The circular economy, once a niche concept, began making tangible inroads in 2017, fueled by startups experimenting with material reuse, waste reduction, and closed-loop systems. Measuring this early momentum, however, requires moving beyond broad sustainability slogans to concrete data on material flows and recovery activities. ISIC 3811, which covers the collection of non-hazardous waste, offers a practical starting point to map these pioneering efforts.
The methodology begins by identifying startups and firms registered under ISIC 3811. These companies often engage in collecting recyclable materials, managing community recycling programs, or operating innovative waste-sorting technologies. By compiling registration data from business registries, environmental agency records, and industry directories, analysts can establish a baseline of early circular economy players.
Yet, mapping firms alone isn’t sufficient. Material recovery rates—the percentage of waste diverted from landfills and repurposed—are the critical metric. Here, municipal waste data becomes indispensable. Many cities track waste volumes and categories collected, recycling rates, and landfill diversions on a regular basis. By integrating ISIC 3811 firm data with this municipal information, analysts can attribute improvements in recovery rates to specific players or initiatives, providing a more precise understanding of impact.
The approach also involves tracking geographic clusters where circular economy pilots concentrate. Are certain urban areas leading in material recovery innovation? Do regions with higher densities of ISIC 3811 firms correlate with better waste management outcomes? Mapping these patterns helps policymakers and investors identify hotspots of circular activity, as well as areas needing support.
Combining these datasets often uncovers nuances that raw firm counts miss. For example, a city might report improved recycling rates, but if municipal waste volumes rise overall, the absolute quantity recovered might be flat or declining. Conversely, a few well-supported startups under ISIC 3811 could drive disproportionate gains in specific waste streams, signaling effective innovation worthy of scaling.
Challenges persist: informal waste pickers often fall outside official registries, and data on material quality or downstream processing can be limited. Still, by anchoring analysis in ISIC 3811 and complementing it with municipal data, analysts can track early circular economy experiments with a rigor often lacking in sustainability discourse.
This kind of measurement matters. Circular economy startups may be small in scale today, but their ability to reshape resource use and reduce environmental impacts depends on growing with clarity and accountability. As the concept moves from pilot phase to mainstream policy, robust data frameworks like those centered on ISIC 3811 will be vital in turning good intentions into measurable progress.