The annual Circular Economy Insights Series helps shape strategies and informs the development of support for communities of practice across Ireland. It highlights research gaps and will guide work in this area.

The 2025 report is designed to support an evidenced-based approach to public engagement and communications for a circular economy. It integrates best practices, targeted market research, socio-demographic analyses and community initiatives to provide key insights and statistical evidence on the specific trends currently driving circular economy behaviour in Ireland.

It aims to strengthen capacity for high-quality communications and public engagement to ensure that Ireland is informed and enabled to participate in, and benefit from, the circular transition.

The WEEE Forum aimed to formulate recommendations on potential future targets for WEEE collection and on the method for calculating the collection rate which would foster the circular economy.

This study accordingly conducted a comprehensive assessment of current WEEE collection rate calculation methodologies and proposes a new approach for setting WEEE collection targets in the EU. It took a multi-phase approach, including data collection, model development and sensitivity analysis. Interviews with experts and stakeholders were also carried out to validate assumptions and explore new target-setting approaches.

The study concludes that the WEEE generated method is preferable to the current POM (put on the market)-based collection target.

The European Union’s Bioeconomy Strategy is at a pivotal point of revision.

As the EU seeks to advance its transition towards circular economy, civil society organisations – backed by academic insights – are calling for a bioeconomy strategy that places sustainability, environmental resilience and social well-being on an equal footing.

This paper, prepared by the ECESP's Leadership Group on Bioeconomy, provides a multi-actor perspective. It focuses on sustainability, economic development (especially in rural areas) and regulatory frameworks. It highlights gaps in the existing strategy and proposes policy recommendations for policymakers and research institutions.

This study on regenerative agriculture explores the climate impact of current Fertiliser, Agrochemical, Tillage, Bare-soil, Agricultural Systems (FATBAS).

It takes the position that FATBAS is a significant factor in both driving the immediate land-based climate change impacts we are seeing, including ‘global drying’, drought, heating, flooding, fire and heat domes, and increasing the risks of extreme weather events.

FATBAS, by driving down soil carbon and related stored water, reduces the evapotranspiration of plants. This in turn reduces land-based moisture circulation in the form of rainfall. Evapotranspiration of plants cools the planet’s surface areas, whereas sunlight on bare soils heats both the region and the atmosphere.

It calls for FATBAS to be replaced by regenerative agriculture.

Due to rising demand and shrinking supply, the built environment and its raw material suppliers must align with regenerative cycles. This thesis aims to create a circular procurement framework to determine and preserve building asset value at end-of-life, establishing transparent, measurable standards that reduce waste and optimise resources.

It creates a transparent and measurable standard for the circular procurement process, reducing waste and optimising resource use. The thesis focuses on four major deliverables: a database of site and inventory inspections, an exit scenario and resource recovery plan, a partial deconstruction plan, and an online marketplace for resource trading.

The framework uses existing tools and indicators to establish the circular procurement process.

The BioBoosters community around the Baltic Sea Region are employing a business-driven hackathon concept to boost the circular transition of the bioeconomy sectors. 

This publication explores nine innovation journeys of leading bioeconomy companies around the Baltic Sea.

The stories highlight the barriers, enablers and success factors of the circular transition in the bioeconomy sectors of this region. They also showcase the impact of open innovation and inter-regional cooperation. With the support of the BioBoosters innovation community, these companies have applied open innovation to find cooperation partners and solutions for greater circularity, sustainability and profitability of their operations.

The EU legislature has been working on legislation to transform the European economy into a circular one. One of the focal points of that legislation is the extension of the useful lifespan of products on the EU market.

This report analyses the legislative initiatives containing such measures. First, it describes their potential impact for the Belgian and Flemish policy level. Second, it explains their potential impact on businesses active in the Flemish region. Third, it describes how Belgian policymakers could help ensure that EU legislation reaches the fullest circular potential within its framework.

It also highlights potential shortcomings of EU legislation, where Belgian policymakers could consider advocating changes to that framework at EU level.

This research aims to map the magnitude and value associated with repair as a circular strategy in Flanders.

Repair is a key element in any circular economy strategy, preventing resource depletion, keeping goods in circulation longer, and reducing environmental impacts related to the energy needed for new products. However, the development of metrics to measure progress in scaling up repair efforts is incomplete. Knowledge gaps exist in sectors such as textiles and furniture, while more is known about electronic and digital devices.

The study concludes with recommendations to promote a repair culture, focus on textiles, recognise the value of informal repair activities, encourage repair skill acquisition, address gendered patterns and combat the throwaway culture that hinders repair.

The inclusion of green clauses in public procurement contracts is gradually becoming an obligation in certain sectors in the EU.

This report highlights the role of green public procurement (GPP) in the transition to a circular economy through an analysis of the European regulatory framework. It looks at both hard (e.g. Batteries Regulation) and soft law (European Commission working documents). Relevant European legislation that is still in the adoption phase (e.g. Construction Products Regulation) is also considered. 

An overview of useful model clauses for implementing GPP shows how these clauses can contribute to promoting the circular economy in public procurement. The study lists measures that could make GPP a more effective tool in the circular economy transition.

In a rapidly urbanising world, efficient waste management has become a critical challenge for cities striving for sustainability and cleanliness. 

This study explores the experiences of six, highly urbanised European cities: Antwerp, Porto, Rotterdam, Florence, Hamburg and Barcelona. Each has implemented various types of underground waste containers but they all aim to optimise efficiency, improve urban aesthetics and enhance waste sorting. 

For each city, the study examines the system's impact in terms of organisation, performance, cleanliness and savings and sets out city-specific conclusions.

The study finds that while this type of waste system has advantages, implementation poses challenges. It's a very useful resource for city officials looking at changing waste collection methods.