Together with the students for furniture design of VOMO the CiLAB collective started a journey creating new circular concepts based on textile and furniture waste. The concepts do not only facilitate awareness but also link with the local community and the city of Mechelen.
Titan Greece - a cement and building material producer - plays an active role in the implementation of a circular economy model at various stages of the production process.
In France, the designer Lucile Viaud found her way to contribute to organic recycling. More precisely, to recycling of seafood waste. Her work is focused on transforming oyster shells into glass.
SirPlus, based in Germany, is an example of a business which avoids food waste to its utmost. It consists of a supermarket that sells food rejected by other stores for being considered out of the regular aesthetics for a supermarket – for instance, ugly fruit and vegetables, jars labelled incorrectly, or goods near or past expiry date.
RAU has been working in the architectural sector focusing on the design of sustainable buildings. Their projects include buildings for public/private sectors, with an integrated design methodology.
CIAK is a waste management company from Croatia that focuses on recovering hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Focusing on recovering and recycling accumulators and batteries, CIAK helps closing the loop for these products.
RecycLivre.com is a website selling second-hand books which aims to establish a relationship based on solidarity between its customers and underprivileged groups. It is built around the idea of promoting the recirculation of books instead of them being thrown away by their owners.
Tropa Verde was set up in Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 2015, and seeks to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour. Its goal is to promote recycling by rewarding environmentally-friendly practices.
Filippa K is a Swedish fashion brand which has taken significant steps to support sustainable consumption and design. The brand follows the "four Rs" of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair in order to encourage more mindful consumption and diminish fashion's impact on the environment.
European consumers lack the means to improve the durability of their products. In addition to harming the environment by emitting CO2, extracting non-renewable resources unnecessarily and creating waste, premature obsolescence in all its forms affects citizens’ purchasing power, their right to repair and their freedom to make their products last longer.
This white paper aims to give all stakeholders suggestions and ideas to move towards a world in which repair and responsible consumption are the norm. This will necessarily imply new constraints on manufacturers, that can no longer make products without taking durability and repair into account. It will also require new tools to inform citizens so that they are empowered in their consumption choices.
Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME)
Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
This policy brief from the ATI project (Technopolis Group, IDC, Fraunhofer, IDEA, Capgemini and NESTA) aims to promote policy initiatives and good practices of advanced and digital technologies that deliver solutions to the pressing environmental problems of our times. It outlines policy challenges in Europe, presenting the positive and negative impacts of digital technologies. It couples the objectives within digital and circular economy, showing national and industrial strategies that foster green investment. It also explains the various policy measures at societal levels within research and innovation programmes, energy solutions, regional ecosystems, smart mobility, resource consumption and voluntary industrial initiatives.
Different types of waste have been successfully co-processed as alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) in cement kilns in Europe, Japan, USA, Canada and Australia since the beginning of the 1980s.
In 2006, the first edition of the GTZ-Holcim Guidelines on Co-processing Waste Materials in Cement Production was published (GIZ-Holcim, 2006), aiming to gather the lessons of these experiences and offer it particularly to low and middle income countries as an option to improve approaches to waste management. Since then, waste management has earned a much more prominent place on the political agenda.
This revised edition of the guidelines updates technical, institutional, legal and social aspects of the original document as well as incorporate new ideas and information.
Pollution caused by incorrect packaging of waste is a serious problem. It can be addressed by designing products that are easier to recycle and by investing in collection and recycling systems. Establishing these kinds of systems requires a strong coordination body, backed up by transparent and stable sources of funding.
Experience suggests that the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) can have significant potential to achieve a range of policy objectives. The EPR Toolbox contains detailed information about EPR and provides an introduction to a number of distinct issues.
So far, the debate on material use and recycling has primarily been held in terms of tonnes, cubic metres, and environmental impact. This is all highly relevant, but a focus on volumes and flows also leaves important questions unanswered.
The report takes a step towards painting a more complete picture, taking an economic value perspective on material flows, and it assesses Europe’s use of steel, plastics and aluminium in terms of Euros instead of tonnes. Its objective is to answer the following questions:
When 100 Euros worth of raw materials enter the European economy, how much economic value is retained after one cycle of use?
What are the main reasons for loss of material value?
