Responsible Sourcing Tools and Resources for Recycled Materials
The Harmonized Responsible Sourcing Framework for Recycled Materials (Harmonized Framework) is the first global effort by The Circulate Initiative, through its Responsible Sourcing Initiative, to develop a shared understanding of and unified standards for responsibly-sourced recycled materials.
To support the implementation of this framework and drive continuous improvement in responsible sourcing practices, we have developed a set of essential tools and resources. Created in collaboration with First Mile, these tools build on existing resources from Tearfund, Circulate Capital, and other publicly available materials.
The tools are designed to support risk assessment, mitigation and remediation, and the monitoring of human rights across the recycling value chain. They are guided by the Harmonized Framework, aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Fair Circularity Principles, and address growing regulatory requirements such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
Harmonized Responsible Sourcing Framework Implementation Phases
In line with a progressive improvement approach, implementation of the Harmonized Framework is designed to be carried out in phases: Engage, Assess, Plan, Implement, and finally, Monitor, Evaluate, and Report. Each phase is supported by specific tools and guidance.
Stakeholders are encouraged to adapt these tools to suit their value chain conditions and needs at each phase. By using them, stakeholders can improve practices, measure progress, and respond to emerging challenges – driving lasting change within the recycling value chain. The tools are also valuable for stakeholders who have not yet adopted the Harmonized Framework, as they provide practical support for implementing responsible sourcing practices within their value chains.
Responsibility for implementing the Harmonized Framework is shared among multiple actors, each playing a unique role in advancing a more responsible value chain. These tools are intended to be living resources that evolve over time, incorporating lessons learned through implementation and stakeholder feedback.
Objective: To establish a shared understanding of responsible sourcing and the Harmonized Framework for diverse actors across the recycling value chain.
Systematic and effective stakeholder engagement is critical across the value chain to ensure meaningful outcomes for informal waste sector workers. Effective interventions – including stakeholder education, participatory decision-making, and grievance mechanisms – depend on strong and inclusive engagement. The Engage Phase provides a foundation for this engagement by helping stakeholders understand and map the selected recycling value chain and the stakeholders who influence or are integral to it.
Tools and Resources
The Engage Phase begins by bringing together the project team and key partners to map stakeholders and the supply chain, clarifying the size, scope, and structure of the recycling value chain. This step is essential for identifying key actors and uncovering data or visibility gaps, laying the foundation for further assessment and responsible sourcing efforts.
Steps:
- Gather the project team and introduce them to the Harmonized Framework to ensure a shared understanding of the initiative and expectations for the process going forward.
- Identify and map all key actors across the value chain to visualize connections, understand the size and scope of the value chain, and identify data or traceability gaps.
Objective: To conduct a thorough assessment of current practices and human rights and environmental risks in order to establish a baseline against the indicators of the Harmonized Framework and identify potential mitigation and remediation actions.
This phase is critical for understanding current practices and conditions within the recycling value chain. It involves a comprehensive assessment of the regulatory landscape, existing systems and processes, and human rights and environmental risks across the value chain to identify gaps, assess potential impacts, and analyze the root causes of the challenges faced by informal waste sector workers and waste pickers. By prioritizing participatory assessments and engaging key actors, stakeholders can develop a clear understanding of risks and opportunities for improvement that will strengthen responsible sourcing practices.
Tools and Resources
This tool provides a comprehensive approach to understanding the regulatory landscape, assessing current responsible sourcing and supplier engagement practices in a recycling value chain, identifying human rights and environmental risks, and analyzing the root causes of identified challenges. It brings together guidance and assessment tools for different actors across the recycling value chain while recognizing and building on existing efforts to drive meaningful progress.
Steps:
- Use the guidance provided to understand the relevant regulatory landscape, including applicable laws, regulations, policies, and government programs for the selected value chain and operating context.
- Adapt the assessment approach and tools provided to ensure they are contextualized and applicable to the selected value chain and its operations.
- Assess the recycler’s existing policies, processes, and supplier engagement practices to understand current responsible sourcing practices and systems.
- Conduct the assessments with the selected sample, ensuring appropriate representation of relevant actors across the value chain, including business owners, facility workers, and waste pickers.
- Review the assessment findings to identify gaps, risks, and areas for improvement and use the Root Cause Analysis to understand the underlying factors contributing to identified challenges.
- Consolidate and analyze the findings to establish a baseline against the Harmonized Framework indicators, and use the reporting guidance to document findings and inform subsequent mitigation, remediation, and capacity-strengthening interventions.
Objective: To plan and design interventions that address the most pressing issues identified in the recycling value chain.
Based on the assessments conducted in the previous phase, stakeholders can collaboratively design, prioritize, and execute mitigation and remediation interventions targeting the most significant challenges. These interventions may include strengthening capacity, facilitating the integration and organization of informal waste sector workers, and implementing solutions to increase wages, improve safe working conditions, address child labor, or take other appropriate measures to mitigate human rights impacts.
