Integrating Circular Economy Indicators with Value Stream Mapping: A case study of PET bottle production and recycling
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Carlsson, Josefin
Ólafur Egilsson, Nils
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
There is an increasing push for the plastic industry to become more sustainable. The concept
of Circular Economy has gained a lot of attention and could improve the industry’s
sustainability performance. Due to the current lack of tools to measure circularity, the industry
has a hard time measuring CE performance. The thesis focuses on the integration between
Circular Economy Indicators and Value Stream Mapping to provide a tool to measure and
improve industries’ material circularity performance. Circular Economy indicators measure
Circular Economy performance, and Value Stream Mapping maps the value-adding activities
in a supply-chain. The integration has the potential to map value-adding activities and measure
the Circular Economy performance of a process. The integration was tested on a case study
with a global leader in the plastic packaging industry. The theoretical section presents current
Circular Economy Indicators and integration methods. The case study was designed to test the
integration on an industrial case, but due to problems regarding data gathering, the calculations
could not be performed. The results are that there is a problem with defining the concept of
Circular Economy and the integration has not been studied enough to be applicable in industry.
Future research should contribute to a clear definition of Circular Economy, simple indicators
and an integration method that is applicable with data availability in industry and is in line with
the Value Stream Mapping ISO standard.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Circularity; Sustainability; Lean; Production; Micro level