Abstract The current perspective discusses the urgent need for the chemical industry to become more circular by adopting principles of circular economy. Importantly, many chemical products do not fit into the mainstream circular economy scheme that relies on a circular flow of resources, by recovering, retaining or adding to their value as many chemical products are intentionally dispersed into the environment. However, the chemical industry is a key sector that will support the return of the seven transgressed planetary boundaries to the safe operating space. Already defined circularity indicators – as published in the ISO 59000 family of standards – applicable to the chemical industry are discussed and new circularity indicators are introduced. In addition, the introduction of a waste framework with Scope 1, 2, 3 waste categories as a reporting tool is briefly discussed as an enhanced focus on waste generated along the value chain could improve the circular material use rate that currently is below 7%.
Leonie Barner (Sun,) studied this question.