Circularity Assessment Software

Circularity assessment software organizes the data, indicators and supporting evidence needed to evaluate how effectively a product can retain materials, components and functional value throughout its life cycle.

Depending on the assessment goal and product type, this can include:

• Recycled and secondary material inputs
• Durability and reliability
• Repairability
• Reusability
• Upgradability
• Remanufacturability
• Recyclability
• Recoverability
• End-of-life treatment
• Supporting supplier and technical evidence

ISO 59020:2024 provides a formal framework for measuring and assessing circularity performance through defined system boundaries, circularity indicators, data collection and consistent interpretation. The framework can be applied at product level as well as at organizational and wider system levels.

A useful assessment therefore begins with a clear question: Which product, reference unit, life-cycle stages and circularity indicators are being evaluated?

These parameters should be explicit before products, designs or scenarios are compared.

Core Product Circularity Areas to Assess

 

1. Define the Assessment Goal and System Boundary

Start by defining why the circularity assessment is being performed.

A design team may want to compare alternative materials. A sustainability team may need a product-level baseline. Procurement may want better supplier information, while management may need measurable improvement scenarios.

Define the:

• Product or SKU
• Reference or functional unit
• Production year
• Manufacturing location
• Target market
• Assessment period
• Relevant life-cycle stages
• Circularity indicators to be evaluated

Use a consistent scope when comparing alternatives. Otherwise, differences between results may reflect different assumptions rather than genuine product improvements.

2. Build a Traceable Product Composition

Circularity assessment depends on understanding what the product is actually made of.

Develop or import an as-manufactured Bill of Materials and capture the relevant relationships between products, components, materials and substances. ComplyMarket's documented BOM structure follows the hierarchy Finished Product → Components → Materials → Substances.

For circularity and LCA work, each relevant BOM line should capture information such as quantity, origin, recycled content, supplier or facility details, confidence and evidence. A mass-balance check can then help identify missing or duplicated material quantities.

Unexplained gaps in product mass can affect recycled-content calculations, material recovery estimates and subsequent life-cycle modelling.

3. Measure Recycled and Secondary Material Inputs

For each relevant material, record the percentage of recycled input and distinguish verified supplier data from assumptions or generic information.

Where possible, connect the evidence to the relevant:

• Product version
• Material
• Supplier
• Facility
• Batch or reference period
• Supporting declaration or certificate

ComplyMarket's LCA guidance specifically recommends supporting recycled-content values with supplier evidence and keeping recycled input information separate from end-of-life recycling credits.

Recycled content should also not automatically be treated as proof of a lower total environmental impact. Processing technology, transport, material quality, energy sources and the applied LCA methodology can influence the overall result.

4. Assess Product Life Extension and Value Retention

Next, evaluate the characteristics that determine whether a product can remain in use instead of becoming waste prematurely.

Depending on the product, assess:

• Durability and reliability
• Repairability
• Reusability
• Upgradability
• Remanufacturability

Practical questions may include:

• Can critical components be accessed without damage?
• Can worn parts be replaced?
• Are spare parts available?
• Are specialized tools required?
• Can the product be disassembled and reassembled?
• Can components be cleaned, repaired or restored?
• Can functionality be upgraded instead of replacing the complete product?
• Can the product be tested after remanufacturing?

These criteria translate the broad concept of circular design into technical information that engineering, sustainability, service and compliance teams can evaluate.

5. Evaluate Recyclability, Recoverability and End-of-Life Pathways

Circularity assessment should consider what realistically happens when the product leaves use—not simply whether its materials are theoretically recyclable.

Review potential routes such as:

• Direct reuse
• Dismantling
• Material recycling
• Energy recovery
• Incineration
• Landfill or disposal

Relevant factors can include collection rates, separation processes, recycling yields, material quality loss, treatment providers and recovery efficiencies.

Joining techniques, mixed-material structures, hazardous substances and contamination can restrict practical recycling even where the individual materials are technically recyclable.

ComplyMarket's granular LCA workflow includes end-of-life modelling for collection, dismantling, reuse, recycling, energy recovery and landfill, alongside recycling yield, substitution assumptions and treatment evidence. It also warns against double counting recycled content and end-of-life credits.

6. Use LCA to Test Environmental Trade-Offs

Circularity performance and environmental impact are related, but they are not the same measurement.

A design change that increases repairability or recycled content may also affect manufacturing energy, logistics, processing requirements or other environmental impacts. Circularity indicators should therefore be interpreted alongside wider life-cycle impacts where relevant.

ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 establish the recognized LCA framework covering goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment and interpretation.

Using LCA alongside circularity indicators can help businesses investigate whether an improvement scenario also performs well environmentally under a consistent functional unit, boundary and assessment method.

7. Compare Scenarios and Preserve the Evidence

Create a defined baseline and compare realistic improvement scenarios such as:

• Increasing recycled content
• Extending expected service life
• Improving repairability
• Reducing the number of material types
• Improving disassembly
• Replacing difficult-to-recycle materials
• Increasing component reuse
• Enabling remanufacturing
• Changing end-of-life treatment routes

Preserve the underlying data, assumptions, evidence, calculation logic and model version for each scenario.

When information is uncertain, record the uncertainty or data gap rather than creating unsupported precision. Decision-makers should be able to understand what changed, why the result changed and which data still requires verification.

Product circularity data is becoming increasingly relevant to sustainability and product compliance management.

Under the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), product parameters that may form the basis of future or product-specific ecodesign requirements include durability, reliability, repair and maintenance, resource efficiency, recycled content, remanufacturing, recyclability, material recovery, environmental impacts and expected waste generation. Which requirements apply depends on the relevant product rules and delegated acts; these parameters should not be interpreted as identical obligations for every product today.

ISO 59040:2025 also provides a methodology for the exchange of product circularity information through a Product Circularity Data Sheet, supporting structured and interoperable communication of circular economy information between organizations.

This reinforces the business value of building controlled product-level datasets that can be reused across design, suppliers, sustainability work and future information requirements.

A structured circularity assessment can help organizations:

• Identify product and material circularity hotspots
• Compare design alternatives consistently
• Improve recycled-content visibility
• Detect barriers to repair and reuse
• Improve recyclability and recovery planning
• Evaluate remanufacturing potential
• Strengthen supplier data requests
• Create more traceable sustainability evidence
• Support cross-functional product improvement
• Maintain repeatable assessment methods across product portfolios

The objective should not simply be to maximize a single circularity score. Circularity decisions should remain transparent, evidence-based and compatible with product performance, safety, regulatory compliance and wider environmental objectives.

ComplyMarket can connect circularity assessment with the product, supplier and LCA data needed for structured product sustainability management.

Structured BOM and Product-Level Data

ComplyMarket's BOM workflow links Finished Products, Components, Materials and Substances, enabling circularity information to be connected to the relevant level of the product structure.

For larger portfolios, the system documentation also describes bulk Excel-based creation of products, components, materials and substances through its Master BOM Upload workflow.

Material Efficiency and Circularity Attributes

ComplyMarket's documented Material Efficiency functionality includes AI-supported assessment areas for:

• Durability and reliability
• Repairability, reusability and upgradability
• Recyclability and recoverability
• Remanufacturability

Material Efficiency Parameters can be reviewed and edited for BOM items, while Post Consumer Recycled Content values can also be maintained at item level.

These areas are also reflected in ComplyMarket's current public Material Efficiency Attributes service.

Circularity Data Connected With LCA

The granular LCA workflow supports the capture of BOM quantities, material origin, recycled content, supplier and facility information, supporting evidence and mass-balance information.

Circularity scenarios can then be considered alongside detailed end-of-life modelling, helping businesses examine the relationship between material choices, value-retention strategies and environmental performance.

Supplier Evidence Collection

Circularity data often depends on information held by suppliers. ComplyMarket questionnaire functionality can allow or require suppliers to attach supporting documents, depending on how the question is configured.

This helps businesses move from unsupported assumptions toward documented product and supplier evidence.

Traceable Reporting and Assessment Records

The ComplyMarket LCA workflow supports outputs including LCA reports, machine-readable exports, Excel-compatible workbooks and calculation-manifest information. The documented calculation record can retain information about database and method releases, process and provider selections, parameters, scenarios and other modelling information needed for reproducibility and review.

For accuracy, ComplyMarket's current LCA manual distinguishes between its demonstration workflow and authoritative calculations. It states that authoritative LCA or EPD values require the production backend to execute the model using licensed inventory data, the calculation engine, an applicable LCIA method and verified source data.

By connecting product structure, material-efficiency attributes, recycled-content information, supplier evidence and life-cycle modelling, ComplyMarket can help businesses move from general circular economy objectives toward product-level assessments that are more structured, traceable, reviewable and actionable.