Technological Circularity Index: Towards a Decision Support Tool

In the last 10 years, there have been developed plenty of indicators to measure the effectiveness of the circular economy, trying to define performance ranges around the goal of reducing material utilization worldwide. These efforts are focused on understanding the impacts on the economy when strategies to promote product reuse and circular eco-design take place. Nevertheless, one relevant aspect has not been correctly handled, causing misunderstandings about the circular economy’s impacts on the markets and industries, and how to measure these impacts. In this context, most indicators deal with the user’s and producer’s capabilities around technological reuse, reparation, remanufacturing, and the management of e-waste. However, there are no integral measurement tools, that consolidate information in frames of a country’s performance towards closing technology gaps by implementing the circular economy. From this scarcity arose the concept of a technological circularity index (TCI), whose main objective is to measure the country’s capacities concerning e-waste management and technology gap-closing strategies. As a tool, the TCI helps to distinguish issues related to technology gaps, e-waste generation, and the reinforcement of local capacities for reparation and remanufacturing under the umbrella of national agreements between countries. For this reason, the TCI functions as a decision tool, that analyzes and shows possible scenarios between countries, aiming to establish mutual collaborations and environmentally friendly technology transfer operations.