VICAT produces materials for the construction sector (cement, concrete, aggregates) and believes that the act of building should no longer be disconnected from deconstruction. VICAT has therefore rethought its production systems to include circular economy loops focused on the recovery of local construction & demolition waste.
Calefa is a Finnish company specialized in the reuse of residual heat from industry by redirecting the excess heat from industrial processes either to the customer company’s own use or to the district heating network, instead of wasting it as condensed water or air.
Svenska Retursystem contributes to the circular economy through a reusable transit packaging system. It offers an alternative to the single use transit packaging, such as wooden pallets or cardboard boxes, that often contributes to global waste.
Coolrec has launched a project with two Dutch household goods chains: Blokker and Marskramer. During Tefal Swap Weeks, they offer customers a 20% discount on new Tefal frying pans when they return old ones.
Versalis produces plastics, rubbers and chemicals from renewable sources, maintaining plastic products and materials in a closed loop. It has developed the Versalis Revive® range of polymer based products containing recycled plastics, in collaboration with leading Italian companies in the recovery and recycling of post-consumer plastic at European level.
Unverpackt in Kiel opened in February of 2014, becoming Germany’s first packaging-free store. Their goal is to reduce packaging and food waste and at the same time motivate customers to reflect on their own consumer behaviour.
Cork-A-Tex is a project that uses recycled cork to create a yarn with high incorporation of cork. Cork is a 100% natural material made from the oak cork trees which can be recycled after its use as cork stopper in wine bottles.
The Belgian company Fertikal specialises in the production of organic fertilizers from recycled secondary materials. These recycled resources are collected in a radius of 150 km around the production facility and include chicken manure, struvite, digestates from bio-gas plants, composts, by-products from sugar beet and bio-diesel industry, etc.
Circular Flooring focuses on the recovery of the PVC compound from post-consumer PVC floor coverings and the separation of legacy plasticisers in order to create a recycled material for the manufacturing of new PVC floor coverings.
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has released a report on tackling plastic waste using circular solutions, with a focus on the opportunities chemical recycling provides. After highlighting the scale of the issue, the report presents different ways of solving the plastic waste issue by comparing the impacts of different waste treatment options and technologies, such as pyrolysis. The report concludes that:
“To tackle the colossal societal and environmental issue of plastic waste, we need proportionally meaningful efforts from the private and public sectors as well as society at large that encompass behaviors and habits. The ultimate solutions will involve a combination of judicious consumption and disposal measures.
In March 2019, the Italian Circular Economy Network hosted a national conference on the circular economy, where it presented this Report on the Italian circular economy in 2019. Based on the methodology used, comparing the 5 most important European economies, Italy is the top performer in terms of circular economy implementation, ahead of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain (in this order). While Italy’s position has remained unchanged compared to the previous year, there are some small signs of a slowdown which must be taken into account.
The report makes the following 10 proposals for a circular economy in Italy:
Spread and enrich circular vision, knowledge, research and good practices
The Ecopreneur.eu landscape review of circular economy policy in the EU Member States aims to inspire these countries to accelerate their circular transition. Combining the EU's Monitoring Framework with other rankings, databases and reports, Ecopreneur presents 28 country profiles using a mix of quantitative data and qualitative information to highlight specific indicators. These range from waste generated per capita to voting behaviour on EU proposals on the circular economy.
The report also describes the current performance, initiatives, most relevant organisations, policies, challenges and examples of good practice for each Member State. The country profiles show 28 unique different trajectories towards the circular economy.
The Circular Economy Competences, Making the Case for Lifelong Learning report, published by ACR+ and Zero Waste Scotland , builds on the workshop these orgnisations hosted in the Euroepan Parliament on 19 February 2019. It gathers the experiences participants shared in that workshop, and is meant to help educators, policymakers and managers of NGOs involved in training and educational organisations to promote the development of local circular economy loops.
The three chapters of this booklet cover different areas of the lifelong learning landscape:
Circular thinking in education
Upskilling waste, repair & reuse industry
Facilitating the transition towards a circular economy.
Businesses across Europe are fully engaged to maximise the value of materials, transition to circular business models and achieve a circular economy. This can be best achieved through a functioning market for secondary raw materials (SRMs) and circular products. A real market for SRMs requires a global level-playing field with similar regulatory frameworks and standards, but within the EU several challenges and untapped opportunities still remain. Among others, BusinessEurope recommends policy-makers to put more emphasis on removing inconsistencies and filling the gaps in the current policy framework, starting with a better implementation of the existing waste acquis, including more guidance to Member States and performing ex-post impact assessments on the benefits of full compliance.
The "No time to waste: unlocking the circular potential of the Baltic Sea Region" report, prepared by Politiyka Insight for the 10th annual forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) attempts to review the state of circular economy in that region, while assessing the challenges and opportunities connected with a circular transition. The report also looks into the future by trying to identify key trends that will impact the BSR countries until 2030, and on that basis project the future development of the circular economy, along with alternative scenarios.
The report shows that as of 2019 only Finland and Germany have adopted a circular economy strategy, while Poland, Estonia and Sweden are drafting one.
This preliminary study stimulates public debate on the circular economy in Germany and serves as a basis for discussion within the recently launched Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland. With a sizeable industry, there is substantial opportunity for Germany to adopt circular policies, but this paradigm shift would mean no less than a reinterpretation of the "Made in Germany" model.
