Marypup's upcycled rainwear
Marypup recovers thousands of tents which have been thrown away and uses the fabric to make rainwear. This is upcycling: the waste is recovered, transformed and given a new life.
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Convert makes every fibre matter
Convert works to support UN Sustainable Development Goal 12: ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. It explores how natural sustainable resources can be used to make new products and seeks to reduce the amount of waste on earth through recycling and upcycling. Every fibre matters when waste fibres are used as non-woven material.
CEnTOUR or how to help SMEs in the tourism sector transition towards circular economy
This COSME project aims to implement a capacity building and support scheme for SMEs in the tourism sector that will lead them to reach different levels of Circular Economy innovations within a transition system.
LanaTerm: wool can keep buildings warm as well as sheep
There are not many eco-friendly products on the Romanian construction market, so there was definitely a niche in the thermal insulation market. LanaTerm uses sheep's wool to create thermal insulation for buildings.
Community reuse center Baterkáren brings life to the circular economy principles
Baterkaren's mission is to make sustainability (circular economy principles and associated environmental protection) accessible to the general public, in order to render communities capable to adapt as effectively as possible to the potential impacts of climate change in the area.
The Fabric Sales - an almost complete circular fashion powerhouse
At the Fabric Sales, a new model has been developed for repurposing and extending the life of designer fabrics.
CiLAB collective creates new circular concepts on textile and furniture waste
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.
Sheltersuit: upcycling materials to provide shelter for people living on the streets
The Sheltersuit Foundation has three goals: helping people in need, closing the gap in the labour market and reducing waste. It produces wind- and waterproof coats that can be transformed into a sleeping bag, and are distributed free of charge to homeless people and people in refugee camps.
REFUCOAT: recycling food packaging and preventing salmonella
The European REFUCOAT project developed innovative, efficient, bioplastic food packaging production processes using renewable, recyclable materials which could replace conventional fossil fuel-based raw materials. Three different bio-based active packaging systems were developed.
Titan Greece: making circular cement a reality
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.
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Textiles in Europe's circular economy
Briefing on textiles in Europe's circular economy
Textiles are fundamental to our society and employs millions of people worldwide, making it among the largest in the world and an important part of Europe's manufacturing industry. However, textile production and consumption cause significant environmental, climate and social impacts by using resources, water, land and chemicals and emitting greenhouse gases and pollutants.
In Europe, the sector employs 1.7 million people and Europeans consume on average 26 kg of textiles per person per year. This briefing by the European Environment Agency provides an EU perspective of the environmental and climate pressures from textile production and consumption, and discusses how circular business models and regulation can help move us towards a circular textiles economy.
Paving the way for a circular economy: insights on status and potentials
Paving the way for a circular economy: insights on status and potentials
This report by the EEA highlights that fostering circular material use requires a broad system perspective and extensive stakeholder involvement. The entire product lifecycle — including the design, production, consumption and waste phases — needs to be addressed in a coherent way. The enablers of and barriers to circular business models need to be well understood and addressed before innovation and competitiveness can be enhanced.
EU Circular Economy and Trade Report
This policy paper by the Institute for European Environmental Policy examines the interface between the EU circular economy, trade and sustainable development. It identifies the expected global impacts associated with the EU’s shift to circularity and investigates the role of trade in either incentivising or hindering this process.
Finally, the paper highlights the links between the circular economy, trade and sustainable development, emphasising the need for better policy coherence among these areas in the EU.
Methodological Guide “Beneficial use of dredged sediments in road engineering”
Methodological Guide “Beneficial use of dredged sediments in road engineering”
This guide presents how dredged sediments can be beneficially used in road engineering with a view to sustainable development and to the protection of the environment and of populations.
This is the result of research carried out by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DGCE) at the School of Mines of Douai for more than ten years on the theme of using dredged sediments. It is coherent with French regulations and the methodological framework (ADEME, 2010; SETRA, 2011) that prevailed at the time of the work.
This guide is not intended for use of sediments abstracted from a river system. It is only intended for harbour and canal dredgings, where restitution to river systems is usually not possible -at least economically.
