Platform methodology.

The recycling system model.

A recycling system is composed of four interdependent steps: collection, sorting, reprocessing, and the application of the recovered material in a new product. Collection and sorting together represent the bulk of the operational effort required to make the system work; reprocessing and application are gated by the quality of the material that reaches them. Any assessment of how recyclable a packaging format is in a given market is therefore an assessment of the weakest of those four steps. A material that is well collected, well sorted and successfully reprocessed, but absorbed by no end-market, is not recycled. The Platform applies this whole-chain logic to every market it covers.

Maturity and requirements: two complementary indicator families.

The methodology operates two distinct families of indicators. Maturity Indicators assess what a recycling system can do: how developed its policy framework is, how complete its infrastructure is, how reliably a given packaging format moves through it. Requirements Indicators assess what producers must comply with in order to place packaging on the local market: labelling rules, deposit obligations, eco-modulation thresholds, restricted formats. The two families answer different questions and are read together rather than averaged. A market with high requirements and low maturity is a different commercial proposition from a market with the opposite profile, and the Platform shows both.

Decision-tree assessment per indicator.

Each indicator is evaluated through a decision-tree structure. Reference points across the underlying data act as decision nodes, and the indicator's value emerges as a leaf at the end of the tree. The structure makes every result replicable: two assessors working from the same inputs arrive at the same output. It also makes every result traceable: the path that produced a given indicator value can be inspected, justified and revised as the underlying system evolves. The trees themselves are versioned and updated through the validation cycle described below.

Data inputs and continuous monitoring.

The Platform's data inputs are drawn from two parallel streams. The first is the public sources: government environmental ministries, national statistical databases, peer-reviewed research, industry associations, EPR and deposit-scheme operators, legislative repositories. The second is the internal proprietary stream: Veolia Group's operational data across the recycling value chain, direct input from CIRCPACK auditors and local experts in the markets the Platform covers, and the operating signal from customers themselves. The two streams are scanned continuously, cross-referenced against each other, and reconciled against CIRCPACK's local network before any indicator is updated.

Annual validation and continuous improvement.

The methodology is reviewed on an annual cycle by an internal CIRCPACK committee. Every decision tree is re-examined against the data on which it depends, against the indicators it produces, and against the strategic relevance of the question it answers. New indicators are introduced when the criteria they need to meet (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) are satisfied. Where a methodological change would affect outcomes for customers, the change is communicated in advance through the dedicated methodology section of the Platform.

Where the full methodology lives.

The full methodology documentation, including the indicator catalogue, the decision-tree structures and the data-source taxonomy, is maintained on the Platform itself and available to accountholders. CIRCPACK consultants can take prospective customers through a guided session against the markets and packaging formats that matter to their portfolio.