18 Nov 2019 to 22 Nov 2019
The fourth edition of the EU "Raw Materials Week" will take place from 18 to 22 November 2019, in Brussels.
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25 Sep 2019 to 26 Sep 2019
The EREK international conference will demonstrate how successful businesses and industries seek resource efficient solutions, collaborate in a circular and social economy, and pursue digitalisation to gain a competitive edge. From keynote speeches to practical sessions, the conference aims to gather the Resource Efficiency community by promoting exchanges between all actors, from newcomers to front runners, from SMEs to business intermediaries, raising awareness of existing and upcoming opportunities to make the Circular Economy a reality.
12 Jul 2019
On 5 July a a survey on consumer attitudes to reuse and recycling of electronic and food products was launched in the framework of the EU funded project CIRC4life.
Municipality-led circular economy case studies
Municipality-led circular economy case studies
This publication, managed and delivered by C40 Cities, provides 40 thorough examples of practical circular economic initiatives from cities around the world, for inspiration and replications by other cities.
The Climate-KIC Circular Cities project is investigating how city governments can be transformational change agents and creators of smart and sustainable neighbourhoods.
The results are expected to improve how cities manage building, construction and utility waste and, through productively utilizing household and industrial waste streams, can increase the growing perception that what was once viewed as waste can now be viewed as resource streams.
Creating a Digital Roadmap for a Circular Economy
Creating a Digital Roadmap for a Circular Economy
The EU faces multiple challenges (climate crisis, environmental disasters, a lack of competitiveness, falling behind in the digital race, etc.) that it will need to address if it is to ensure long-term sustainable prosperity for European citizens. At the same time, there are two ongoing transitions – the creation of a circular economy and the digital transformation – that could provide the means to address these challenges, if they are managed well.
As the EU and national policymakers are making significant efforts to promote a circular economy on the one hand and a digital economy on the other, Annika Hedberg and Stefan Šipka, together with Johan Bjerkem, argue that it is time to align the agendas as a means to achieve greater sustainability and competitiveness.
This publication:
- demonstrates what digitalisation means in the context of a circular economy;
- considers what a greater focus on sustainability would mean for the digital transition;
- examines the role of the EU policy framework, tools and initiatives in steering a (digital) transition towards a (digital) circular economy and makes recommendations for EU institutions for the next five year.
It suggests that the EU must:
- think systemically, define a vision and act;
- provide an adequate governance framework and economic incentives for a (digital) transition to a (digital) circular economy;
- encourage collaboration across European society and economy as well as globally, and empower its citizens to contribute to the transition.
This Discussion Paper builds on the findings of the EPC’s "Digital Roadmap for a Circular Economy" project of 2017-19 and paves the way for a more extensive final study, scheduled to be published in the late autumn of 2019.
The project has been supported by Aalto University and the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (members of Helsinki EU Office), Central Denmark region, Climate-KIC, the Estonian Ministry of the Environment, Estonian Environment Investment Centre, HP, Orgalim, the province of Limburg, UL, Fondazione Cariplo and Cariplo Factory.
CE100 Acceleration Workshop
Abstract:
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched its Circular Economy 100 (CE100) programme in 2013 and includes city and government authorities, universities, and companies.
The CE100 programme focuses on maintaining the utility and value of products and materials at all times, in contrast with the standard “take, make, dispose” model.
This May 2019 CE100 Acceleration Workshop was held in Catalonia.
Adhesives industry: water-soluble adhesives facilitate return and reuse bottle schemes and end-of-life recycling
Türmerleim is a company that produces adhesives, including for reusable bottles. Its adhesives have a high level of alkaline solubility, making them easy to remove and so promoting the reuse and recycling of bottles.
Cycle Terre: excavated soil from urban areas becomes construction raw material
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.
Circular Construction in Practice
Circular Construction in Practice
The report of the Institute of Innovation and Responsible Development, is the result of a collaboration between the representatives of the organizations participating in the "Circular construction in practice" debates under the Polish Circular Hotspot. It presents an analysis of the implementation of the circular model in the construction sector.
First, it identifies the causes of the current state of play, which have elevated the built environment to the top spot among the largest polluters of the natural environment.
Second, it analyses the basic barriers on the way to circular construction.
Third, it presents specific ways to reduce these barriers, with a view to making sustainable construction a reality.
