Given countries different starting positions and statistical capacities, a pragmatic approach and step-wise improvement in monitoring and measurement are needed starting with indicators that draw on easily accessible and well defined data. Countries that are already more advanced should also be encouraged and supported. The experience thus gained will facilitate work in other countries and at international level. International organisations such as the OECD, UNECE and UNEP, and institutions of the European Union (Eurostat, EEA) can assist by providing a forum for sharing good practices, developing harmonised guidance and providing training and capacity building.
Waste and material flow data are arguably of fundamental importance for measuring transitions to a CE and are available or in reach for any country given dedicated investments. Hence waste management information (e.g., waste generation rates, recovery and recycling rates, disposal rates) can be used as a starting point, in particular data on municipal waste whose availability is often best and that still mirrors trends in household consumption expenditure. These data can be complemented with information on specific waste streams (e.g., construction and demolition waste, food waste, plastic waste, hazardous waste) and with material flow data from national or international sources.
This should be accompanied by:
Improvements in the quality of waste statistics, considering level of detail, coverage of waste streams and materials, coherence over time to monitor the effects of earlier policy measures, coherence across countries to facilitate the exchange of experience and good practices, and breakdown by economic activity and industry to enable linkages with economic statistics and accounts.
A progressive expansion of the scope of waste statistics by broadening the reporting boundaries and the information sources used. The aim would be to integrate information from waste producers, not only on waste, but also on material inputs into production and the use of secondary raw materials in production, with links to production statistics. This could be complemented with information on up-stream and down-stream measures that feature high in the waste hierarchy and in the circularity ladder (waste prevention, including repair and re-use, preparation for re-use etc.).
Improvements in material flow accounts. The development of compatible material flow accounts and work to improve the quality of data on material flows need to be pursued and consolidated beyond economy-wide material flows, as does work on industry-level and material-specific information that helps identify opportunities for improved circularity and performance along the supply chains.
When it comes to integrated policies and management approaches and to circular economy models, the distinction between waste, materials and products is increasingly blurred. Improving waste statistics and material flow data and accounts is thus not sufficient. What is needed is a combination of data from various sources.
An important step would be to link data on waste and materials and to combine them with product and trade statistics and data from national accounts and from environmental accounts. This would help analyse both the linkages between raw materials use, material flows, waste and recycling and the circularity of these flows, and their interactions with socio-economic developments. The implementation of an accounting framework building on the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) could help combine different datasets to analyse the linkages between raw materials use, material flows, waste and recycling and the circularity of these flows. This would require the development of waste accounts with a direct link to material flow accounts. Other links that need to be explored are the links with accounts on the environmental goods and services sector (EGSS), and environmental expenditure and tax revenue accounts, and the links between asset accounts (resource stocks) and material flows.
Particular attention would need to be given to indicators that describe the contribution of economic activities to a CE (resource use, waste and materials management, emissions and discharges), and that can be linked to socio-economic data (value added, employment, expenditure) and to data on policy instruments (taxes, charges, subsidies). This requires a breakdown of the main indicators on the material life cycle and on policy responses by economic activity sector, which would also enable the construction of sectoral country profiles. This should be accompanied with a progressive improvement of data on the socio-economic and financial aspects of a CE.