In the past years, both the European Union and several Member States have adopted circular economy strategies to transition to a resource-efficient economy based on keeping resources in use for longer. While countries outside Europe also follow this guiding principle in their industrial and resource policies, e.g. China, Japan or Canada, such a plan is still missing in Germany.
The paper provides an overview of the literature on Circular Economy (CE) theoretical approaches, strategies and implementation cases. After analyzing different CE approaches and the underlying principles the paper then proceeds with the main goal of developing tools for CE implementation. Two tools are presented: a CE Strategies Database, which includes 45 CE strategies that are applicable to different parts of the value chain and secondly a CE Implementation Database, which includes over 100 case studies categorized by Scope, Parts of the Value Chain that are involved, as well as by the used Strategy and Implementation Level. An analysis of the state of the art in CE implementation is also included in the paper.
Circular economy increasingly attracts the interest of business, policy makers and academia in the search for answers to sustainability challenges. While earlier studies have presented drivers that support the introduction of new business concepts for circular economy, as well as barriers that hinder the rate of innovation in the field, no systematic categorizations of such factors have been brought forward.
Drawing on current literature, a framework of drivers and barriers is introduced, including seven distinct areas: environmental, economic, social, political and institutional, technological and informational, supply chain, and organizational factors. The appearance and content of these areas in practice have been examined in four case organizations.
The transition to a more circular economy is underway. But what can be done to speed it up? This report, authored by Institut Montaigne, recommends five principles that must drive circular economy policy:
focus on innovation
adopt a comprehensive, global approach
take into account differences between sectors and enhance public / private cooperation
RREUSE's Annual Conference on “The evolution of social enterprises in the circular economy. Past, present and future” is part of its 20th anniversary celebrations and will take place on 16 November 2021 from 10:00 to 13:00 CET.
The Regional Council of Veneto and Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region are working together with a view to COP 26 to present the state of play of the circular economy in their two regions. The talk will cover political commitments and practical examples.
This session, an EU-side event for COP 26, will underscore the need to move from a linear to a circular economic model in order to tackle climate change, and the role which local governments must play. It will present the commitments made under the Circular Cities Declaration, actions undertaken during the More Circularity, Less Carbon campaign and successful cooperation between researchers and local governments from COLOR CIRCLE, as well as good practices from European cities and regions.
LOOPS is a live webinar series committed to spotlighting innovation in the field of the circular economy. The event on 5 November 2021 at 11:00 CET will focus on the mining industry.
EIT Climate-KIC would like to cordially invite you to the Cross-KIC Western Balkans Regional Workshop that will take place on 29 October 2021, as part of the EIT Cross-KIC collaboration initiative.
In order to achieve the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality target, the European Commission is planning to announce new initiatives addressing the entire life cycle of products with the following objectives:
design of products that allows circularity and
promotion of circular economy processes and sustainable consumption.
The initiatives should also ensure that waste is prevented and that the resources used remain in the EU economy for as long as possible.
The Sustainable Products Initiative, expected to be published in December 2021, is a cornerstone of EU’s endeavours to create a circular economy. It will include rules for setting requirements on mandatory sustainability labelling and/or disclosure of information to market actors along value chains in the form of a digital product passport.
Join this EURACTIV Virtual Conference on 9 November at 9:30 CET to discuss EU's Circular Economy Action Plan and whether its new initiatives, such as the digital product passport, will achieve the transparency for products that policymakers are looking for. How easy will it be for industry, big and small, to comply with?
Novelis, the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling, invites you to a webinar on 26 October to discuss how sustainable frontrunners are innovating the shift towards making fully-recycled aluminium products the norm, and to consider how EU policy can accelerate this transition.
The speakers are: MEP Bas Eickhout (Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee, European Parliament), Marius Vaščega (Head of Cabinet to Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, European Commission), Martijn Lopes Cardozo (Circle Economy, CEO), Emilio Braghi (Novelis, Executive Vice-President and President Europe). Anna Gumbau (climate journalist) will moderate this debate.
Get informed and attend the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Info Days! They will present the R&I topics of the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) Work Programme 2022 and give prospective applicants the opportunity to learn more about funding opportunities concerning, specifically, circular economy and bioeconomy.
The Final Conference and Stakeholder Event on GLOPACK, the H2020 funded project focused on food packaging solutions that are 100% biodegradable in natural environment and bringing new functionalities to enhance the packaging usage benefit, will take place in Montpellier, France, on 17 November 2021 in a hybrid format.
Registration is now open for the 2019 Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference: Success Stories and New Challenges, to be held March 6 and 7 in Brussels. Apply until January 31st to attend this conference, grow your network of circular partners and participate in taking stock of the Circular Economy Action Plan’s achievements while setting the ground for new horizons in the circular economy.
Encourage individuals and organizations to contribute to a more sustainable use of electronics by sharing tips and inspiring others to re-use products with the hashtag #CircularElectronicsDay!
Scientific journal Nature addresses setting up an international platform to share data and experiences, and coordinating industrial policies and trade to conserve resources and energy.
The European Commission’s Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance is inviting stakeholders to give their feedback, and is hosting a series of expert workshops. Register before 4 January 2019!
On December 6, European Commissioner for the Environment Karmenu Vella and other EU representatives met Romanian government ministers and civil society leaders including ECESP Coordination Group member Dr Elena-Simina Lakatos.
Polish Circular Hotspot builds on COP24 to sign cooperation agreement with circular networks across Europe, including ECESP Coordination Group member Circular Change.
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the initiative "Towards an EU Product Policy Framework contributing to the Circular Economy".
