Material Circularity Assessment in Road Scheme Design
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2026-41195Keywords:
Road Design, Material Flow Analysis, Circular Economy, Circular Economy Metric, Material Circularity Indicator, InfrastructureAbstract
There is growing recognition of, and interest in, the potential benefits of the application of circular economy approaches to road infrastructure. This work reports the calculation and consideration of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) as a road scheme design-stage circularity metric and considers the practicality of its calculation and its potential to inform sustainable design.
The MCI measures the degree to which a product's component materials minimise linear flows and maximize restorative flows, while also accounting for the duration and / or intensity of material use relative to an ‘industry-average’ product.
The MCI was calculated for a major road scheme’s baseline design and principal detailed design stage design options – during scheme design. Calculations used scheme design data, with future material recycling efficiency estimated on the basis of current UK practice and the MCI’s utility factor derived from historic traffic flow intensity. The scheme’s baseline design had an MCI of 53.4%, which was improved to 61.3% through the integration of design oportunities that reduced resource consumption and increased material reuse and recycling. Calculation of the MCI facilitated evaluation of resource flow and material circularity and is considered to have value in informing road scheme design-stage resource management, decision making and sustainability.
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A copy of the Excel spreadsheet used to complete the calculations reported is available from ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Smith-367?ev=hdr_xprf
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Copyright (c) 2026 David N. Smith, Emma Maltby, Amelia Mills, Mark Murrin Earp, Brian Laughton, G Foster-Bell (Author)
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Arcadis
Grant numbers Arcadis UK&I
