PDR is a German company with extensive expertise in recycling materials, which has developed a groundbreaking technique to reuse polyurethane (PU) foam cans. In Germany, about 25 million cans are used each year, and a federal legislature has classified used PU foam cans as polluting waste which must be recycled.
Fortunale is entirely eco-friendly, and it is inspired by modern principles of circular economy: a Fortunale sweater is designed, from its origin, to be recycled at the end of its natural use until 80%, because it is made of pure wool, and this precious characteristic allows us to regenerate its fibers into new prime materials.
Nuova Sara oil separator centrifuges apply centrifugal force to separate shavings and metal waste. The de-oiled shavings can be recovered and valorised as secondary raw materials.
PeelPioneers is the first company in the world to use citrus peel to create new raw materials. The peels are left over from making fresh juice, collected from supermarkets and the catering industry.
The City of Turin is financing some circular-economy oriented projects, among them the Balon Marketplace, an e-commerce portal for stakeholders who are active in the antiques, second-hand, vintage and reuse sectors, for a sustainable consumption of goods with a high cultural and heritage value. The portal aims to share ancient and past know-how and skills by promoting handycrafts shops.
Quid provides jobs for vulnerable people, especially women, in a field for which Italy is renowned: fashion. Quid markets its ethical and sustainable clothing under the label Quid Project. The project sources the raw material from the Italian fashion and textile world, using production surpluses and end-of-series fabrics. It therefore combines social and environmental impact.
Remix El Barrio engages with stakeholders and innovative designers to support a circular transition which revalues surplus food and biowaste.
TERRA DI TUTTI (meaning "Everybody's earth") is a social enterprise in the Tuscan Region giving a second life to scraps and promoting handicrafts as an opportunity for different cultures to meet.
The Treottouno Social Cooperative of Forlì (Italy) is committed to the implementation of circular economy systems where everything can be recycled, both goods/waste and people.
Thanks to a No Waste Technology, flexible packaging becomes recyclable in the paper supply chain.
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 by conducting thirty-six qualitative, semi-structured interviews. Empirical illustrations of the potential barriers and drivers provide managerial implications for better execution of circular business.
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:
The concept of circular economy is gaining traction. This has led to various policy actions throughout the life cycle of a product ranging from measures on eco-design to recycling targets. Despite the progressive incorporation of the circular economy in industrial and innovation policies, the EU and Member States policies have a strong focus on increasing recycling rates, reducing landfilling and creating markets for secondary raw materials. On their own these measures are insufficient to result in a paradigm shift in resource use and current targets inadequate to provide a clear direction of travel.
Within the framework of THINK 2030, an IEEP project to support a science-based agenda for European environmental policy beyond 2020, the authors set out what policy actions the EU and Member States can and should take in the coming decade to achieve a circular shift in Europe.
The Barriers & Drivers to a Circular Economy report provides a review of pre-Circular Economy Action Plan studies on green growth, and showed that "a Circular Economy demands a system change with parallel actions along the value chain rather than a purely sector and/or product focused approach".
While many strategies by national and regional governments have been launched since the report's publication in 2015, its succinct overview of the issues impeding a circular transition remains useful for policy researchers. Many barriers, especially with consumer acceptance or price incentives of recylced materials, persist till today.
The Challenges, Opportunities and Pathways for European Business in Circular Economy report is a EUROCHAMBRES initiative launched in order to better understand if and how the circular economy will benefit European businesses, and to delineate a successful transition. This will be the basis for a policy strategy to contribute to an enriching debate on future legislative proposals at European level.
This report is a comprehensive meta-analysis of the most up-to-date quantitative studies on the circular economy, and elaborates on nine industrial sectors (agriculture, construction, mobility, hospitality and food services, metal manufacturing, electronics, textile, food & drink manufacturing, and plastics) including case studies. Bearing in mind the future of European manufacturing industries and businesses, the paper focuses on European trends derived from available data regarding investment costs, cost savings, and investment opportunities.
Today, most electrical/electronic equipment (EEE) is not designed for recycling, let alone for circulation. Plastics in these products account for 20% of material use, and through better design, significant environmental and financial savings could be made. Technological solutions and circular design opportunities already exist, but they have not yet been implemented. Some challenges, such as ease of disassembly, could be resolved through better communication and by sharing learnings across the value chain. Instead of WEEE, we should focus on developing CEEE: Circular Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The case examples of this report show how different stages of the lifecycle can be designed so that circular plastic becomes possible and makes business sense. It is time to take a leap in material flow management and scale up these circular solutions across the industry.
To increase clarity in circular projects, France's standardisation body AFNOR developed a voluntary standard, XP X30-901, that proposes a common understanding, laying out the terms, principles, and practices for all actors to agree to work with on the subject.
