13 Mar 2019
The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation will hold its annual conference, entitled Implementing Circular Value Chains, in Brussels on 13 March 2019.
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Secondary raw materials
19 Mar 2019
The conference Fast-tracking a Circular Economy in the EU will take stock of actions aimed at advancing towards a circular economy.
19 Mar 2019
EREK will hold its first webinar on 19th March 2019. The event will be co-organised by ADEME and will focus on the lessons learned from delivering resource efficiency support programmes in Europe. It will focus on the cases of France, Scotland, and Estonia, with speakers from those countries.
SK-Tex, a Slovakian recycling company, transforms old clothes into insulation products
SK-Tex takes old clothing and turns it into products that can be used in cars, furniture and buildings. The company has been in operation since 1998, beginning as a textile raw materials trading company before developing into a recycling company.
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.
Oost NL - Martijn Kerssen
Wuppertal Institute - Holger Berg
Di-Plast: developing digital quality control for recyclate PM material flow
Use of recycled plastic material (rPM) in North West Europe is homogeneously low. In packaging and building, the highest plastic-consuming sectors, only 8% of plastic employed is recyclate (Plastics Europe 2016). The Interreg NWE research project Di-Plast develops digital technology to enable complete documentation and quality assurance of recycled plastic material flows.
05 Mar 2019
Join five inspiring speakers to hear the latest thinking on circular economy at TedXParcduCinquantenaire, to be hosted hosted by the European Commission on the 5th of March in Brussels.
07 Mar 2019
On 7 March the European Commission will host a workshop to inform stakeholders about the product environmental footprint, its development and possible contribution to a Single Market for Green Products.
Cyclopast - Isabel Goyena
Overcoming challenges to recycle EPS fish boxes into new food-grade packaging
The LIFE EPS SURE project aims to offer a technically, environmentally and economically viable solution that allows EPS fish boxes to be collected, washed and converted into new PS food contact packaging, thus closing the loop.
Enablers and Barriers to a Circular Economy
Enablers and Barriers to a Circular Economy
The report provides a simple, yet rich overview of the barriers and enablers of circular economy business models as identifed by stakeholders, drawing upon a range of interviews, workshops and events, and a survey conducted with representatives of the European business sector.
Within businesses, stakeholders have identified high-level commitment accompanied by long-term perspectives, the personal drive and attitudes of staff, as well as the promise of enhanced competitiveness as key in supporting the transition towards circularity. Yet, from an internal company perspective, a number of factors were highlighted as getting in the way of the transition. Difficulties in financing new business models, taxation systems, resistance to change and the perceived lack of consumer demand are key examples of obstacles that hamper the circular transformation.
Importantly, stakeholders have provided interesting insights into possible solutions and recommendations able to overcome the challenges posed by circular economy barriers: tax incentives, the development of wealth-measurement systems other than GDP, material passports and quality standards, to name a few. Future solutions should also focus on ensuring safe areas for innovation out of tendering calls, green public procurement and increased financial support.
31 Jan 2019
This event organised by the Aldersgate Group will debate the progress made over the last five years on the circular economy and plastics agenda, how to ensure that momentum continues, and what should be key priorities for European policy makers after the European elections and change of Commission.
Retaining value in the Swedish materials system - summary of the report in English
Retaining value in the Swedish materials system
The report Retaining value in the Swedish materials system takes a value perspective on the use and recycling of materials in a circular perspective. It analyses the use of materials in the Swedish economy in monetary terms instead of tonnes and cubic metres.
The key questions it seeks to answer include the following:
- For each 100 SEK of raw material entering the Swedish economy, how much value is retained after one use cycle?
- What are the main reasons that material value is lost?
- What measures could retain more materials value, and how much could be recovered? Which business opportunities arise as a result?
This value perspective gives a much more realistic view of how circular the Swedish materials system really is, as it captures all the downgrading effects that occur through its use of materials, in addition to the volume effects that also traditional research approaches capture. The value perspective also turns materials recycling into an industrial innovation and an economic topic, in addition to an environmental topic. To our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has value-mapped a material system in this way.
Read more about the results and download the full report (in Swedish) here.
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.
Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform
The Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP) is the mirror initiative launched at national level by the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) - the only Italian member of the ECESP's Coordination Group.
The ICESP is bringing together Italian circular economy initiatives, experiences, critical issues and perspectives to be represented at European level. Its objective is to promote the Italian way for circular economy at national and international level.
