The Horizon 2020 project SUSTAINair was launched recently. It aims to research and develop solutions to increase resource efficiency and aircraft performance while cutting down on waste and material costs throughout the aircraft life cycle - what is known as "circular aviation".
reWINE LIFE is a Catalonian project, running from 2016 to 2020 and co-financed by the EU's LIFE Programme. It sought to demonstrate the viability of reusing glass bottles in the local wine industry.
BPost's project aims to replace all water fountains and vending machines for hot and cold drinks and snacks. The company would like to install new machines that are energy-efficient and produce less waste.
The Facility Services Agency drew up an inventory of all the surplus office furniture from the various departments of the Flemish government. This made it much easier to give the chairs, desks and cupboards etc. a second life.
HISER's main objective is to develop and demonstrate holistic, technological and cost-effective solutions to increase recovery rates from increasingly complex construction and demolition waste (C&DW), with due regard for circular economy principles on the value chain in the construction sector (from buildings' end of life to new buildings).
Close the Glass Loop wants to achieve an average of 90% collection rate of used glass packaging at EU level by 2030 and a better quality of recycled glass.
Freek van Eijk is CEO of Holland Circular Hotspot (HCH), a private-public platform that facilitates the transition to a circular economy at international level by bringing together government authorities, knowledge institutes and especially businesses. HCH supports knowledge exchange with the aim of stimulating entrepreneurship in the field of the circular economy.
Freek van Eijk is also vice-chair of Circular Biobased Delta, an alliance of Dutch provinces, businesses and knowledge centres pioneering a sustainable circular and biobased economy. He is one of the more senior Dutch experts in the field of waste management and the circular economy. He also serves as Managing Director of Acceleratio.
Previously, Freek van Eijk worked for over a decade as Director of strategy and PA at the multinational SUEZ and as a board member of the Dutch Waste Management Association and the Society and Enterprise Foundation and acted as a Sherpa for the EU Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials.
He has a MSc. Eng. (Delft University of Technology).
Cliona Howie is the head of circular economy development and transition for EIT Climate-KIC. She has been working as an environmental consultant for over 20 years, starting as an expert in Environmental Impact Assessment and over the years working for both the public and private sectors in areas such as conservation, resource efficiency, industrial ecology and symbiosis, environmental certification and management schemes, the REACH regulation and sustainable industry. Cliona has held important roles such as championing sustainable business in SMEs as the Chair of the Environment Sector Group for the European Commission’s Enterprise Europe Network for several years, as well as sitting on a range of committees and working groups for the European Commission to influence policy and EU funding programmes, including the Circular Economy Expert Finance Group.
Currently, Cliona develops large-scale, deep demonstrations on circular economy transition. She works closely with national and regional governments as well as other stakeholders such as business/industry, research organisations and financial bodies to promote political and economic support from the European Union and its Member States to develop policies in favour of a circular economy by fostering the development of national and regional strategies and tools for cooperation. Cliona advocates for a systemic design and approach for a regenerative, low-carbon, circular transition across multiple levers of change.
Cliona holds other important roles for EIT Climate-KIC in the area of the circular economy. She is a member of the DG RTD Circular Economy Expert Finance Group and the EU Sustainable Finance Group as the circular economy expert from Climate-KIC. Furthermore, she has been named circular economy expert for the COTEC Foundation which brings together the top 100 experts in Spain.
She holds an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University in the UK and a BSc in Biological Sciences from Clemson University in the United States.
The AZMUD Project proposes innovations which will help reduce the consumption of water, energy, nutrients and pesticides, and promote the use of waste water in greenhouse cultivations.
The Circular Economy for the Data Centre Industry (CEDaCI) is a European project focusing on circular data centres. The project is of increasing collaboration and communication to drive sustainability in the data industry.
The Dublin City University VALOR project is investigating potential recovery options for the Organic Fraction of the Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) and Bio-Stabilised residual waste (BSRW). The project fully diagnoses the recovery options for municipal solid waste and validates their use by determining their benefits and potential environmental risks.
Contaminated sediment from the Port of Dunkirk has been re-used in road structures since 2002, when the Port started to cooperate with the Ecole des Mines de Douai and various industrial partners in order to design alternative materials for stabilised sub-base road layers.
The SaltGae project has established real scale demonstration sites in Slovenia, Italy and Israel that show the long-term techno-economic performance of microalgae technology for the efficient treatment of saline wastewaters from the food and beverage industries.
Cycle Terre project aims to set up an industrial process to reuse soil extracted from the excavation sites of the new subway and other construction sites in Sevran, France.
GIDA is a wastewater treatment plant that helps meet the needs of the local textile industry by supplying water of sufficiently high quality, while keeping water consumption to a minimum.
The Circular and Bioeconomy Centre is based on a cross-sectoral industry co-operation involving mining, metal, and forest industries and service companies in the Kemi-Tornio economic region, and accounts for about 80 % of Lapland's industrial production.
CelluTex is a Swedish advocacy platform that promotes needed actions to ensure production of cellulose-based textiles in Europe, utilizing forest resources and recycled cellulosic textiles, including cotton, as raw materials.
Kalundborg Symbiosis is a partnership between nine public and private companies in Kalundborg, Denmark.
Program of action for the development of a local circular economy strategy.