Policy Recommendations: Towards a Zero Waste Textiles Industry
Policy Recommendations: Towards a Zero Waste Textiles Industry
The Fibersort project aims at realising the widespread implementation of the automated sorting technology by validating it as a key value adding innovation to enable textile-to-textile recycling.
While the challenges and opportunities of used textiles are increasingly in the spotlight of governments, industry, and civil society, considerable system changes are required to transition towards a circular economy for textiles. Throughout this report, policy recommendations are formulated showing the legislative, economic and soft instruments that regional, national and the European governments have at their disposal to create an enabling environment for textiles collection, sorting and recycling at scale.
New Plastics Economy Global Commitment 2019 Progress Report
New Plastics Economy Global Commitment progress report launched
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN Environment Programme have published the first annual New Plastics Economy Global Commitment progress report. Presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Oslo, the report provides an unprecedented level of transparency on how almost 200 businesses and governments are reshaping the plastics system.
Launched in 2018, the Global Commitment now includes over 400 signatories, which are aligned on a path to build a new plastics economy. Business signatories, including companies representing 20% of all plastic packaging produced globally, are working to eliminate the plastic we don't need, to innovate so that all plastic we do need is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and to circulate all the plastic we use.
Find out more here.
Identifying the impact of the circular economy on the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry: opportunities and challenges for businesses, workers and consumers – mobile phones as an example
Identifying the impact of the circular economy on the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry: opportunities and challenges for businesses, workers and consumers – mobile phones as an example
Mobile phones, particularly smartphones, have undergone a period of rapid growth to become virtually indispensable to today's lifestyle. Yet their production, use and disposal can entail a significant environmental burden.
This study, commissioned by the European Economic and Social Committee and carried out by the Centre for European Policy Studies, looks at the opportunities and challenges arising from implementing circular economy approaches in the mobile phone value chain. A review of the value chain and different circular approaches is complemented by a scenario analysis that aims to quantify the potential impacts of circular approaches such as recycling, refurbishment and lifetime extension.
The study finds that there is a large untapped potential for recovering materials from both the annual flow of new mobile phones sold in Europe once they reach the end of their life and the accumulated stock of unused, so-called "hibernating" devices in EU households. Achieving high recycling rates for these devices can offer opportunities to reduce EU dependence on imported materials and make secondary raw materials available on the EU market, as shown in the picture below.
Drawing on the empirical findings and the analysis conducted, this study recommends policy action in the following areas:
- Collection rates of old unused mobile phone devices are low, which means there is largely unexploited potential in the EU for recovering valuable materials from these devices.
- Although consumers generally show willingness to engage in circular economy practices for mobile phones, in reality only a few do so.
- Various challenges for reuse and refurbishment businesses stem from EU legislation, including regulatory complexity and "preparation for use" in the WEE directive.
As such, policy-makers should close the collection gap for mobile phone devices, which could in turn create jobs in the refurbishment sector. Extending the lifetime of mobile phones can also provide CO2 mitigation benefits, particularly from displacing the production of new devices.
Policy enablers to accelerate the circular economy
Policy enablers to accelerate the circular economy: Scaling up actions across regions and stakeholders
Over the past couple of years, as companies start to understand the opportunities that lie under the concept of circular economy, the circularity conversation has gained significant momentum. At the same time, national and regional governments are developing frameworks and regulations to promote the circular economy.
Effective policymaking is crucial to accelerate and scale up circular actions in the economy. It supports businesses in overcoming hurdles by stimulating innovative projects and long-term investments in circularity, facilitating collaboration and partnerships, and producing tangible results.
Learning from successful policies can help inform future policies to promote wider actions in other sectors and regions over time.
Destination Climate Neutrality
Destination climate neutrality: a five year policy blueprint for Europe
Destination Climate Neutrality brings together leading recommendations of think tanks, scientists, thought leaders and NGOs to offer a policy blueprint for how best to propel Europe towards net zero carbon emissions in the coming 5 years of the Von der Leyen term. It offers sector-by-sector analysis, targets and initiatives in governance, finance, industry, energy, transport, the circular economy, agriculture and employment.
