Indicator
Ports have the potential to play a significant role as secondary resource and material processing hubs. This indicator builds on that notion by looking beyond the port area itself, offering insight into the extent to which ports are facilitating circular supply chains through their cargo flows.
This indicator measures the share of cargo streams made up of circular materials and products. Products and materials are considered circular in this context if they have undergone, or are intended to undergo, one of the R3 to R9 strategies of the 9R framework, namely reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, repurposing, recycling, or recovery. This could include waste, secondary raw materials, by-products, second-hand goods and refurbished goods.
How to measure its value
Bulk cargo data can be obtained from PMBs, containerised cargo data can be obtained from the Customs data management department.
For bulk cargo streams the identification of the circular steams can be based on the categorisation used by the port.
For containerised circular cargo data can be collected based on international HS codes.
This indicator can be split into four sub-indicators, each covering a separate cargo flow.
- maritime inflow
- maritime outflow
- inland waterway inflow
- inland waterway
Limitations
- Cargo streams are limited to those via maritime and inland waterways due to the lack of data availability on cargo streams via road and rail transportation.
- The hierarchy of R-strategies and the impact level are currently not considered.
- The indicator does not factor for the further processing of the materials upon arrival. Second-hand clothing for example, could be sent to landfill instead of being reused.
- Whilst HS codes include classifications for waste streams, they do not always allow for a distinction between new, second-hand, or recycled materials. This means that the volumes of certain containerised circular cargo streams are likely to be underestimated, since they cannot always be isolated from broader, undifferentiated categories.
- Bulk cargo categories are not standardized across ports.
- For containerised cargo, currently only in- and export data leaving the EU are available. Thus inter-EU transport is not factored in. Furthermore there is a high risk of misreporting due to the categories being self-reported by the handlers.
- The size and nature of the port needs to be taken into account when making cross port comparisons.
- No data is available relating to road and rail cargo streams. Due to the more localized nature of circular supply chains, it is likely that significant volumes of circular goods and materials which flow in and through the ports are missed.