Resources, Conservation and Recycling 120 (2017) 46–54 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation and Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec Full length article Performance indicators for a circular economy: A case study on post-industrial plastic waste Sofie Huysman a , Jonas De Schaepmeester a , Kim Ragaert b , Jo Dewulf a , Steven De Meester a,c,* a Research Group ENVOC, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium b Research Group Applied Material Sciences, Ghent University, Valentin Vaerwyckweg 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium c IBW Department of Industrial Biological Sciences, Ghent University, Graaf Karel de Goedelaan 5, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 28 June 2016 Received in revised form 23 December 2016 Accepted 23 January 2017 Keywords: Indicators Circular economy Compatibility Plastic waste LCA a b s t r a c t A linear economy approach results in many environmental challenges: resources become depleted and end up as waste and emissions. One of the key strategies to overcome these problems is using waste as a resource, i.e. evolving toward a circular economy. To monitor this transition, suitable indicators are needed that focus on sustainability issues whilst taking into account the technical reality. In this paper, we develop such an indicator to quantify the circular economy performance of different plastic waste treatment options. This indicator is based on the technical quality of the plastic waste stream and evaluates resource consumption by using the Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Envi- ronment (CEENE) method. To illustrate the use of this new indicator, it was applied in a case study on post-industrial plastic waste treatment. The results show that the indicator can be a very useful approach to guide waste streams towards their optimal valorization option, based on quality of the waste flow and the environmental benefit of the different options. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The transition towards a more sustainable society is a com- plex task. One of the key strategies to manage this transition is the circular economy concept. Preston (2012) defined the idea of a circular economy as follows: “open production systems - in which resources are extracted, used to make products and become waste after the product is consumed - should be replaced by sys- tems that reuse and recycle resources and conserve energy”. This idea has been implemented in several governmental policies, with Japan and Europe at the forefront. The Japanese government intro- duced the material-cycle society vision in the year 2000. This vision involves a number of laws based on the 3R (reduce, reuse, recy- cle) principle (Government of Japan, 2010). Recent strategies in the European Union (EU) are the ‘Zero waste programme for Europe’ (EC (European Commission), 2014) and ‘Closing the loop action plan for the Circular Economy’ (EC (European Commission), 2015). An important material that still can be improved within the cir- cular economy is plastic, as also confirmed in the recent report * Corresponding author at: IBW Department of Industrial Biological Sciences, Ghent University, Graaf Karel de Goedelaand 5, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium. E-mail address: steven.demeester@ugent.be (S. De Meester). The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics (World Economic Forum, 2016). Indeed, the role of plastics in our daily life cannot be underestimated. Ever since the production of Bakelite in 1907, the importance of plastics in society kept growing. In 2014, the global production of plastic was 311 million tonnes. Europe is the second largest producer of plastic materials, responsible for 20% of the world production. Packaging applications are the largest application sector, representing 39.6% of the total plastics demand (Plastics Europe, 2015). However, the problem is that all these plastics end up as waste. In 2014, Europe produced 25.8 million tonnes of post-consumer plastics waste: 29.7% was recycled, 39.5% was incinerated with energy recovery, and 30.8% was landfilled. Landfill of plastic waste may cause environmental problems, as plastics are often not biodegradable. Further, there is also the problem of resource con- servation. The production of plastics consumes yearly 4 to 8 % of the global crude oil extraction (Kreiger et al., 2014). If plastics are disposed instead of being recycled, these resources are lost (EC (European Commission), 2013). Hence, the role of plastic waste is a major issue in circular econ- omy strategies. To monitor plastic waste treatment management, suitable indicators are needed. In the current policies, most indica- tors are situated at the macro-economic level (countries, regions), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.01.013 0921-3449/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.