Measuring the Level of Circularity in a Ho.Re.Ca. Organization According to UNI/TS 11820:2024

Assessing the level of circularity in the Hotel, Restaurant and Catering (HoReCa) sector is a significant challenge due to the lack of standardized quantification methods and the absence of structured environmental and material accounting systems, features that are typical of a sector largely composed of micro-enterprises. The technical standard UNI/TS 11820:2024 has developed a set of 71 indicators for the circular economy, structured across six domains (material resources and components; energy and water; waste and emissions; logistics; products and services; and human resources, assets, policies, and sustainability), allowing the assessment of circularity levels in a replicable and comparable manner. The present research measures circularity in a table-service restaurant micro-enterprise, which has voluntarily adopted circular economy practices since its foundation. The purpose is to test the applicability of UNI/TS 11820:2024 in the HoReCa context, improve knowledge about this technical standard, and highlight its strengths and weaknesses from the managerial, methodological and public authorities’ perspective. The overall organization’s circularity score achieved is 31.88%, with performance ranging from 14.40% for “material resources and components” to 56.25% for “human resources, assets and policies”. Although UNI/TS 11820:2024 aims at bridging theoretical and practical gaps towards a harmonized set of measurement tools, sector-specific indicators for the foodservice context remain underrepresented, and public authorities and universities should promote both basic and advanced education in the field of circular economy measurement to support wider adoption.