Fourth, special attention is paid to specific, innovative technologies to improve resource efficiency and, as a result, improve the economic, environmental and social impact of the construction sector.
Developing Romania's strategy for a transition to a circular economy 2020 - 2030
Abstract:
During Romania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Spring 2019, IRCEM began a project to support the development of a circular economy strategy for Romania until 2030. With support from the Ministry of Environment, Department for Sustainable Development and countless other public authorities, civil society organisations and private businesses, a series of 9 conferences and workshops was held from April to June 2019. A draft strategy will be presented to the Romanian government on the basis of these discussions in Autumn 2019.
Water-soluble adhesives support multiple use and recycling of returnable glass bottles
PREP Design - Anthony Peyton
Anthony Peyton is the CEO and co-founder of PREP Design. He has worked as an environmental professional for 30 years.
ICESP: Italy's circular economy platform
Abstract:
On 31 May 2018 ENEA (the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development) presented the Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP). This platform, since launched formally on 3 December 2018 in the Italian Senate, is the mirror platform of ECESP at the national level and promotes the Circular Economy by sharing good practices from Italy.
03 Jul 2019
This Retrace dissemination event will be an opportunity for participants to find answers to how to achieve a systemic change that would support the transition to circular economy.
The World Circular Economy Forum 2019
Abstract:
This year took place the third The World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), beginning Monday 3rd June in Helsinki, Finland. The Forum is organised by SITRA, the Finnish Innovation Fund.
4th Circular Change Conference
Abstract:
The fourth edition of the international Circular Change Conference was a meeting of the global circular community, and a platform that sent a strong message to change-makers across Europe that more needs to be done to accelerate the change from linear to circular.
26 Jun 2019
The event is the continuation of the popular symposium "Conflict Minerals & Sustainable Supply Chain", which iPoint has been hosting in Germany since 2013. From 2019, the symposium will form part of iPoint's two-day event fw:transparency.
The symposium provides presentations and panel discussions with top-class experts from the business, academic, and legal sphere. Proceeding from the assumption that compliance with the law is a precondition for the Circular Economy, they will shed light on existing and upcoming laws, reporting frameworks, and corporate challenges of sustainable sourcing, sustainable products, and sustainable value chains with a particular focus on the circular economy and related digitalization trends, including blockchain.
Austria Circularity Gap Report
Austria Circularity Gap Report
On 19 June 2019, Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) and Circle Economy released the Circularity Gap Report Austria, the first measure of circularity for a nation state.
Experts and peer reviewers included CEC4Europe, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism, the Federal Environment Agency, the Federation of Austrian Industries, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, TU Vienna, the INZIN Institute and the City of Vienna. This landmark report paves the way for nations to lead the transition from a linear economy of Take-Make-Waste to a circular economy.
The analysis, commissioned by ARA, found a circularity rate for Austria of 9.7%, ahead of the figure of 9.1% in Circle Economy’s Global Circularity Gap report published in January 2019.
The Austria report will enable political and business leaders to identify and monitor the best interventions to boost the circularity rate, the proportion of materials that are recycled, re-used and re-manufactured in the Austrian economy.
This report is the first of its kind, where the circularity of a country is assessed combining different approaches. The relevance of the outcomes therefore goes beyond providing an action agenda for Austria alone.
19 Jun 2019
At the beginning of June, Circle Economy and Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) released the Circularity Gap Report Austria, which makes Austria the first nation to measure the Circularity Gap. This landmark report paves the way for nations to lead the transition from a linear economy of Take-Make-Waste to a circular economy.
The analysis, commissioned by ARA, found a circularity rate for Austria of 9.7%, ahead of the figure of 9.1% in Circle Economy’s Global Circularity Gap report published in January 2019. The Austria report will enable political and business leaders to identify and monitor the best interventions to boost the circularity rate, the proportion of materials that are recycled, re-used and re-manufactured in the Austrian economy.
Greenrail - Dawid Janik
Greenrail is an Italian company that has developed an innovative and sustainable railway sleeper, offering excellent technical, environmental and economical features for the railway sector. The technology developed by Greenrail allows the production of railway sleepers with secondary raw materials, using a blend of rubber collected from ELTs (End of Life Tyres) and plastic from urban waste.
