With respect to standardisation, the Deliverable provides an update on the evolution underway at the national (UNI-CTI/CT 283) and the international (ISO/TC 300) level in the technical standardisation of waste-derived solid fuels derived and energy recovery from waste. These topics that fall fully within the now shared hierarchy of options to be applied in waste management but are also a linked to the circular transition hoped for the production processes. Regarding this circular transition, guidance elements are provided on the way the standardisation sector is acting to make shared regulatory tools available.

The Deliverable then shares the main feedback from the annual activities of Task 36 Material and Energy Valorisation of Waste in a Circular Economy of IEA’s Technology Collaboration Programme Bioenergy. All the topics addressed are closely related to the role of waste management in a circular perspective: the update on national situations and choices regarding energy recovery from waste; the analysis of the solid recovered fuel market; considerations on the future role of waste incineration and the main drivers that should guide its evolution; the examination of the technical and economic aspects of the recoverability of phosphorus from waste; the analysis of the current state of demand, use and end-of-life recovery of plastics and plastic packaging in particular, their recycling for the production of secondary raw materials and their use in marketed products, including related main critical issues, at the European and national level.

Finally, the Deliverable directly addresses, in a way that is preparatory to the development of subsequent annual activities, the circular economy by discussing the main available metric tools (reading strategies, methodologies and indicators), as proposed by institutional bodies, international organisations and others, to measure the degree of circularity at different scales (from macro to micro), paying particular attention to the metrics of the circular economy in the case of the energy system.