Circular economy indicators applied to cities in the Global South. Lima case study.

The circular economy is a new concept on the efficiency of resource management, which is applied in developed cities to improve production and consumption processes, and thus generate the least amount of waste possible.
However, many of the indicators that help measure the circular economy are not easily transferable or replicable to the reality of cities in developing countries such as Lima.
This project makes a systematic review of scientific articles, regulations and international manuals that address the issue of circular economy in order to identify the most relevant indicators applicable to cities like Lima. With this information, a matrix of operationalization of variables, dimensions and indicators is designed. Likewise, the information gaps that do not allow to quantify the levels of circularity in Lima are identified and recommendations are made to the public and private actors in charge of producing said data.

Currently, circular economy indicators are dispersed in various sources, which makes it necessary to reconcile the names of the indicators proposed by official entities and others that are disaggregated in various scientific articles, standards and international manuals. Likewise, these indicators are usually generated in developed countries and are tried to be applied directly in the cities of developing countries such as Lima, despite the differences between the two realities.
There is a lack of information on the subject for the context of the Global South and specifically for Lima. There is no instrument that systematizes and allows measuring the most relevant circular economy indicators for cities with the characteristics of Lima.
To create an instrument that is capable of measuring the degree of circularity in Lima, it is necessary to access official public data and other sources, however, this information is generally little (or null) and is scattered in many databases. Nor is it clearly established which are the public and private actors that should be primarily responsible for generating said data for each indicator. All this makes it difficult to establish circularity policies, guidelines and practices that contribute to the sustainable urban development of Lima.