Integrating Circular Economy Indicators with Value Stream Mapping: A case study of PET bottle production and recycling

Abstract

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.