As governments and industries around the globe move towards a circular economy, it’s key to align ambitions and create a common direction of travel.
This paper sets out five universal circular economy policy goals around which governments and businesses can align to achieve their common objectives. Applicable across sectors and local contexts, these policy goals can – working in conjunction – help governments build healthier economic recoveries and lower the cost of transition for business.
The publication of CEMBUREAU's Net Zero Roadmap is a key moment for the EU cement sector: the roadmap looks at its climate ambition, the key levers to decarbonise cement production, and the policies needed to get there.
Cement and concrete are also going circular. Circularity is an integral part of the net zero ambition, allowing for significant CO2 reduction throughout the cement and concrete value chain. Over the past decades, the European cement industry has promoted circularity by using waste materials to make cement, both as raw materials and as fuel in its kilns.
This shift has picked up the pace over the last few years, with the adoption of new methods to develop the role played by cement and concrete in the circular economy.
Design requirements prescribed in the international Quality Management System standard ISO 9001 can also be interpreted from a circularity perspective. Designers can use ISO 9001 for designing "circular" products and services.
This article provides a few interesting examples of circularity linking them with ISO 9001 design requirements.
Buildings need to be made more energy efficient: this is instrumental in meeting the EU's climate goals.
This position paper refers to a workshop which took place during the Sustainable Places 2021 Conference, focusing on the outcome of six Horizon 2020 projects. It assesses the challenges and barriers (including circularity) in terms of developing, adopting and/or implementing Zero Energy Renovation Kits, which address the need for efficient, sustainable and customisable deep-renovation solutions.
32 technological, market, financial, legal and institutional challenges and barriers were identified. The workshop also explored strategies that could overcome them.
The paper presents a coherent framework mapping strategies for tackling these challenges and barriers.
The textile industry’s figures are clear: of the 648 000 tons of textiles placed on the market each year in France, only 38% are collected for recycling.
The 10 proposals set out in this white paper (in French) seek to meet three objectives. The first consists of building the Extended Producer Responsibility approach around environmental benefits. The second is to support the development of a sustainable textile and footwear recycling industry. The last is to meet the legitimate expectations of transparency and traceability. The proposals aim to achieve these objectives in the context of the three key steps in a product’s lifecycle: (1) fabrication, (2) consumption, and (3) regeneration.
Across the globe, current approaches to sustainability are leaving lower-income countries behind. The authors of this paper believe a different vision for the future can be built, but transitioning to a circular economy, where waste is eliminated, materials are used and reused at their highest value, and nature is regenerated, won’t be socially just by default.
It is necessary to design the transition well to ensure that workers aren’t left behind, labour rights are uplifted, social benefits are maximised, and a wide range of approaches to circularity are recognised.
This brief highlights where we are headed if we do not take action, and illustrates key levers to address current oversights on circularity and its relationship to power, trade and technology.
Although previous researchers have explored the circular economy practices of different businesses in various contexts, only a few papers have focused on the sustainable preparation and consumption of food in the tourism and hospitality industry. This paper sheds light on case studies from hotels, restaurants and cafés that are located in urban tourism destinations.
This research suggests that catering businesses can implement a number of responsible initiatives by introducing preventive measures and recycling practices to curb food loss and the generation of waste. In conclusion, it finds that there is scope for regulatory authorities and policy makers to encourage hospitality practitioners to minimise food waste.
Recycling is key for the circular economy. Chemical recycling could one day become a trouble-shooter solution for any remaining unrecyclable applications and replace incineration. However, it is not yet a sustainable technology.
Ecopreneur.eu - the European Sustainable Business Federation - has concerns about linear economy lock-ins, high CO2 emissions, competition with mechanical recycling, lack of scale, low quality, toxic residues and large investments being drawn away from SMEs going circular.
Therefore it advocates supporting the development of chemical recyclingonly if it is:
net-carbon positive,
used for otherwise unrecyclable residues,
with maximum quality,
scalable,
at costs reflecting the waste hierarchy, and
matched by equal support for SMEs on circular design.
Active and intelligent packaging is a new and exciting area of technology, the potential of which has received much attention from the food business operators, retailers and consumers alike.
This position paper aims to oversee the barriers identified for the rapid market introduction of active and intelligent packaging and offer recommendations on lifting these barriers. The examples brought forward in this paper are based on the results and experiences from the GLOPACK project and relevant publications, guides and knowledge collected from industry practice.
