ISO 59020 is the international standard that sets out how to measure and assess how circular an organisation, product or region actually is. Published in 2024, it answers a question most sustainability plans skip past. Not "are we circular?" but "how circular, and by how much?"
The point is a number you can calculate, repeat and compare, produced by a fixed method so two people measuring the same system land in the same place.
A circularity claim with no method behind it is just a nicer word for a guess. ISO 59020 is what turns it into a measured result someone else can check.
ISO 59020 in brief
Here are the facts that pin down ISO 59020.
- Standard. ISO 59020
- Full title. Circular economy, measuring and assessing circularity performance
- Current edition. 2024 (first edition)
- Status. Published
- Type. Requirements and guidance standard, not a certification
- Published by. ISO/TC 323, the technical committee for the circular economy
- Family. The ISO 59000 series, alongside ISO 59004 and ISO 59010
What it means to measure circularity
Before the method makes sense, it helps to be clear on what "circularity" is even being measured.
A circular economy keeps materials in use at their highest value for as long as possible, so less new material has to come in and less ends up as waste. For the plain-language version, see our glossary entry on the circular economy.
Circularity performance is simply how well a defined system does that, measured at a point in time. ISO 59020 gets at it by looking at the resources flowing into and out of the system.
The question is how much of what comes in is reused or recycled rather than new, and how much of what leaves is recovered rather than lost as waste. The more of the flow that stays in the loop, the higher the circularity.
How ISO 59020 measures circularity
ISO 59020 does not hand you a single circularity score to chase. It gives you a repeatable method. Define a system, measure what flows through it, then assess and report the result. Run it again later and you get another snapshot, so you can see whether you are getting more circular over time.
The system in focus
The first thing to fix is exactly what you are measuring, which ISO 59020 calls the system in focus. It works at four levels, so the system can be:
- a single product,
- an organisation,
- a group of organisations (interorganizational, for example a value chain), or
- a whole region.
The three stages
From there, the method runs as a loop of three connected stages that you repeat over time.
- Set the boundary. Decide what sits inside the system, over what time period, and across how much of the life cycle. Clear boundaries are what make one assessment comparable to the next.
- Measure and collect the data. Quantify the resources crossing the boundary, in and out, using ISO 59020's circularity indicators. The rule is that all resource inflows and outflows of the system should be quantified wherever they apply.
- Assess and report. Review the results, bring in the people who rely on them, and where you need the wider picture, bridge to complementary methods like a life cycle assessment to judge the environmental, social and economic impacts. Then document and report the outcome.
Because the stages feed back into each other and repeat, a producer builds a track record over time rather than a one-off figure.
What gets measured
What actually gets measured are the resource flows. ISO 59020 sorts its circularity indicators into categories. Two are mandatory, and three more are optional, used where they matter for your system.
- Resource inflows (mandatory). What share of what comes in is reused, recycled or renewable, rather than virgin material.
- Resource outflows (mandatory). What happens to what leaves, for example the actual recycling rate of your outputs instead of waste.
- Energy, water and economic indicators (optional). Added when they are relevant to the system you are measuring.
A circularity indicator is just a measure of one circularity aspect, like the average recycled content of an inflow or the real recycling rate of an outflow. Because the categories and the method are fixed, the numbers mean the same thing from one organisation to the next.
Who uses ISO 59020
ISO 59020 is written for the people who have to put a defensible number on circularity, not just describe it. In practice that is three groups.
| Who | What they use ISO 59020 for |
|---|---|
| Sustainability and reporting teams | A circularity figure that holds up to scrutiny |
| Designers, procurement and operations | Supplying the raw data on what goes in and what comes out |
| Auditors and third parties | Checking a claim, since a measurement made the same way every time can be verified |
Because ISO 59020 works at any level and in any sector, a packaging producer measuring one product line and a city measuring a whole region can use the same method and still compare notes.
Where ISO 59020 fits in producer reporting
For a producer putting packaging on the EU market, ISO 59020 is not a compliance step. Nothing in the law says you must run an ISO 59020 assessment.
What makes it useful is the overlap. Its two mandatory indicators are largely the same data producers already have to collect for packaging rules:
- Recycled content. The PPWR sets mandatory minimums for recycled content in plastic packaging from 2030, which is an inflow figure.
- Recyclability. The PPWR grades packaging on how recyclable it is, which shapes the outflow side, and EPR fees are increasingly tied to it.
So a producer already tracking packaging data for EPR reporting is most of the way to the numbers ISO 59020 needs. The standard is the rigorous way to turn that same data into a circularity figure you can report, compare year on year, and defend if a customer or regulator asks.
Keeping that data clean and in one place, per product and per material, is exactly the kind of record an EPR platform like Repax is built to hold.
What ISO 59020 is often confused with
A few standards and ideas get tangled up with ISO 59020. Three are worth untangling.
- ISO 59020 vs ISO 59004. ISO 59004 defines what a circular economy is and the principles behind it. ISO 59020 measures how circular you actually are. One agrees the words, the other puts numbers on them.
- ISO 59020 vs a life cycle assessment. A life cycle assessment, set out in ISO 14040, measures environmental impacts like carbon across a product's life. ISO 59020 measures circularity, how much of the resource flow is kept in the loop. The two are complementary, not the same, and a product can score well on one and less well on the other.
- ISO 59020 is not a certification. There is no "ISO 59020 certificate" the way there is for a management system like ISO 14001. You apply the standard to produce a circularity result, and a third party can verify that result, but you are not audited and "certified" to it.
Frequently asked questions about ISO 59020
Short, plain answers to the questions people ask most about ISO 59020.
What is ISO 59020?
ISO 59020 is the international standard, published in 2024, that sets out how to measure and assess how circular an organisation, product or region is. It gives a fixed method and a set of circularity indicators, so a circularity result can be calculated, repeated and compared.
What does ISO 59020 measure?
It measures circularity performance, meaning how well a defined system keeps resources in use rather than losing them. It does this mainly by quantifying the resources flowing into the system (how much is reused or recycled) and out of it (how much is recovered rather than wasted), at a point in time.
What edition of ISO 59020 is current?
The first edition, published in 2024. It was released alongside ISO 59004 and ISO 59010 as part of the first wave of the ISO 59000 circular-economy series.
Is ISO 59020 a certification?
No. It is a requirements-and-guidance standard you apply, not a scheme you get certified to like ISO 14001. The result of an assessment can be independently verified by a third party, but there is no "ISO 59020 certificate".
What are the mandatory indicators in ISO 59020?
Resource inflows and resource outflows. Every assessment has to quantify what comes into the system and what leaves it. Three further categories, energy, water and economic, are optional and used where they are relevant to the system being measured.
What is the difference between ISO 59020 and ISO 59004?
ISO 59004 defines the circular economy and its principles. ISO 59020 measures how circular an organisation or product actually is. You use 59004 to agree what circularity means and 59020 to put a number on it.
Is ISO 59020 the same as a life cycle assessment?
No. A life cycle assessment measures environmental impacts, such as carbon, across a product's life. ISO 59020 measures circularity, how much of the resource flow stays in the loop. The two are complementary, and ISO 59020 can draw on life-cycle methods to judge the wider impacts of a result.
Is ISO 59020 mandatory or required by law?
No, it is a voluntary standard. No regulation currently requires an ISO 59020 assessment, but the circularity data it produces overlaps closely with what packaging rules like the EU's PPWR already ask producers to track.
How does ISO 59020 relate to EU packaging and EPR rules?
It does not make you compliant with them on its own. What it does is turn the recycled-content and recyclability data you already collect for EPR and PPWR into a measured circularity figure you can report and compare over time.
