UL has been working on measuring the circular economy for several years and has developed a tool called Circularity Facts that is designed to help measure circularity performance at a product and site level in a comparable and practical way. Some of the measures are familiar, like recycled content and recyclability of products; others may not be as familiar to some like byproduct synergy content. All of these measures are currently being used today, but have never before been combined to tell a broader story about the circularity of a product.
Circularity Facts for products is organized into two parts: “Content” or inputs to the product, and “Design” or designed for more circular end of life impacts. Inputs address the measures noted above including recycled content, closed cycle recycled content, byproduct synergy and reuse content. These inputs are further grouped into technical materials (those that may not be returned safely to the biosphere as is), and bio-based content for biological materials (materials like food, fibers, wood, that may be returned to the biosphere safely without further processing). Design aspects include reusability, refurbishment and recyclability for technical materials and compostability or anaerobic digestion for biological based materials. The result is a matrix that represents Content sources and Design aspects, represented as a percent of the total project.
UL is sponsor of Atelier Appliances Match It (https://www.atelierappliances.it/en/)