XP X30-901 proposes a 3 x 7 matrix covering the three dimensions of sustainable development - environment, economy, society - and the seven areas of action of the circular economy: sustainable procurement, ecodesign, industrial symbiosis, functional economy, responsible consumption, extension of service life, and the effective management of materials and products at the end of their life cycle.
In this report, six members of the standardisation commission share their experiences on this voluntary standard.
Local government programmes that encourage and support circular economy practices, such as repair, recycling and circular design activities help attract new investment, create jobs and result in tangible socio-economic benefits for the city and its people, reveals the report: The Role of Municipal Policy in the Circular Economy: Investment, Jobs and Social Capital in Circular Cities.
The report explores the connection between municipalities pursuing circular economy policy and investments in circular business that create jobs. In order to maximise circularity's benefits for society, municipalities can employ a series of regulatory, economic and soft instruments that include strategies, targets, loans and subsidies, which are all also conducive to generating employment.
Circular Baltic 2030 - Circular economy in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) is a report produced by the Swedish independent think-tank Global Utmaning.
It is a collection of circular economy best practices supporting the implementation of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and covering the EU Member States of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden as well as the partner countries Norway and Russia. The report also showcases a number of circular economy best practices from around the world.
In many countries, governments are looking for ways to transform their economy into one that is circular, or to improve the level of resource efficiency (e.g. see the EU programme ‘Closing the loop’ or the World Circular Economy Forum).
To do so effectively, having an overview of the current state of circular activities in the economy is important. To date, such an overview has been lacking. This PBL report provides an outline of the current state of the circular economy in the Netherlands. It also provides information that may be of interest to other countries and presents opportunities and suggestions for subsequent steps towards achieving a circular economy.
On 28 January C2C will host its digital C2C Summit: Textiles & Supply Chain, focusing on Cradle to Cradle cycles and material health in the textile industry.
On 10 February, ACLIMA, ATI, EASME, DG GROW and ECESP organised the policy seminar on circular economy and advanced technology/digital policies. The panel discussed the ways industrial recovery policies realise a green, climate-resilient economy in the short and long terms, and how digital transformation respects the environment.
The third edition of the International Circular Economy Meeting aims to strengthen the objectives established in Gipuzkoa province (Spain) for the circular economy. The region set to achieve a recycling rate of 70% by 2030. It also ambitions to place the territory at the forefront as a European reference in circular economy models.
Rijkswaterstaat has the ambition to make its infrastructure works fully climate-neutral by 2030 and to operate in a fully circular manner. A great ambition that it cannot achieve on its own. That is why Rijkswaterstaat invite you to participate in a number of online sessions (in DUTCH only) from 2 to 4 February and to work together on a circular and climate-neutral infrastructure.
The virtual event Industrial symbiosis as an opportunity for carbon neutrality on 23 February (9:00-13:00 CET) will launch the CircLean network as a concrete opportunity to tap into the potential of industrial symbiosis (IS) for European businesses. This pilot initiative, led by DG GROW, aims to increase the availability and quality of information about the impacts and benefits of IS in the EU.
24 January is #CircularElectronicsDay! This webinar is part of the official activities and takes place on 21 January, with presentations and live discussions on 5 unique and impactful approaches to circular electronics.
The Interreg MED Green Growth Community would like to invite you to participate in an online communication training session to discover storytelling techniques that inspire journalists to get unique and impactful stories out into the media, to take place on Tuesday 19 January 2021 at 10.30 a.m. CET.
In this new episode of Re-think Webinars we will look into another circular city: Lisbon.
Ever wondered how circular economy could help your city/region in its energy transition? This FEDARENE webinar is for you!
The Circular Learning Hub's public workshop on project outcomes and knowledge sharing will take place on 18 December 2020.
The SCREEN Final Conference was held in Rome on 18 and 19 October 2018, during the two-day Forum CompraVerde (BuyGreen), in order to present the results of the SCREEN project.
The Consumer Insights into the Circular Economy event took place on 25 October 2018 in Brussels.
The Be Circular Annual Meeting took place on 24 October 2018
The XI International Environmental Congress took place in Bogotà, Colombia on 23 and 24 October 2018, with participation from Cillian Lohan, ECESP coordination group member for the EESC.
The updated bioeconomy strategy for Europe was launched on Monday 22 October as part of an event held under the Austrian Presidency.
The second meeting of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform Coordination Group took place on 18 and 19 October 2018.
The EIB Copenhagen Conference on the Circular Economy took place on 25 October 2018 to discuss financing the circular economy in biotechnology, urban development and plastics.
World Food Day is a day of action dedicated to tackling global hunger.
The first seminar on 'the City as a Business Model' was held at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands on 4 October. It aimed to share knowledge and discuss about how cities can make the transition to sustainable, inclusive circular economies, based on various European best practices.
