The latest research by Researchers Yuanhui Zhang, Sabrina Summers, James W. Jones, and John F. Reidat at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences developed a comprehensive index to quantify the Circular Economy. The “Circularity Index (CI)” includes eight categories i.e., take, make, distribute, use, dispose, recover, remake and reuse. The CI is calculated by entering data into these categories and circularity is measured between 0 (completely linear) and 1 (completely circular). The index is demonstrated in two case studies in the research –first, they examined nitrogen cycling in a corn-soybean farm in the Midwestern United States and second, they compared the current U.S. food and agriculture system to an approach based on the Environment-Enhancing Food Energy and Water System framework (EE–FEWSF). The research with this index “aims to address the gap in the scalable and quantitative index for the benchmark of circularity in a system.
Find out more about the research at
Yuanhui Zhang, Sabrina Summers, James W. Jones, John F. Reid. A scalable index for quantifying circularity of bioeconomy systems. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2024; 210: 107821 DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107821
