European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform

The report Retaining value in the Swedish materials system takes a value perspective on the use and recycling of materials in a circular perspective. It analyses the use of materials in the Swedish economy in monetary terms instead of tonnes and cubic metres.

The key questions it seeks to answer include the following:

• For each 100 SEK of raw material entering the Swedish economy, how much value is retained after one use cycle?
• What are the main reasons that material value is lost?
• What measures could retain more materials value, and how much could be recovered? Which business opportunities arise as a result?

This value perspective gives a much more realistic view of how circular the Swedish materials system really is, as it captures all the downgrading effects that occur through its use of materials, in addition to the volume effects that also traditional research approaches capture. The value perspective also turns materials recycling into an industrial innovation and an economic topic, in addition to an environmental topic. To our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has value-mapped a material system in this way. 

Read more about the results and download the full report (in Swedish) here.

Although the opportunities for investing in circular business models are widely available, current investment methods do not match the needs of these particular businesses. Businesses need to create an attractive business model for financiers, and financiers need to change the way they perceive the risks and opportunities associated with these models.

To help businesses position themselves in a circular context and develop future strategies for doing business in a circular economy, Sustainable Finance Lab, Circle Economy, Nuovalente, TUDelft, and het Groene Brein got together to create the Value Hill that proposes a categorisation based on the lifecycle phases of a product: pre-, in- and post-use.

The Circularity Gap Report 2019 finds that just 9% of the 92.8 billion tonnes of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass that enter the economy are re-used annually. Circle Economy calculates that 62% of global greenhouse gas emissions are released during the extraction, processing and manufacturing of goods to serve society’s needs; only 38% are emitted in the delivery and use of products and services.

It highlights the vast scope to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by applying circular principles - re-use, re-manufacturing and re-cycling - to key sectors such as the built environment. Most governments barely consider circular economy measures in policies aimed at meeting the UN target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Europe has an ambitious vision of a carbon-neutral future, a vision that integrates energy-intensive industries as well as the construction sector and its entire value chain.

Cement, which binds concrete together, is at the heart of solutions to turn this vision into reality. These solutions span over the entire cement and concrete value chain: from raw materials to production, use, re-use, and recycling.

CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, as part of its effort to move towards a carbon-neutral construction sector, has taken stock of progress done since the publication of its 2050 Low Carbon Roadmap in 2013 and mapped routes to a resource-efficient and carbon-neutral built environment.

The European Commission has published a policy booklet presenting a selection of its research, science and innovation on climate change adaptation. In order to mitigate the impacts of climate change and to adapt to the changes that are already taking place or are impossible to avoid, fundamental changes in societies and behaviours all over the world – as well as scientific breakthroughs, both technological and social - will need to be made.

The objective of the report is to provide a snapshot of the numerous projects resulting from the calls for proposals of 2016-2017 in the Horizon 2020 priorities ‘Industrial leadership’ and ‘Societal Challenges’, that are contributing to the circular economy strategy.

Without aiming to be exhaustive or exclusive, the 156 listed projects represent a good sample of actions financed by Horizon 2020 in the different stages of a circular economy (production, consumption and waste).

The spectrum of priorities contemplated by the selected projects are very diverse and address more sustainable production in all kind of industrial processes, new bio-based and biodegradable products, substitution or recovery of raw materials, conversion of CO² packaging, plastics, etc.

The objective of the report is to provide a snapshot of the numerous projects resulting from the calls for proposals of 2016-2017 in the Horizon 2020 priorities ‘Industrial leadership’ and ‘Societal Challenges’, that are contributing to the circular economy strategy.

Without aiming to be exhaustive or exclusive, the 156 listed projects represent a good sample of actions financed by Horizon 2020 in the different stages of a circular economy (production, consumption and waste).

The spectrum of priorities contemplated by the selected projects are very diverse and address more sustainable production in all kind of industrial processes, new bio-based and biodegradable products, substitution or recovery of raw materials, conversion of CO2 packaging, plastics, etc.

The Institut national de l'Economie circulaire (France) has published a White paper on Circular agricultural and agri-food systems, which focuses on :

• circular agricultural and agri-food systems: definitions, stock-taking and good practices, stakeholder awareness (consumers, professionals, decision-makers, distributors)
• territorial ecology applied to agricultural and agri-food systems: synergies between enterprises, level of application, short agricultural and agri-food chains, urban and suburban farming
• organic substances returning to the soil: identification of "brakes and levers" (societal acceptance, regulations, etc.), composting, methanation and other transformation techniques
• appreciation of the eco-systemic services rendered.

The Institut national de l'Economie circulaire (France) has published a White paper on Circular agricultural and agri-food systems, which focuses on :

• circular agricultural and agri-food systems: definitions, stock-taking and good practices, stakeholder awareness (consumers, professionals, decision-makers, distributors)
• territorial ecology applied to agricultural and agri-food systems: synergies between enterprises, level of application, short agricultural and agri-food chains, urban and suburban farming
• organic substances returning to the soil: identification of "brakes and levers" (societal acceptance, regulations, etc.), composting, methanation and other transformation techniques
• appreciation of the eco-systemic services rendered.

The joint policy paper by Zero Waste Europe, ECOS, EEB, IFIXIT and Rreuse complements Digital Europe’s publication “The Contribution of the Digital Industry in a Circular Economy” with additional perspectives, and challenges the digital industry’s conclusions with regard to policy options.

These include an observation that the 28,000 tonnes of Category 3 IT equipment being shipped for repair or reuse annually in Europe represent only 2.2% of ICT products placed on the market, and 4.5% of the e-waste collected.

The strategies being applied to ensure longevity in the digital industry are also insufficiently comprehensive. In practice the lifetime of many IT products is linked to that of the battery, as this has become impossible to change and its degradation thus defines the performance of the overall device.
In response to DIGITALEUROPE, the authors believe that while repair centers organized or certified by manufacturers certainly have a role to play, the example of the automotive industry

shows that the two systems should not be opposed.

, with manufacturers required to make spare parts and information available to independent repairers whilst also offering certified repair services,

Destination: a circular tourism economy aims to increase the innovativeness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the tourism sector by supporting the integration of circular economy elements into their services, products and business models. This handbook is the result of work carried out in the Interreg South Baltic innovation project, CIRTOINNO.

In addition to providing an overall understanding of the concept of circular economy and the specificities of tourism and the South Baltic partner regions, the CIRTOINNO handbook investigates and discusses the opportunities and barriers for tourism SMEs to adopt circular economy principles, and identifies best practices. Focusing on Hotels, Restaurants and Spas, the handbook provides overall recommendations to:

• implement monitoring systems and strategies to reduce energy and water use
• build relationships with suppliers to rethink material flows
• train staff to improve resource use and reduce spillage