there are opportunities for Ireland to improve its circularity rate through the adoption of more stringent construction and demolition regulations; and 2) drawing on the Croatian context, there are opportunities in terms of the collection and processing of farm slurry as part of Ireland’s bio-energy mix.
Fostering public support
Measuring progress through transparent and robust metrics is a crucial part of developing and monitoring circular economy policies and programmes at a national level.
Metrics are also key to fostering public support and visibility for circular economy policy and any potential improvements that Ireland achieves in this area.
A key task for government institutions at national and EU level then is to continually improve circularity metrics; support robust and relevant data collection; and to use this data as a basis for developing efficient and effective policies to support a circular economy transition.
