In this version of the default list of indicators, the below eight indicators for waste and other output flows are optional. In a specific PCR they may be mandatory, as they are according to PCR 2019:14 Construction products.

Indicators describing waste

Indicators describing output flows

The waste and output flows indicators are calculated on the gross amounts leaving the system boundary of the product system. If there is no gross amount leaving the system boundary, the results of the indicator shall be zero.

The waste treatment processes shall be included within the system boundaries (see A.4.2 in the GPI). As the waste indicators are for processes leaving the product system, they are not equal to the waste flows entering the waste treatment processes. Instead, the waste indicators reflect any waste not entering such processes (e.g., direct littering to nature) or any waste remaining after such processes and the default 100-year time period.

Some aggregated generic LCI datasets, most notably those from the Ecoinvent database, include all waste treatment processes within the system boundaries. Other aggregated generic LCI datasets, such as Gabi datasets, often have flows of untreated waste exiting the system boundary. For the latter category of LCI datasets, a waste treatment process shall be added to the product system (if the waste is normally treated in the represented region).

The parameter “Materials for energy recovery” does not include materials for incineration with energy recovery, unless all criteria for end-of-waste state have been fulfilled prior to the incineration so that the system boundary is set before the incineration process which thereby is assigned to the next product life cycle. If incineration with energy recovery is within the system boundaries (assigned to end-of-life stage/modules C3 or C4), the energy flows leaving the product system are instead considered in the indicators “Exported energy, electricity” and “Exported energy, thermal”.