The company handles the whole process of design, prototyping and testing of the products, collaborating with primary research centres and industrial partners.
20 Jun 2019
First2Run is a flagship project involving four companies and universities from Italy, UK and The Netherlands, demonstrating technical, economic and environmental sustainability on an industrial scale. This involves a first-of-kind value chain where low input and underutilized oil crops grown in arid and/or marginal lands and not in competition with food or feed, are exploited for the extraction of vegetable oils to be further converted into bio-monomers. These bionomers act like building blocks for high added value bioproducts, biolubricants, cosmetics, bioplastics, additives through the integration of chemical and biotechnological processes.
The Danube goes Circular - Transnational Strategy to Accelerate Transition Towards a Circular Economy in the Danube Region
The Danube goes Circular - Transnational Strategy to Accelerate Transition Towards a Circular Economy in the Danube Region
One of the Interreg DTP MOVECO (Mobilizing Institutional Learning for Better Exploitation of Research and Innovation for the Circular Economy) project results is the Transnational Strategy to accelerate transition towards a circular economy in the Danube region.
Be transnational – reducing disparities within the Danube Region can only happen through cooperation, capacity building and knowledge exchange across borders. This holds also true for the implementation of the circular economy to make the Danube Region, as a resource poor region, less dependent on imported primary resources.
MOVECO identified key challenges with regard to the transition towards a circular economy and offers recommendations for progress. The strategy further provides the reader with many good practice examples and possibilities to raise awareness for circular economy.
Regular updates on the MOVECO project can be found on this page.
Circular Economy in Cities - Factsheets - Urban Products System Summary
Circular economy in cities - Products factsheets
These factsheets outline circular economy opportunities to design out urban waste and pollution, ensure products and materials maintain their value, and regenerate the natural systems in our cities.
Easy-to-reference, the factsheets are a collation of research and case examples that answer some of the most prevalent questions around what circular economy can bring to cities:
- Why is change in cities needed?
- What circular economy opportunities address key urban system issues?
- What can urban policymakers do to harness circular economy opportunities?
- What are the potential economic, social, and environmental benefits of these opportunities?
The whole collection of factsheets, by system and phase, is available on the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation website.
Circular Economy in Cities - Factsheets - Urban Mobility System Summary
Circular economy in cities - Mobility factsheets
These factsheets outline circular economy opportunities to design out urban waste and pollution, ensure products and materials maintain their value, and regenerate the natural systems in our cities.
Easy-to-reference, the factsheets are a collation of research and case examples that answer some of the most prevalent questions around what circular economy can bring to cities:
- Why is change in cities needed?
- What circular economy opportunities address key urban system issues?
- What can urban policymakers do to harness circular economy opportunities?
- What are the potential economic, social, and environmental benefits of these opportunities?
The whole collection of factsheets, by system and phase, is available on the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation website.
Circular Economy in Cities - Factsheets - Urban Building System Summary
Circular economy in cities - Buildings factsheets
These factsheets outline circular economy opportunities to design out urban waste and pollution, ensure products and materials maintain their value, and regenerate the natural systems in our cities.
Easy-to-reference, the factsheets are a collation of research and case examples that answer some of the most prevalent questions around what circular economy can bring to cities:
- Why is change in cities needed?
- What circular economy opportunities address key urban system issues?
- What can urban policymakers do to harness circular economy opportunities?
- What are the potential economic, social, and environmental benefits of these opportunities?
The whole collection of factsheets, by system and phase, is available on the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation website.
13 Jun 2019 to 14 Jun 2019
The European Plastics Converters Association, together with the German association for plastic packaging Industrievereinigung Kunststoff-verpackungen, is organizing its annual conference under the theme A Circular Future with Plastics on the 13-14 June 2019 in Berlin.
The European Machine Tool Industry and the Circular Economy
The European Machine Tool Sector and the Circular Economy
CECIMO has published a report underlining how the shift towards a circular economy calls for a prominent role of manufacturing. Within it, the machine tool sector plays a crucial role. Machine tools already have multiple lifetimes and embrace some key principles of the circular economy. But there is always room for improvement.
The sector can invest in advanced manufacturing technologies, but also build upon the existing good practices. This would lead to improved productivity and resource efficiency, and consumers enjoying products that last longer and use less energy.
The report also makes recommendations to the industry and policy makers.