PROPER Project

The goal of PROPER is to develop resource efficiency indicators to be applied in the private sector to take better decisions, for both investment and commercialization, in the context of primary and secondary production. This development relies on life cycle approaches to address the overall loop closing evaluation in a circular economy perspective. Furthermore, such indicators are tools to measure the sustainability performances of materials production.

The exploitation of natural resources generates economic development but compromises the associated natural capital and produces environmental impacts. The European Commission considers the decoupling between economic growth and resource use as the central core of strategies on eco-efficiency of resources. List of resource efficiency indicators measuring this decoupling exists but suffers from some criticisms. The goal of PROPER is to develop resource efficiency indicators to be applied in the private sector to take better decisions, for both investment and commercialization, in the context of primary and secondary production. This development relies on life cycle approaches to, address the overall loop closing evaluation in a circular economy perspective.

Furthermore, such indicators are tools to measure the sustainability performances of materials production. To reach this objective, PROPER aims at developing indicators and testing their applicability in a process perspective by studying three substances (silicon carbide, chromium oxide and graphite) and their primary and secondary productions The project firstly develops a methodology to operationalize the quantification of resource dissipation. Then dissipation is integrated to the LCA of the three substances and the two production routes to quantify the associated potential. 

Keywords

Resource productivity, resource dissipation, recovery processes, circular economy, life cycle assessment 

• Coordinator: BRGM (France)
• RDC Environment (Belgium)
• Extracthive Ceramics Recycling (France) 

• 36 Months
• 12/2020 to 11/2023