Abstract:

Current research on monitoring the progress of the Circular Economy transition shows that despite the variety of methods, techniques and tools available, no coherent approach to assessing progress has been developed so far. It is not possible to capture the complexity and multiple dimensions of the Circular Economy transition process with a single indicator, either at the micro or macro level, which creates a strong research potential in this field. Based on these findings, it was possible to attempt to develop assumptions to support the assessment of environmental benefits associated with closing the cycle of selected groups of waste, which was the main objective of the study. On the basis of the adopted research process and selected groups of waste constituting the reference for the research it was possible to propose general assumptions which are the basis for building an evaluation system. This was done taking into account the analysis and identification of applied methods for measuring environmental aspects related to economic transition. The results showed that in the case of post-processing waste, the key role is played by technologies that allow the implementation of eco-innovative processing and the production of economically exploitable products from the processed waste. This means that the assessment of environmental benefits, based on the use of indicator methods, allows an objective assessment of the technology and the product, making comparisons and tracking progress on the transformation path.