Circular economy will profoundly impact business. The Circular Economy Research Center of the Paris based École des Ponts Business School wants to enable current and prospect students as well as the alumni of the School to sharpen their knowledge on the upcoming transformation and to be enabled to understand it, embrace it and prepare for it in their domains of professional interest.

The CIRCO training programme supports creatives and professionals within the manufacturing industry to create circular business.

In the third year of the RepescaPlas project, chemical recycling will be used to turn marine litter into fuel for fishing boats. During the first two years of the RepescaPlas project, five tonnes of marine litter were recovered through mechanical recycling operations.

ETV4INNOVATION is a two-and-a-half-year long European Commission funded vocational education and training Strategic Partnership project under Erasmus+ programme. It has been designed with the aim to support the development and the implementation of an innovative practice and a new training path in the field of Environmental Technology Verification (ETV).

In 2018, the City of Antwerp kick-started the Circular South project. The aim is to encourage more efficient use of energy, water, waste and materials by the citizens of the New South district of Antwerp through an innovative community-driven approach.

The WCYCLE Maribor project provides for an innovative urban circular economy system, offering a new business and economic model for the city in the field of efficient resource management.

To prevent plastic from entering the environment and reaching the Oslo Fjord and to remove existing plastic pollution, an action plan with short-term and long-term measures was co-created by many stakeholders in Oslo.

In February 2016, the government of Lithuania implemented a “deposit return system”, to give consumers an incentive to return used beverage containers for recycling. To combat litter and increase collection and recycling rates, consumers would pay a deposit amount of €0.10 when purchasing eligible drink containers, to be refunded when the empty container is returned for recycling.

Koovee, one of the first edible cutlery companies in Europe, offers a locally sourced, flour-based and tasty alternative to disposable plastic cutlery.

The Roman public transport provider, Atac, has launched +Ricicli +Viaggi (the more you recycle, the more you travel), a pilot scheme in which riders can pay for travel with PET plastic bottles.

ISATIÓ is a Brussels SME that recovers samples from the textiles industry to create unique designer clothing, with manufacturing all done locally and the supply chain covered entirely by bicycle couriers.

Sulapac has developed a fully biodegradable and microplastic-free material innovation to replace plastic. The wood-based material is both recyclable and mass-producible.

Werflink is an online sharing platform on which construction sites and companies and can share equipment, materials, resources, freight space and facilities. The platform has been set up in collaboration with the Flemish Construction Confederation, construction company BESIX, Circular Flanders and FLOOW2, to create a more circular construction sector.

The Super Circular Estate (SCE) project addresses the challenge of changing housing needs due to demographic evolution. The Parkstad Limburg region’s population, is estimated to shrink by 27% in the next 30 years, calling for a radical reorientation in housing facilities. The project aims at demolishing vacant outdated high-rise apartment buildigs (built in 1968), and reuse all of their components to establish new social housing units - co-designed with the residents.

Vienna's Municipal Department 48, responsible for the city's waste management, has been active in re-use since 1989, when the city’s first re-use shop was founded. In Summer 2015, the Department opened the 48-er Tandler: a mobile re-use shop where citizens can buy affordable, quality second-hand goods and whose proceeds go entirely to charity. 

In October 2015 the Luxembourg government named the municipality of Wiltz a Circular Economy Hotspot.  In February 2018 Wiltz renewed its political commitment with a Circular Economy Charter signed by its municipal council, by which it committed itself to mainstreaming circular economy in its future project and activities in order to improve its global footprint on the Ardennes region and to take on its responsibilities towards future generations of citizens.

The Climate Pact, which was set up by Luxembourg's Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure in order to enable municipalities wishing to actively tackle climate change to request State support by signing an engagement charter, now includes measures on circular economy.

Water2REturn is an Innovation Action co-funded by the European Commission under its Horizon 2020 (H2020) programme.

The municipality of Almere aspires to become a waste-free and energy-neutral city by 2022. The administration wants to bring the business community and knowledge institutes’ innovative power together to enable co-creation in the field of waste management and upcycling in the urban context.

Genoa set itself an objective to close the loop on waste materials by taking advantage of treatment plants in the city's immediate vicinity. By adopting a long-term and territorially integrated approach, the city intends to achieve higher recycling rates within five years and strengthen the circular economy locally.

Utrecht, one of the four biggest cities in the Netherlands, aims to be climate neutral in 2030 and to reach a fully circular economy by 2050. In the shorter term, Utrecht is committed to increasing its share of circular procurement from 4% of the annual spend in 2016 to 10% by 2020. Utrecht’s sustainable vision is also reflected in its aspiration to become the most bike-friendly city in the world.