The study sheds light on the background of the prevention of plastic waste from packaging and disposable products by explaining the need for action, the environmental impacts and risks to human health.
Experiences of the members of the PREVENT Waste Alliance and their partners in the prevention of plastic waste by multi-actor partnerships are presented by means of 17 best practice examples.
Finally, the study gives recommendations for the reduction of plastic waste and the further work of the PREVENT Waste Alliance. These include success factors for waste prevention, necessary next steps and conclusions regarding the necessary political framework conditions.
The academic paper "Analysing European Union circular economy policies: words versus actions" comprehensively reviews and analyses the EU’s circular economy (CE) policies. Results show a dichotomy between words and actions, with a discourse that is rather holistic, while policies focus on “end of pipe solutions”.
To address these limitations, the paper proposes a set of 32 science-based policy recommendations which can help strengthen circular economy policies both within and outside the EU. This research thus brings key insights for practitioners and academics seeking to better understand the EU’s CE policies and how to improve circular economy implementation at both national and international level.
See here for more results, insights and recommendations.
This report follows on from the publication Circular Czechia from July 2018, exploring the circular economy in the Czech Republic.
The report explains how innovation has developed in this field since 2018, and aims to be an inspiration for firms, organisations and authorities on how to implement circular principles. It sets out a wide selection of good practices from the Czech Republic, and includes the retail, wastewater treatment, transport, construction and furniture sectors.
The report analyses the relationship between resilience and the circular economy.
It presents socio-ecological resilience mechanisms, with particular reference to the impacts of COVID-19.
It explores various relevant topics such as resource efficiency, shared resources, regenerative resources, decentralisation, skills transferability, lifelong learning, flexible labour contracts and the strengthening of the sociological foundation.
It also presents three case studies from the Netherlands, Ecuador and India, showing how local companies enhance resilience and reduce vulnerability in various sectors.
Lastly, it gives recommendations for educating stakeholders in how to improve and implement stronger circular economy strategies.
This report, drawn up by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, describes innovation competition as a method of tackling major environmental challenges, specifically how to provide food sustainably and resource-efficiently in the future.
Two teams with expertise in plastics, logistics and sustainability developed solutions focused on a more regional food supply enabling us to reduce the amount of plastic, packaging and transport used. The winning submission is a conversion tool describing the principles of sustainable production and consumption of food.
People are ultimately the drivers behind environmental change. They are the ones who will help organisations make the necessary changes to implement an efficient environmental management system, reduce the organisation's environmental impact and become more circular as a business and, in general, as a society.
Since its inception, the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) has sought to be a tool to help companies reduce their environmental impact and gain acceptance in their area by being transparent about their environmental performance and maintaining an open dialogue with stakeholders.
But how can you involve staff in environmental management? How are the EMAS tools helping to involve staff and top management in reducing environmental impacts and enhancing resource efficiency? What good practices has EMAS identified for involving employees and stakeholders in its 30 years of experience? Do people recognise the importance of their day-to-day behaviour in achieving environmental improvements at work and at home?
To answer these questions and have an interesting discussion with the audience, EMAS and ECESP organised a webinar on 26 October, to learn more about EMAS and the importance of involving staff, top management and stakeholders in the circular transition.
Re-think Circular Economy Forum is an event designed to present a vision on macro-trends, possible evolutionary paths, and main projects concerning the Circular Economy on a local, national and international level. It wants to encourage the development of Circular Economy in Taranto and in the rest of Apulia territory.
Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled! An International E-Waste Day to shed light on ‘invisible’ electronic waste
This year International E-Waste Day will operate under the slogan “You can recycle anything with a plug, battery or cable!”, thus highlighting the issue of invisible e-waste – the electronic items that often fall under the recycling radar of those disposing of them, because they are not seen as e-waste.
While often associated with discarded gadgets and devices, a significant amount of electronic waste remains hidden in plain sight.
At the Handelsblatt Circular Economy conference, the central role of industry, business, politics and science in implementing the circular economy will be discussed under the motto "reverse thinking".
The conference brings together top thinkers, decision makers and experts who already have experience in implementing circular economy solutions.
