New Indicators 'Acircularity' and 'Resource Efficiency Account' to Evaluate the Efforts of Eco-Design in Circular Economy

This study proposes new indicator, Resource Efficiency Account (REA). REA represents the effects of eco-design efforts in achieving a circular system. The key concept of REA is “acircularity.” “Acircularity” is the distance to the ideal circular system to be achieved. REA is given as material efficiency (service per total value of constituent materials) divided by acircularity. Acircularity is the sum of the value of resources that the techno-sphere demands from the eco-sphere, and the value of resources that are dissipated within the techno-sphere. If an utterly circular state is reached, the acircularity value is zero. Additionally, this study proposes a new method to quantify the decline of the quality of scrap provided to the market as a decline in the value of the material to calculate the dissipation. The calculation focuses on the control level of impurities in scrap. The validity of these indicators is discussed using an automobile case. Differences in the current circulation level, eco-design for recycling, and refurbishment efforts can be quantitatively evaluated using REA and acircularity.