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19 Nov 2020
Circular Economy Hotspot Catalonia

As you already know, because of uncertainties around travelling and attending public events over the following months due to COVID-19, Circular Economy Hotspot Catalonia has been postponed until 2021. However, in Catalonia they are fully committed to maintaining the hotspot momentum and keeping the circular economy community engaged with an online conference on 19 November 2020.

13 Nov 2020
CPA

The Circular Plastics Alliance aims to boost the EU market for recycled plastics to 10 million tonnes by 2025. The alliance covers the full plastics value chains and includes over 175 organisations representing industry, academia and public authorities. New stakeholders can join the alliance by signing its declaration.

25 Nov 2020
EPC

This online Policy dialogue on Innovative solutions for a circular economy will explore the role of innovative approaches, notably digital solutions and new technologies, in the transition to a circular economy, including the barriers to their development and scale-up.

RCUBE - Federation of French companies active in the Reduce, Repair & Reuse businesses

RCUBE is a Federation of French companies active in the Reuse/Reduce/Repair sectors and covering a very wide range of products and services (such as smartphones, computers, tyres, toys, electronics and bicycles).

By promoting the exchange of best practices with regard to reconditioning, training and public affairs, RCUBE helps and supports companies as they shift to circular economy business models.

Recycling polyurethane foam in pressurised containers

PU foam pressurised containers are used to fill gaps and to insulate and install window and door frames so as to make buildings airtight. OCF (one-component foam) producers have invested in a recycling company which recycles the metals in the packaging material, the reactive residual polyurethane prepolymer and the propellant.

Join the REFLOW community to become a circular and regenerative city, business or citizen

Reflow - Community

REFLOW is an EU H2020 funded project that seeks to understand and transform urban material flows, co-create and test regenerative solutions at business, governance, and citizen levels to create a resilient circular economy.

The project aims to develop circular and regenerative cities through enabling active citizen involvement and systemic change to re-think the current approach to material flows in cities. For more info, read the Reflow whitepaper.

Hosted on the REFLOW website, the Community of Practice (CoP) houses a Forum for exchange, a Best Practice Database and a host of Circular Resources. By becoming a member of the community, you join an ecosystem that is designed to share resources, knowledge and practical solutions to accelerate the transition towards circular cities.

Packaging & packaging waste - Making waste a resource

Eurocities

In its position paper, Eurocities aims at contributing to the revision of the EU legislation on packaging and packaging waste by making proposals on:

  • packaging design (to facilitate separate sorting by citizens, and further dismantling for reuse or recycling, i.e. less complexity in packaging materials)
  • compostable/biodegradable plastic packaging (citizens cannot distinguish between biodegradable/compostable and more ‘conventional’ ones; the Commission should assess if this packaging can benefit the environment or create more littering and hamper waste collection, reuse and recycling)
  • reuse and recycling (new legislation should consider EU-wide mandatory labelling to identify packaging as reusable, recyclable or compostable) and
  • extending the EPR schemes.

 

Reconstituting limestone C&D waste into premium/high-quality masonry products

The University of Malta has developed a patented process that recycles limestone and concrete construction and demolition waste into masonry products. These have superior mechanical properties compared to natural limestone products.

Recovering nutrients from waste

Type of organisation or company:

Country: 
Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, Other (Norway)

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Scope:

Ragn-Sells collects, treats and recycles waste and residual products from businesses, organisations and households.

IALD Position Paper on Circular Economy: good lighting doesn't just happen... it's designed

IALD
Author: 
The International Association of Lighting Designers
Publication Date: 
09/2020
Country: 
Belgium

Language for original content:

Following the publication of the Circular Economy Action Plan in March 2020, the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) recently released a position paper to help ensure that any future regulations reflect the needs and aspirations of the lighting design profession.

The paper also addresses the impact of changes in the value chains of the lighting sector as a result of embracing circular economy - be it by creating second-hand markets or by adopting lighting as a service business model.

In its conclusion, the paper describes how lighting manufacturers, designers, contractors and clients could work together to ensure that the benefits of the circular economy can be achieved.

Close the Glass Loop: a multi-stakeholder partnership to collect more, better quality glass

Close the Glass Loop

Type of organisation or company:

Country: 
Belgium

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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.

Circular Navarre Catalogue

Circular Navarre Catalogue

The Circular Navarre Catalogue is a booklet showcasing 20 organisations - based on circular business models - in the Navarre region, who are looking for international cooperation. 

Urban Click

Urban Click

Type of organisation or company:

Country: 
Germany

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The project idea called Urban Click is focused on finding a solution to promote recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waste (CDW) within the construction sector in urban areas of Europe.

Concular - Digital platform enabling circular construction

Concular logo

Concular disrupts the construction industry by developing a circular process for material flow. The system is based on an AI-driven platform that matches buyers’ demand for construction material with suppliers’ circular materials.

23 Oct 2020
European Commission

EU environmental rules aim to ensure that end-of-life vehicles are managed sustainably. They seek to eliminate hazardous substances in cars and require that most ELV parts and materials are reused or recycled.

The Commission would like to hear your views on its proposal to improve collection, treatment and recycling of ELVs. You can give your feedback on this initiative until 19 November 2020.

