ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explain the importance of monitoring and evaluation approaches in resource recovery processes for achieving a sustainable circular economy. We provide examples of existing monitoring and evaluation approaches and discuss their strengths, limitations, and levers for change. We then expand on the efforts made to classify the indicators (or metrics) used to facilitate coherent and integrated approaches to monitoring and evaluation of the transition to a sustainable circular economy. We argue that existing approaches provide ‘snapshot’ views of the resource and waste management systems, pointing to the need to develop an approach that looks at the system as a whole, from production to consumption and management of resources, and supports the selection and development of metrics for assessing the sustainable circularity potential of materials, components, and products. We discuss how such an approach can aid the identification of metrics suitable in generating insights into the production, consumption, and management processes and identifying the impacts, as well as the causes of the myriad problems related to resource recovery from waste. This approach can support the evaluation of the progress made towards the achievement of new policy measures and monitor how proposed changes can enable the transition to a circular economy in the long term.
