Samen werken aan circulaire fietsinfrastructuur. Een integrale en systematische aanpak by Stichting Circulair Bouwen is a report on a 2-year programme carried out with EU funds on building a circular bicycle road infrastructure. Over this period of time, valuable information has been gathered on how to promote and organize circular building efficiently.

To follow up on the programme, a multi-year project will be carried out in cooperation with governments, companies, educational institutions and NGOs, under the lead of the Radboud University Nijmegen, which will include two important policy fields:

• encouraging cycling (low carbon, public health, better access to congested cities, car traffic reduction) and
• the circular construction of bicycle lanes.

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is offering a 100 % online course on Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy. Students and professionals with basic knowledge of the circular economy and an interest in or experience of packaging can start studying anytime, at the time and place of their choosing. The course material is accessible 24/7. This is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that runs on edX.

The course programme includes:

• Business strategies that support sustainable packaging systems
• Opportunities for designing with renewable, bio-based materials
• Best practices through case studies with industry frontrunners
• How circular design principles can be applied to create 'closed loop' packaging systems.

You can enrol here.

What does the circular economy (CE) mean from a territorial perspective?

This report by the ESPON CIRCTER project provides:

1. a territorial definition of a CE based on resource consumption and waste generation intensities and trends across European NUTS2 regions
2. a comparison with other socio-economic trends like employment dynamics and economic growth
3. evaluation of the territorial factors most critical for CE transformations
4. a description of the systemic mechanisms facilitating CE transitions at territorial levels
5. an illustration of policy approaches and best practices supporting the transition towards a CE in various territorial contexts, and
6. guidance supporting local and regional authorities in defining CE strategies.

Europe relies heavily on material resources for almost all of society’s activities. Its extraction and production of material resources have significant impacts on the environment and human health, as well as the economy.

It is essential to reuse resources in European economies, keeping their value high, delivering value for longer periods and reducing the need to use virgin materials. While progress is being made in Europe, by implementing an ambitious waste policy and the Circular Economy Framework, significant amounts of valuable resources are still lost through inefficient waste management practices.

This briefing describes material losses in Europe for some key waste streams, namely waste electrical and electronic equipment, end-of-life batteries, plastic and textile waste.

Europe is at crossroads regarding its management of plastic, plastic waste and the plastic waste trade. Rapidly growing amounts of plastic have negative environmental and climate impacts.

Plastic and plastic waste are traded worldwide. Exporting plastic waste from the EU to Asia is a means of dealing with insufficient recycling capacities in the EU. Waste import restrictions in China have shifted exports to other countries. Because some types of plastic waste have been added to the United Nations Basel Convention, the option of exporting plastic waste is becoming increasingly difficult.

This briefing provides an overview of exports of plastic waste from the 28 EU Member States (EU-28) to other countries and discusses its possible consequences and opportunities.

A set of 32 country factsheets has been produced that summarise policies and initiatives on the area of resource efficiency and circular economy.

These country profiles are based on information reported by the Eionet network and, in particular, the National Reference Centres on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy. The information is current as of March 2019, when members of Eionet verified the content of their respective profiles.

Each country profile was prepared as part of the 2019 European Environment Agency review of material resource efficiency, circular economy and raw material supply policies, which aimed to collect, analyse, and disseminate information about experience with the development and implementation of these policies in EEA member and cooperating countries.