Tools and Resources
The Mitigation and Remediation Action Plan provides a structured framework to plan, implement, and track interventions that have been identified and prioritized to reduce risks and strengthen responsible sourcing practices. It outlines specific challenges, proposed solutions, expected outcomes, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The tool can be adapted to include additional elements, if needed, ensuring it meets the specific needs of each implementation project.
Steps:
- Prioritize interventions using clear criteria or guiding questions based on maturity level, capacity, intended impact, and logistical feasibility.
- Draft the Action Plan by linking each identified barrier with a proposed solution, expected outcomes, and KPIs.
- Customize the plan format as needed by adding roles, responsibilities, timelines, resources, or other relevant fields.
Objective: To support stakeholders across the recycling value chain to implement responsible sourcing practices and mitigation and remediation interventions in line with the Harmonized Framework.
This phase focuses on translating the priorities and interventions identified through the previous phases into practice. It helps stakeholders understand their current capacity to implement responsible sourcing, identify areas where additional support is needed, and determine appropriate implementation pathways.
Tools and Resources
The Responsible Sourcing Implementation and Capacity Strengthening Guide helps stakeholders assess their current capacity to implement responsible sourcing practices and identify appropriate implementation pathways. It helps them understand the knowledge, skills, resources, and capabilities required to implement interventions, identify areas where additional capacity is needed, and determine how best to support stakeholders in putting these actions into practice.
Steps:
- Review the planned actions, responsibilities, and resources identified during the Plan Phase, and identify the stakeholders involved in implementation.
- Identify what relevant stakeholders need to understand and be able to do to fulfill their roles, including the knowledge, skills, systems, tools, and support required.
- Assess the organization’s policies, standards, and processes, internal capacity and leadership, partnerships, resources, and data and monitoring systems. Identify capacity gaps, priorities, and actions needed to strengthen implementation.
- Use these findings to develop a practical implementation pathway that establishes foundational practices, strengthens implementation over time, and progressively embeds responsible sourcing.
- Implement the identified interventions and capacity-strengthening activities, and adapt the approach based on implementation progress, stakeholder feedback, and emerging needs.
Objective: To systematically track and assess progressive improvements in responsible sourcing practices, aligned with the Harmonized Framework indicators.
This phase aims to establish a cycle of continuous improvement, promote transparency, and strengthen accountability across the value chain. This feedback loop is essential for continuously enhancing the effectiveness and impact of responsible sourcing practices over time. It also enables organizations to adapt and plan more informed, targeted interventions while building trust among stakeholders.
Tools and Resources
The Responsible Sourcing Process Assessment Tool helps stakeholders monitor, evaluate, and learn from their practices while tracking progress on their responsible sourcing journey. It supports tracking of key indicators over time, monitoring the implementation of mitigation and remediation actions, and evaluating supplier engagement and management systems.
Steps
- Establish clear objectives and targets for responsible sourcing improvement, aligned with the Harmonized Framework and sustainability commitments.
- Define roles, responsibilities, monitoring frequency, and reporting cycles, ensuring relevant teams contribute to the process.
- Establish a system for collecting and maintaining evidence and data required for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
- Conduct regular assessments and reporting, using the findings to track progress of responsible sourcing and refine strategies.
Objective: To establish a shared understanding of responsible sourcing and the Harmonized Framework for diverse actors across the recycling value chain.
Systematic and effective stakeholder engagement is critical across the value chain to ensure meaningful outcomes for informal waste sector workers. Effective interventions – including stakeholder education, participatory decision-making, and grievance mechanisms – depend on strong and inclusive engagement. The Engage Phase provides a foundation for this engagement by helping stakeholders understand and map the selected recycling value chain and the stakeholders who influence or are integral to it.
Tools and Resources
The Engage Phase begins by bringing together the project team and key partners to map stakeholders and the supply chain, clarifying the size, scope, and structure of the recycling value chain. This step is essential for identifying key actors and uncovering data or visibility gaps, laying the foundation for further assessment and responsible sourcing efforts.
Steps:
- Gather the project team and introduce them to the Harmonized Framework to ensure a shared understanding of the initiative and expectations for the process going forward.
- Identify and map all key actors across the value chain to visualize connections, understand the size and scope of the value chain, and identify data or traceability gaps.
Objective: To conduct a thorough assessment of current practices and human rights and environmental risks in order to establish a baseline against the indicators of the Harmonized Framework and identify potential mitigation and remediation actions.
This phase is critical for understanding current practices and conditions within the recycling value chain. It involves a comprehensive assessment of the regulatory landscape, existing systems and processes, and human rights and environmental risks across the value chain to identify gaps, assess potential impacts, and analyze the root causes of the challenges faced by informal waste sector workers and waste pickers. By prioritizing participatory assessments and engaging key actors, stakeholders can develop a clear understanding of risks and opportunities for improvement that will strengthen responsible sourcing practices.
Tools and Resources
This tool provides a comprehensive approach to understanding the regulatory landscape, assessing current responsible sourcing and supplier engagement practices in a recycling value chain, identifying human rights and environmental risks, and analyzing the root causes of identified challenges. It brings together guidance and assessment tools for different actors across the recycling value chain while recognizing and building on existing efforts to drive meaningful progress.
