Methodology note / 1 September 2026

The Circular Journey research framework

The twenty-two point framework, the ten mission stages and the evidence rules, published in full before the first field mission so the method can be judged independently of the findings it produces.

Why publish a method before using it

A research method described after the fact is impossible to evaluate. A reader has no way to tell whether the framework produced the findings or the findings produced the framework.

So this is published first, in 2026, before a single mission. It is a hostage to fortune, and that is the point. If the framework turns out to be wrong, it will be visible that it was changed, when, and why.

What it is for

Twelve countries, studied one at a time, produce twelve interesting stories and nothing comparable. The framework exists so that the material path in Hanoi can be set beside the material path in Berlin without first arguing about whether the two were studied in the same way.

It is not a scoring system. There is no total, no index and no ranking. Every country will be strong on some points and thin on others, and where a point cannot be answered the page will say so rather than quietly omitting it.

The four groups

The twenty-two points fall into four groups.

The material path. Generation, segregation, collection, transportation, sorting, recycling and organic treatment. The physical journey of the material, in order.

Specific streams. Plastic, e-waste, food, construction, industrial. Each has its own economics and its own failure mode, and averaging them produces a number that describes nothing.

Disposal and the informal economy. Energy recovery, landfill, and the informal sector. Grouped together because in most of the countries being studied they are the parts of the system that absorb whatever the formal system does not.

What holds the system up. Technology, economics, policy, citizen behaviour, circular business models, scalability, and applicability to India. The conditions that determine whether any of the above survives its fifth year.

The order matters

India applicability is the last point, deliberately. It is tempting to start there, because it is the question the whole project exists to answer. Starting there would mean arriving at each system already looking for the part that transfers, which is an excellent way to find it whether or not it is there.

What this framework cannot do

It cannot tell you which country is doing best, and it is not designed to. It cannot capture seasonal variation from a single visit. It cannot correct for the fact that organizations willing to host a visit are more likely to be proud of their system.

Those limits are stated on the methodology page and repeated here because a framework presented without them invites more confidence than it has earned.

Limitations of this document

This is a statement of intent, not a report on work completed. No field research has been carried out, so nothing here has been tested against practice. It will be revised once it has been, and the revisions will be recorded rather than applied silently.