The Circular Economy Act is a pivotal opportunity to translate Europe’s ambitions into functioning markets by removing obstacles to the free movement of recycled materials and creating strong demand for circular products.
Recycling is a strategic enabler of circularity and plays a critical role in securing Europe’s economic resilience and decarbonisation agenda. Accordingly, Recycling Europe's policy recommendations aim to unlock demand, establish a level playing field for recycled materials and support the development of a globally competitive recycling industry aligned with the EU’s environmental and strategic objectives.
While welcoming the EU’s recognition of the circular economy’s transformative potential for the EU economy, RREUSE expressed concern about the current narrow focus on recycling and the lack of ambition to promote waste prevention and reuse.
Its recommendations are as follows:
Establish a right to reuse:
Set binding separate targets for (preparing for) reuse;
Set EPR fees in line with the waste hierarchy;
Ensure full cost coverage of (preparing for) reuse activities;
Prioritise reuse in future criteria for circular public procurement.
Unlock the full potential of social circular enterprises:
Guarantee social enterprises’ access to waste streams and collection points, as well as ownership of collected materials;
Allocate earmarked EPR funding for social enterprises;
Greening metals and minerals production, including CRMs, comes with higher capital and operating costs – a 'green premium'. This reflects investment in decarbonising production processes, ensuring robust environmental and social safeguards and advancing circularity.
Manufacturers appear hesitant to absorb such premia and a credible green-premium market for CRMs is unlikely to emerge without regulatory intervention.
This analysis has laid out a phased, two-tier pathway towards a premium market. The first tier would focus on setting minimum market-access requirements, in order to level the playing field and exclude the worst performers from EU market access. A second tier of instruments is therefore needed to reward those who exceed baseline standards through targeted, conditional incentives.
Academics for Circular Economy welcomes the creation of a Circular Economy Act that aims to address issues such as resource dependence, competitiveness, and environmental pressures. To leverage the full economic, social and environmental potential of the circular economy, the Circular Economy Act must address a number of critical points:
Competitiveness through upstream innovation
European resource independence by design
Resilience of the single market
Environmental protection via a regenerative bioeconomy
The EU Food Loss and Waste Prevention Hub is a one-stop-shop for stakeholders active in the area of food loss and waste prevention and reduction, across the EU and beyond. It's a source of information on what's going on in this community!
On 27 November, the European Commission adopted a bold new Strategic Framework for a Competitive and Sustainable EU Bioeconomy Strategy. By using renewable biological resources from land and sea and providing alternatives to critical raw materials, the EU aims to move forward towards a more circular and decarbonised economy and decrease dependence on fossil imports.
This audit aimed to evaluate the action taken by the European Commission and the Member States with a view to achieving the EU’s objectives for municipal waste.
It assessed whether the Commission’s legal initiatives and enforcement were fit for purpose; whether the four sampled Member States have made good progress in achieving EU waste targets and objectives; and whether the 16 sampled projects in these Member States – co-financed with EU funds – were implemented well in terms of time, cost and capacity.
The audit covered the period from 2014 to 2024. It found that while the Commission has boosted targets and requirements, many Member States face challenges in their progress towards circularity, mainly due to financial constraints and weaknesses in planning and implementation.
Biodegradable plastics are often perceived as environmentally friendly, but how true is this in practice, especially in the cold climatic conditions of Northern Europe and in anaerobic biowaste treatment?
This timely webinar explores the realities of plastic biodegradation in biowaste recycling facilities as well as soil and aquatic environments in northern climatic conditions.
Circular ReBoundary is an initiative set up as part of the EU CircEUlar project focusing on developing circular pathways for an EU low-carbon transition. It provides information useful forprofessionals interested in circular economy practices. It is particularly relevant for the buildings, mobility and manufacturing sectors, but the rebound effects and stakeholder testimonials sections offer insights applicable across all industries.
This webinar, tailored for distance sellers, will present the latest EU regulations and provide a comprehensive overview of EPR obligations and guide you through the necessary steps to ensure compliance.