Steps:
- Use the guidance provided to understand the relevant regulatory landscape, including applicable laws, regulations, policies, and government programs for the selected value chain and operating context.
- Adapt the assessment approach and tools provided to ensure they are contextualized and applicable to the selected value chain and its operations.
- Assess the recycler’s existing policies, processes, and supplier engagement practices to understand current responsible sourcing practices and systems.
- Conduct the assessments with the selected sample, ensuring appropriate representation of relevant actors across the value chain, including business owners, facility workers, and waste pickers.
- Review the assessment findings to identify gaps, risks, and areas for improvement and use the Root Cause Analysis to understand the underlying factors contributing to identified challenges.
- Consolidate and analyze the findings to establish a baseline against the Harmonized Framework indicators, and use the reporting guidance to document findings and inform subsequent mitigation, remediation, and capacity-strengthening interventions.
Objective: To plan and design interventions that address the most pressing issues identified in the recycling value chain.
Based on the assessments conducted in the previous phase, stakeholders can collaboratively design, prioritize, and execute mitigation and remediation interventions targeting the most significant challenges. These interventions may include strengthening capacity, facilitating the integration and organization of informal waste sector workers, and implementing solutions to increase wages, improve safe working conditions, address child labor, or take other appropriate measures to mitigate human rights impacts.
Tools and Resources
The Mitigation and Remediation Action Plan provides a structured framework to plan, implement, and track interventions that have been identified and prioritized to reduce risks and strengthen responsible sourcing practices. It outlines specific challenges, proposed solutions, expected outcomes, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The tool can be adapted to include additional elements, if needed, ensuring it meets the specific needs of each implementation project.
Steps:
- Prioritize interventions using clear criteria or guiding questions based on maturity level, capacity, intended impact, and logistical feasibility.
- Draft the Action Plan by linking each identified barrier with a proposed solution, expected outcomes, and KPIs.
- Customize the plan format as needed by adding roles, responsibilities, timelines, resources, or other relevant fields.
Objective: To support stakeholders across the recycling value chain to implement responsible sourcing practices and mitigation and remediation interventions in line with the Harmonized Framework.
This phase focuses on translating the priorities and interventions identified through the previous phases into practice. It helps stakeholders understand their current capacity to implement responsible sourcing, identify areas where additional support is needed, and determine appropriate implementation pathways.
Tools and Resources
The Responsible Sourcing Implementation and Capacity Strengthening Guide helps stakeholders assess their current capacity to implement responsible sourcing practices and identify appropriate implementation pathways. It helps them understand the knowledge, skills, resources, and capabilities required to implement interventions, identify areas where additional capacity is needed, and determine how best to support stakeholders in putting these actions into practice.
Steps:
- Review the planned actions, responsibilities, and resources identified during the Plan Phase, and identify the stakeholders involved in implementation.
- Identify what relevant stakeholders need to understand and be able to do to fulfill their roles, including the knowledge, skills, systems, tools, and support required.
- Assess the organization’s policies, standards, and processes, internal capacity and leadership, partnerships, resources, and data and monitoring systems. Identify capacity gaps, priorities, and actions needed to strengthen implementation.
- Use these findings to develop a practical implementation pathway that establishes foundational practices, strengthens implementation over time, and progressively embeds responsible sourcing.
- Implement the identified interventions and capacity-strengthening activities, and adapt the approach based on implementation progress, stakeholder feedback, and emerging needs.
Objective: To systematically track and assess progressive improvements in responsible sourcing practices, aligned with the Harmonized Framework indicators.
This phase aims to establish a cycle of continuous improvement, promote transparency, and strengthen accountability across the value chain. This feedback loop is essential for continuously enhancing the effectiveness and impact of responsible sourcing practices over time. It also enables organizations to adapt and plan more informed, targeted interventions while building trust among stakeholders.
Tools and Resources
The Responsible Sourcing Process Assessment Tool helps stakeholders monitor, evaluate, and learn from their practices while tracking progress on their responsible sourcing journey. It supports tracking of key indicators over time, monitoring the implementation of mitigation and remediation actions, and evaluating supplier engagement and management systems.
Steps
- Establish clear objectives and targets for responsible sourcing improvement, aligned with the Harmonized Framework and sustainability commitments.
- Define roles, responsibilities, monitoring frequency, and reporting cycles, ensuring relevant teams contribute to the process.
- Establish a system for collecting and maintaining evidence and data required for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
- Conduct regular assessments and reporting, using the findings to track progress of responsible sourcing and refine strategies.
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Who Should Use the Tools?
These tools are for anyone seeking to build a more responsible recycling supply chain – from brands and recyclers to aggregators and civil society organizations. Whether you’re focused on human rights, sustainability, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, or ethical procurement, these tools support teams and individuals to operationalize, improve, and scale responsible sourcing practices.
Investors
Buyers of recycled materials (including brands)
Recycling companies
Aggregators
Civil society organizations and informal waste worker associations
Third-party auditors
Feedback
We invite you to explore and apply these tools in your work, and to reach out for support or to share feedback. Be part of a growing effort to drive responsible sourcing globally.