26 Nov 2020
Circular Innovation Fair

Event type:

City: 
Helsinki
Country: 
Finland

Circular Innovation Fair 2020 is an early stage circular innovations pitching event taking place on 26 November. This pitching and networking event for co-developed innovative circular design concepts and ideas is organised by Aalto University, GTK, Luke, SYKE and VTT.

Volvo Cars EV battery materials traceability

Circulor

Type of organisation or company:

Country: 
EU

Language for original content:

Volvo Cars commissioned Circulor to implement a technology-enabled traceability solution, to enable an end-to-end chain of custody to be constructed, initially for Cobalt and subsequently for Mica, with other materials being planned.

Making a business case for African battery recycling

African battery recycling
Author: 
Reinhardt Smit
Publication Date: 
09/2020
Country: 
Netherlands

Language for original content:

Closing the Loop (CTL) and Fairphone have partnered with other circular innovators, such as the Dutch government, in a project that is likely to become a game-changer for the electronics industry - proving that scrap batteries from Africa can be used to produce clean materials for the future.

In the first-ever shipment of scrap Li-ion batteries from West Africa to Europe, CTL has taken the first step towards proving that these scrap batteries can be a sustainable source for resources.

The results of this pilot have been recorded in a white paper, available here.

TOMRA: leading the circular revolution in plastics

TOMRA's Circular Economy Division was established in January 2019 to speed up the transformation to a circular economy and shape future waste and resource systems.

Creating value out of waste for a sustainable future

TOMRA’s cutting-edge sorting technologies retain valuable resources by extracting high-purity fractions from mixed waste and metal streams in the most remote parts of the world. Its technology and equipment has been used in the world’s most advanced recycling plants.

The world’s most efficient deposit-based return systems

TOMRA is the world leader in reverse vending solutions. It provides an automated method for collecting, sorting and handling used beverage containers for recycling or reuse. TOMRA has approximately 80 000 reverse vending machines in more than 60 markets.

Unveiling a Recycling-Sourced Mineral-Biocellulose Fibre Composite for Use in Combustion-Generated NOx Mitigation Forming Plant Nutrient: Meeting Sustainability Development Goals in the Circular Economy

Unveiling a recycling-sourced composite to help meet Sustainable Development Goals in the circular economy

MDPI
Author: 
Patrick Gane, Katarina Dimić-Mišić, Nemanja Barać, Monireh Imani , Djordje Janaćković, Petar Uskoković, Ernest Barceló
Publication Date: 
06/2020
Country: 
Switzerland

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NOx (nitrogen oxides) are emitted during combustion in air at high temperatures and/or pressure; if they exceed recommended levels, this has a negative impact on the population. The authors found that when moist, limestone (CaCO3) readily sorbs NO2 to form calcium nitrate, which provides the basis for developing a surface flow filter. The substrate was made from “over-recycled” cellulose fibres such as newsprint, magazines and packaging fibres which are too weak for further recycling. The substrate was coated with fine-ground calcium carbonate and micro-nano-fibrillated cellulose, which was used as a binder and essential humectant to prevent a stagnant air layer forming. Pre-oxidation countered the action of denitrification bacteria colonising the cellulose substrate.

27 Oct 2020
Scaling the circular economy for industry

Want to discover the latest on industrial symbiosis and the future of sustainable industrial practices? Join this event on 27 October to learn about experiences and case studies regarding successful implementation of industrial symbiosis, find out about tools and gain access to guidelines to kick-start resource efficiency in your own industry.

14 Oct 2020
CEPS logo

Drawing on the results of CIRC4Life, which implements circular economy business models in value chains, the webinar on "Incentivising new circular economy business models" on 14 October will present examples of circular business models and discuss barriers, enablers and the new Circular Economy Action Plan's role in accelerating towards a circular transition.

Industrial Symbiosis, a path towards green growth

The main objective of the INSIGHT project is to develop a new professional profile: the industrial symbiosis facilitator, who helps transition towards the design of a common curriculum and learning approach.

13 Oct 2020
Circular Nonwovens Forum

The annual Circular Nonwovens Forum creates a platform for an in-depth engagement with stakeholders on challenges and opportunities in the pursuit of a circular economy for nonwovens, and ollectively finding opportunities to accelerate this transition. Converted into a webinar for 2020, it will cover 5 presentations and break-out sessions to stimulate the discussions among the participants.

AIMPLAS begins research on developing more efficient methods of recycling composite materials

Sparta

Type of organisation or company:

Country: 
Spain

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The main goal of the European SPARTA project, coordinated by AIMPLAS with the participation of TEKNIKER, is to find a new method of recycling and reprocessing composite thermoplastic materials that reduces both the amount of waste generated by the aerospace industry and its environmental impact. Another goal is to design more eco-efficient manufacturing methods.

18 Jan 2021 to 19 Jan 2021

This free online event – organised by NoAW (No Agricultural Waste) H2020 project – will give participants the opportunity to discuss current and upcoming innovations in agro-waste management. Experts across continents, from Europe and China will share their knowledge and experiences on successful innovative solutions, emerging tools, methods and technologies, developed in NoAW project and beyond.

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