Circular Economy Certification Programme

It is a certification programme that allows projects carrying out circular economy activities — plastic recycling among others — to generate Circular Credits, each equivalent to one tonne of materials reduced and recirculated. These credits can be bought by organisations wishing to offset their environmental material footprint. The programme is an economic instrument so that any organisation with a circular economy project can generate additional income from its activities.

They are initiatives to recover materials along the value chain, through which the Circular Credits that fund environmental reduction and recirculation services are traded. Their purpose extends to eliminating waste and pollution, extending the useful life of products and materials, and regenerating natural systems.

It is led by Cercarbono, a multidisciplinary organisation specialising in creating programmes and initiatives to mitigate climate change in the voluntary carbon market, and Global Zero Waste, a leading organisation in developing international circular economy projects and standards for material flows.

Any circularity organisation or initiative that can demonstrate its additionality and its applicability under the chosen methodology.

They are international financing mechanisms equivalent to the reduction or recirculation of one metric tonne of materials. They can be acquired by organisations or consumers wishing to offset their material footprint and support the development of projects. Each certificate for a tonne reduced or recirculated carries a unique serial number holding all the project information, which guarantees the traceability and transparency this market requires.

It makes it possible to scale up material reduction and recirculation projects, to promote the optimisation of materials in the biological and technological cycles, to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, to foster a friendly and effective environment for the actors involved, and to guarantee transparency in the exchange and integration of data in the international Circular Credits market.

Material reduction and recirculation activities are accredited independently of their location: projects may be developed anywhere in the world under the technical considerations of the programme. As an international programme, it encourages participation from actors in every region and interaction between their own markets.

The programme uses EcoRegistry as its registry platform. It is a blockchain-based platform that guarantees transparency in the accounting of the voluntary material circularity market, and security and traceability in managing the information related to reduction and recirculation initiatives.

Activities fall into two broad groups: reduction and recirculation. Both can be implemented specifically according to the 9 Rs of the circular economy: reduction (refuse, rethink and reduce) and recirculation (reuse, repair, restore, remanufacture, repurpose and recycle). Whether they qualify to generate Circular Credits depends on the methodology applied.

They can be acquired by organisations or individual consumers wishing to offset their material footprint, on the basis that one credit equals the reduction or recirculation of one metric tonne of materials. Trading these certificates funds material recovery and management projects, which brings new resources to the communities and regions where the activities take place.

The programme allows three years of retroactivity, counted from the moment the project is published on the registry platform.

Its useful life is at least ten years.

The crediting period for projects is ten years, renewable once for a maximum of ten further years. For Programmes of Activities it is a maximum of twenty years.

Additionality means that, in the absence of the proposed project, the amount of material it recycles or recirculates would not have been removed from the environment or reintroduced into the value chain. The criterion is set out in each methodology; for the plastic recycling methodology, for example, in the decision tree for demonstrating additionality.

Different methodologies may be used provided they take into account the material reduction and recirculation activities set out in the programme. They must be submitted jointly or independently following the guidelines in the Programme Procedures document, and be approved by Global Zero Waste and Cercarbono.

The value of a credit depends on the characteristics of the project: type of activity (reduction or recirculation), location, type of material, and social and environmental impact, among others, which may add value to it. One Circular Credit represents one metric tonne of materials reduced or recirculated. The value of the certificates also depends on the performance of the international market and on existing demand.

Yes. When the Circular Economy Material Project is developed with communities, a public consultation with stakeholders must be carried out. In addition, once registered in the programme the project is subject to a thirty-day public comment period, during which stakeholders may review it and submit comments.

Yes: the template the owner or developer must use is the Project Design Document (PDD).

Yes. They are carried out by a Validation and Verification Body (VVB), which charges according to the type and location of the project. That cost is borne by the owner or developer of the initiative.

No. The validation and verification timeframe is set by the owner and the Validation and Verification Body in the contract they sign to carry out these processes.

Projects may carry out verifications at least every six months and at most every five years. If a project has not carried out verifications for four years and nine months, or if its crediting period is about to end, it receives an alert from the programme indicating that a verification is needed.

Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and single-use plastic taxes limit the room for manoeuvre of Plastic Credit projects, because recycling targets for producers and traders are already set and mandatory. To generate Plastic Credits, activities must go beyond legal obligations (additionality). Therefore, any material reported for regulatory compliance CANNOT be used to generate credits: only material NOT reported for that compliance is eligible.

Companies registered as processors that certify recovered plastic to collection-scheme programmes may face the risk of double counting. If the recovery of that plastic is already accounted for in a scheme such as Extended Producer Responsibility, or is reported in another programme, it is not appropriate to generate additional credits for the same material.