Circular Economy, Recycling & Remanufacturing worked example

Circular Material Savings at 42% usable circular-material substitution share: a worked example

Suppose usable circular-material substitution share falls to 42%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Estimate material savings from substituting recovered, reused, or recycled material for virgin material in a product or production plan.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Virgin material displaced by circular supply: 25,000 kg (held at the documented default)
  • Avoided virgin material cost: 1.35 $ / kg (held at the documented default)
  • Usable circular-material substitution share: 42 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 58)
  • Fixed qualification, sorting, or blending cost to subtract: 7,200 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Gross avoided virgin material cost = virgin material displaced by circular supply × avoided virgin material cost × usable circular-material substitution share.
  • Net circular material savings works out to 21,375 net circular material savings at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Savings per kg available works out to 0.86 $ / piece at these inputs.
  • Gross avoided virgin material cost works out to 14,175 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed qualification, sorting, or blending cost to subtract works out to 7,200 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where usable circular-material substitution share sits at 58% and the headline result is 26,775 net circular material savings, this scenario comes in 20.17% below the baseline at 21,375 net circular material savings.
  • It computes the net savings from displacing virgin material with circular supply by applying the usable substitution share to avoided virgin cost and subtracting qualification cost. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Net circular material savings: 21,375 net circular material savings (headline result)
  • Savings per kg available: 0.86 $ / piece
  • Gross avoided virgin material cost: 14,175 $
  • Fixed qualification, sorting, or blending cost to subtract: 7,200 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Circular Material Savings calculator, set usable circular-material substitution share to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.