On circular economy, the report sees challenges in:
- a lack of EU targets for waste prevention, reuse, repair and refurbishment
- no monitoring framework for material flows
- contamination of materials by hazardous ingredients
- high demand for biomass.
The authors identify opportunities in job creation, cleaner supply chains and product policies.
Circular jobs in Belgium - A baseline analysis of employment in the circular economy in Belgium
Circular jobs in Belgium - A baseline analysis of employment in the circular economy in Belgium
This report presents a baseline measurement of employment in the Belgian circular economy and provides insights into the nature and number of jobs in the country’s circular economy. This includes all jobs contributing to the circular economy through activities in renewable energy, repair and maintenance, recycling, digital technology, design, new business models and collaboration.
This report, conducted by the King Baudouin Foundation and the Dutch social enterprise Circle Economy, aims to inform governments, employers, social partners and other representatives with a view to pursuing effective and inclusive circular labour policy.
An online monitor, which the partners will update regularly, complements the report.
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02 Feb 2021 to 04 Feb 2021
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.
23 Feb 2021
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.
21 Jan 2021
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.
19 Jan 2021
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.
14 Jan 2021
In this new episode of Re-think Webinars we will look into another circular city: Lisbon.
09 Feb 2021
Ever wondered how circular economy could help your city/region in its energy transition? This FEDARENE webinar is for you!
18 Dec 2020
The Circular Learning Hub's public workshop on project outcomes and knowledge sharing will take place on 18 December 2020.
15 Dec 2020
The EU SME Centre, the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Beijing and the Danish Chamber of Commerce in China are pleased to invite you to an online workshop on green and circular economy in China. The online workshop will take place on 15 December 2020 on Zoom from 15:30 – 18:30 (Beijing time). (Europe time is -7 hours).
22 Jan 2021
EuroCommerce invites you to a webinar with Virginijus Sinkevičius on 22 January 2021 from 14.00 to 15.00 (CET).
07 Dec 2020
The first European Circular Cities Declaration webinar will present examples of good practice from the group of over 30 signatories. It will also provide an introduction to the Declaration for cities and regions which may be interested in signing.
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06 May 2019
A 600.000 EUR funding programme to support innovators in Ireland to develop and demonstrate consumer and business solutions that will stimulate the circular economy is now open for applications.
29 Mar 2019
Waste and pollution from the production of textiles and clothing have become critical global issues. The current ‘linear’ model is outdated and unsustainable. There is an urgent need for a strategy to transform industry into a circular model. A new report launched by Ecopreneur.eu, the European Sustainable Business Federation, calls for decisive policy measures to create an enabling framework.
27 Mar 2019
On March 27, the European Parliament voted to adopt the Single-Use Plastics Directive, thus banning single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers to be banned by 2021, setting a 90% collection target for plastic bottles by 2029 and introducing more stringent application of the “polluter pays” principle.
25 Mar 2019
On March 19, GLOBE EU and the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) organised a conference to look back on what the 2014 - 2019 EU mandate has achieved for the circular economy and present GLOBE EU’s recommendations with priorities for the next European Commission.
08 Mar 2019
More than 350 circular economy stakeholders from across Europe shared their success stories and the challenges they face during the second day of the Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference, hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee on 7 March 2019.
26 Feb 2019
Applications for the Procura+ Awards, a major and prestigious recognition of sustainable and innovative procurement, are now open!
19 Feb 2019
On 19 February 2019 the European Parliament and ACR+ hosted experts and practitioners from local and regional authorities, training providers, NGOs and academia across Europe.
06 Feb 2019
The European Commission is conducting a stakeholder consultation on the EU Ecolabel to gather views and identify opportunities to increase uptake of this voluntary ecolabelling scheme.
23 Jan 2019
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.
22 Jan 2019
On 22 January 2019, Circle Economy launched the second annual Circularity Gap Report in Davos during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.