The ICESP acts through six working groups: 1) Research and eco-innovation, 2) Policy and governance, 3) Measuring the circular economy, 4) Sustainable and circular design, production, distribution and consumption, 5) Cities and territory, 6) Good practices.
CEMBUREAU - Building Carbon Neutrality in Europe
Building Carbon Neutrality in Europe
Europe has an ambitious vision of a carbon-neutral future, a vision that integrates energy-intensive industries as well as the construction sector and its entire value chain.
Cement, which binds concrete together, is at the heart of solutions to turn this vision into reality. These solutions span over the entire cement and concrete value chain: from raw materials to production, use, re-use, and recycling.
CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, as part of its effort to move towards a carbon-neutral construction sector, has taken stock of progress done since the publication of its 2050 Low Carbon Roadmap in 2013 and mapped routes to a resource-efficient and carbon-neutral built environment.
09 Jan 2019
Scientific journal Nature addresses setting up an international platform to share data and experiences, and coordinating industrial policies and trade to conserve resources and energy.
16 Jan 2019
14 Feb 2019
The workshop will provide delegates with an insight into the instruments of the European Commission and the driving forces behind the Circular Economy.
Valdelia - facilitating waste management for the non-household furniture sector in France
Valdelia is a non-profit simplified joint stock company (SAS) founded in 2011 by 13 companies specializing in the manufacture of non-household furniture in order to set up a joint service for the management of non-household furniture waste.
Valdelia was approved by the French authorities in December 2012 for the management of non-household furniture waste. Valdelia supplies professional furniture marketers with a shared, turnkey solution enabling them to meet new regulatory obligations for furniture waste management. It favours upcycling whenever possible and in the process is actively contributing to social entrepreneurship in the sector.
24 Jan 2019 to 25 Jan 2019
The Sustainable Angle’s Future Fabrics Expo is the largest dedicated showcase of sustainable materials for the fashion and textile industry in Europe.
Valdelia - Arnaud Humbert-Droz
09 Jan 2019 to 11 Jun 2019
In view of the environmental, economic and social challenges facing our current society, the Walloon Brabant region is determined to offer a space for balanced discussions, guidelines and for helping make the right decisions, to be taken today to preserve the generations of tomorrow. In order to encourage exemplary initiatives, raise awareness and encourage people to adopt good practices, Walloon Brabant organises Trophées Incidences 2019 for businesses, farmers, associations, individuals and public services.
Circular Economy Platform of Ports (LOOP-Ports)
LOOP-Ports aims to facilitate the transition to a more circular economy in the port sector, providing an innovation ecosystem around port activity fostering circular economy initiatives, and facilitating the exchange of experiences and good practices. This network will focus on high-emitting materials, mainly metals, plastics, cements and biomaterials and has begun the following activities:
- Compilation of a wide range of examples of circular economy activities already implemented in the port sector at EU level as well as some additional best practices around the world;
- Analysis of the main drivers (legal, policy, finance, market structures,...) to identify the opportunities for intervention and to formulate specific recommendations in order to boost the development of circular economy activities in port ecosystems;
- Preparation of tailored training materials and development of training pilots to improve skills, knowledge and innovation capacities both within and among different port clusters;
- Establishment of a database with all the information collected from the EU ports (following the variables considered relevant to map EU ports in terms of circular economy);
- Developing a web tool for circular economy showing project results, enabling the exchange of information among the members of the network, stakeholders and the general public;
- Creation of a pan-EU network of ports focused on circular economy activities, including workshops/roundtables with stakeholders to gather interests, points of view and expectations;
- Development of business models - real-use cases selected during the project - analysing their replicability in other ports with similar characteristics.
All port stakeholders are welcome to join the Circular Economy Network of Ports, which is funded by the EIT under its Climate-KIC Programme.
Chants Libres - a pilot project combining professional furniture upcycling and social enterprise
Atelier Extramuros is a social enterprise specialised in upcycling in the furniture sector, using reclaimed material from discarded professional furniture.
Chants Libres is a new pilot project aiming at improving recycled material sourcing - with the support of Valdelia - and designing protoypes for the professional furnishing sector.
13 Feb 2019 to 14 Feb 2019
Two events dedicated to circular economy, in the form of workshops for specific audiences - To transform business models and create an enabling policy environment.