For several years, the National Quality Subsystem (grouping of quality infrastructure entities in Colombia) and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (German Metrology Institute – PTB) have been working together. This cooperation is carried out through a series of projects called “Artical”, whose objective is to strengthen the competent and coordinated services of the National Quality Subsystem.

The third version of the project (Artical III) aims to strengthen quality infrastructure services in Colombia, to promote the circular economy. To this end, the project focuses on the identification of the needs for quality services and the improvement and development of new quality infrastructure services for the circular economy sectors, especially the plastics, construction materials, and electrical and electronic equipment sectors.

Several activities were conducted to develop a methodology that would allow a prioritisation of the sectors and subsequently of the products, in order to focus the search for gaps and unmet needs on the points that generate the greatest impact in environmental and economic terms.

First, to define the sectors on which the program should focus, the Colombian National Accreditation Body (ONAC) developed a methodology to prioritise two of the three sectors initially proposed. The following criteria were considered:

• Environmental impact, measured through the volume of waste generated by each sector, the toxicity of such waste, and its ease of degradation.
• Economic potential, where the operational profits of the companies belonging to each sector were considered.
• Available processing technologies, in which research was conducted on the technologies that currently exist to process waste from each sector. The cost of the existing methods, the ease of access to these methods, and the efficiency of the technologies in terms of the efficiency of the materials obtained from waste processing were analysed.
• Current regulations for the disposal and/or use of waste from each sector.

As a result of this analysis, it was concluded that the chains with the greatest potential to generate the necessary impacts are construction and demolition waste (CDW) and plastics; therefore, the project focused on the plastics and construction sectors.

The two prioritised sectors were subjected to a second stage of analysis, in which PTB requested the formation of a Core Group made up of members of the National Metrology Institute of Colombia (INM), the Colombian Institute of Technical Standards and Certification (ICONTEC), the National Association of Colombian Businessmen (ANDI), ONAC and PTB.

The objective of this group was to design and organise a first workshop, within the framework of the Artical III project, in which the different stakeholders would discuss circularity issues in the two prioritised sectors. The purpose of the workshop was to identify gaps and opportunities for improving quality infrastructure services to promote circularity in these value chains.

As input for the development of the workshop, ONAC developed a methodology based on criteria whose objective is to diagnose gaps in metrology, standardisation and accreditation, facilitate the integration of quality services in circular production processes and develop strategies aligned with the Colombian regulatory and sectoral context.

For the construction of the methodology, an analysis was made of several methodologies to stimulate quality in value chains, the methodologies analysed are listed below:

• CALIDENA Circular (PTB): a participatory approach to evaluate gaps throughout the value chain.
• SME Metrology (PTB-NMISA): Application at the enterprise level with a smaller sectoral scope.
• MESURA (CENAM): Structural assessment of gaps in quality infrastructure.

However, after carrying out the analysis, it was determined that no methodology was sufficiently adaptable to the Colombian context, therefore, it was necessary to build a new methodology that would allow combining these approaches to adapt to the needs of the circular economy in Colombia. The new methodology is based on the following criteria, which enable the evaluation of the importance and impact of each of the products and their circular value chain.

• Existing technical standards (NTC, international and national standards): products that already have specific circular economy standards.
• Import/export importance: products with a high impact on foreign trade.
• Production level: products with a significant participation in the national industry.
• Interest in quality infrastructure: business demand for certification, standardisation or metrology services.
• Available accreditation schemes: products with accreditation programs in place or potentially developable.
• Existing metrological capabilities: availability of laboratories and tools for quality assessment.
• Feasibility of implementation within two years: that results can be achieved within a reasonable timeframe.

These criteria were discussed at the workshop, which took place on February 19, 2025 at ONAC’s facilities and had the participation of different stakeholders, including the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, representatives of the plastics and construction sectors, among other relevant actors. The participants contributed their ideas and helped to improve the construction of the criteria proposed.

The workshop also provided a space for discussion by sector. In these spaces, the participants most interested in each sector discussed among themselves in order to decide on the products on which the development of new quality infrastructure services should be focused. In this way, the representatives of each sector defined the products, both plastic and construction and the reasons why the viability of some materials is greater compared to others.

Finally, some points in the chain of circularity were identified which the core group considered most relevant to emphasise in the development of the project. These links were discussed by the representatives of each sector and finally subjected to an analysis considering the products previously selected. In this discussion, the quality infrastructure services that could meet the needs of the value chain for each product in the links proposed were identified and listed.

Finally, the exercise was very useful in defining the focus of the Artical III project and allows defining lines of action on the part of the quality infrastructure entities to support the implementation of the circular economy by small and medium-sized enterprises.