R-Strategies for a Circular Economy

RCA R-Ladder

In the circular economy, all materials have value and there is no such thing as waste. To illustrate this, The Recycling Council of Alberta uses an adapted “R-Ladder” or “R-Hierarchy” — a visual tool that ranks material management strategies based on how circular they are.

The R-Ladder features 10 activities, organized by how efficiently they maintain materials in circulation:

  • Higher on the ladder: More circular approaches with shorter, more efficient loops that quickly return materials to productive use.
  • Lower on the ladder: Less circular approaches with longer loops, which take more time, energy, or resources to bring materials back into productive use.

Adapted from: Circularise and PBL (2017), Circular Economy: Measuring Innovation in the Product Chain, J. Potting, M. Hekkert, E. Worrell et al.

Near the bottom are Recovery (R9) and Linear Economy (Landfill and incineration). The RCA does not include Recovery or Linear Economy as reflective of Circular Economy activities. This is because they do not aim to keep materials in circulation. The RCA only supports Recovery activities to extract value from nonrecyclable materials after the other R activities have been considered or employed.

In the circular economy, materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. 

The circular economy:

  • reduces or eliminates both waste and pollution,
  • circulates products, packaging and materials at their highest value for as long as possible and
  • shifts production away from resource extraction to practices that allow nature to return to itself.

Adapted from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The circular economy will benefit Albertans and Alberta’s economy by boosting Alberta’s economic resilience and mitigating the environmental impact of business activities while supporting job creation and economic growth.


This can happen when investments and activities that reflect the circular economy focus on:

  • reducing pressure on and extending the life of Alberta’s natural resources,
  • stimulating innovation in design, usage and the way materials or products are processed,
  • creating opportunities for strengthened relationships between product or service providers and their customers (e.g., repair and reliability),
  • enabling new ways to offer services (e.g., products as services),
  • eliminating the need for low value and high-cost post-consumer material and resource management practices (e.g., landfilling, incineration) and
  • helping to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

In the circular economy, all materials have value and there is no such thing as waste. Activities that support keeping materials at their highest and best value for as long as possible – and ideally forever – are part of the circular economy. To help visualize this, the RCA uses an adapted “R-Ladder” – or “R-Hierarchy.” The R-Ladder shows a prioritized list of material management approaches where activities closer to the top of the represent more circular activities.

*Adapted from Circularise.

Short Loops – smarter manufacturing and use of products

  • R0 – Refuse: Prevent the use of products and raw materials in the creation of goods, and services
  • R1 – Rethink: Reconsider ownership, use, and maintenance of products
  • R2 – Reduce: Decrease the use of raw material in products and services

Medium Loops – extending the life of a product

  • R3 – Reuse: Secondary use of products by another owner for the same intended purpose
  • R4 – Repair: Maintain and repair existing products for extended use
  • R5 – Refurbish: Restore and improve products to a satisfactory condition for extended use
  • R6 – Remanufacture: Make more products with the same purpose with discarded products or parts
  • R7 – Repurpose: Make new products with a different purpose with discarded products or parts

Long Loops – material processing and/or conversion

  • R8 – Recycling: Process waste into new products or materials that can be used for new products
  • R9 – Recovery: Process waste to recover energy

Recovery activities aim to extract value (i.e., energy) from end-of-life materials and products. Recovery activities do not support the circulation of materials and products at their highest and best uses. Accordingly, it is the RCA’s view that Recovery strategies fall outside of true circularity and, at best, should be applied to only non-recyclable materials after all the other R activities have been considered, and hopefully employed.

It is also important to note that there are a broad range of recovery technologies and the definition of recyclables changes over time and place thus, at times, some Recovery activities may be at odds with R-activities 0 through 8.

The RCA’s position is that priority should always be given to activities R0 through R8 on the R-Ladder when making policy, strategy, and investment choices in Alberta’s circular economy transition. When all other material management strategies have been exhausted, there is a case for employing Recovery activities, including traditional waste-to-energy technologies, to complement a circular economy.

Groups investing in Recovery activities, including traditional waste-to-energy solutions, should consider that the available non-recyclable products (i.e., feedstock for Recovery) will continually diminish as more circular economy activities and resource use strategies are employed.

The circular economy and therefore the RCA’s R-Ladder focuses on the flow of materials through their useful lifespan. This said, it is important to consider multiple factors, including energy expenditures, emissions, and economics, when assessing the best R activities and resource use strategies to employ. Notably, there are likely situations where the net environmental benefits of Recovery, such as waste-to-energy solutions, might be greater than other options on the R-ladder. To exemplify this, waste-to-energy can almost always be exercised at a local level, whereas the products of raw materials from post-consumer products often relies on international shipments to manufacturing facilities.

As emissions protocols related to waste-to-energy incineration and circular solutions evolve globally, it is anticipated that methods to consider the true sustainability accounting for them will evolve and be clearer along with them.