Raw materials are crucial to Europe's economy, and sustainable access to these materials is key for net zero objectives. However, Europe relies heavily on imports, mostly from third-country suppliers. It needs to mitigate supply chain risk arising from this strategic dependency in order to enhance its economic resilience.
The ECESP Leadership Group on Critical Raw Materials is holding this #EUCircularTalks on 11 October to highlight opportunities to improve existing life cycles for products containing CRMs.
Join us and explore how EU policy can scale up improvement opportunities and overcome the obstacles to creating a more circular economy for products reliant upon CRMs.
"Dialogues on the Circular Economy: Strategies for Transitioning from Food Waste Reduction to Zero Food Waste in the EU" will be held by Greenio on 4 September 2023 in Paris. The event will bring together top minds in sustainability, business and policy to explore and promote effective strategies for eliminating food waste in the European Union.
The European Commission is hosting a webinar on 27 July on the implementation of Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint methods. Find out about these methods, a tool for assessing, reporting and achieving circularity throughout the life cycle.
On 20 September, the Fraunhofer EU Office in Brussels will be holding a workshop to discuss its Roadmap for the Future Development of the Circular Bioeconomy. The workshop will explore the scientific and technological potential and challenges of the bioeconomy, how the bioeconomy can meet ecological and socioeconomic needs, and the policy framework needed to achieve this.
Participants will seek to identify solutions for the four application areas of bioeconomy: nutrition, biomass material utilisation, CO2 value creation and the socio-economic aspects of the bioeconomy.
The European Recycling Conference 2023 will take place on 28 September in Brussels.
This year, EURIC is teaming up with DENUO, the Belgian waste management and recycling federation, to shine a spotlight on car recycling. Why? The automotive industry is going through a major revolution. By 2035 - practically tomorrow in terms of industrial value chains - combustion engine vehicles will be phased out and replaced by electric vehicles (EVs). This transition will have a significant impact on all the players involved, considering that the industry provides 12.6 million direct and indirect jobs in the EU. Recycling is no exception.
The Materials & Products Taskforce will be hosting a hybrid event centred around the launch of a new policy briefing on the Critical Raw Materials Act.
Thank you to everyone who joined the session on the ‘search for sustainable buildings’ at EU Green Week on 3 June, which showed how the New European Bauhaus (NEB) and Level(s) can drive a circular and inclusive built-environment transformation.
Circular Insider - A speed date with circular economy frontrunners
Circular Change invites you to discover the circular lifestyle with its brand new publication. Circular Insider aims to be a source of inspiration for decision makers and to bring the concept of the circular economy closer to the general public.
Aimplas coordinated the European Life Ecomethylal Project, which has ended with the construction of a plant capable of extracting up to half a kilo of methylal from each kilo of non-recyclable waste.
The Circular Consumption Charter is the result of a partnership between Eni and 18 Italian consumer associations. It was launched on 17 June at a conference involving consumer associations, representatives of public institutions, the scientific world and the certification sector. EESC Vice-President Cillian Lohan participated in the event.
Interested in contributing to EU efforts to fight food loss and waste? Don’t miss the opportunity to submit your application!
The Commission is calling for applications from private sector organisations with expertise and proven track record in food waste prevention to re-establish, together with public entities, the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste for its second mandate (2022-2026).
This study aims to provide information about circular economy perspectives in the management of textile products and textile waste in the European Union. The report improves the understanding of current value chains in the manufacturing and retailing of apparel products in the EU and provides a detailed picture of material flows in the EU textile sector in a global context.
The Conference on the Future of Europe is collecting ideas on how to use resources more efficiently in a circular economy. As well as sharing your own ideas, you can also find other ideas from across Europe.
Discover the ECESP Coordination Group's work plan 2021 to advance the circular economy and bring the community together. The Group members will use their expertise and tackle issues in eight key areas identified as essential for the transition to a more circular economy.
You are encouraged to participate in a survey that the European Food Safety Agencyis launching to complement and prioritise the set of circular economy areas and practices which might pose risks to food/feed safety and the environment.
The European Commission is organising a series of targeted stakeholder workshops to gather input on challenges and gaps as well as opportunities for the textile sector in the transition towards sustainability. The fourth workshop on 18 June 2021 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. CET will focus on “product design for sustainability in the textile value chain”.
