This year’s CGR introduces a new tool: the Value Gap.

This represents the total avoidable value lost through inefficient material use (including energy and food), premature obsolescence and asset deterioration, and partially unpriced externalities. It is an absolute figure that can also be expressed relative to GDP (that is, as euros of avoidable value lost for every euro of value created), indicating how much value is lost for each unit of economic output generated. 

Accounting for the Value Gap alongside GDP would provide a more realistic measure of net value creation by revealing how much economic value is structurally lost to linearity and highlighting the scale of opportunity for circular strategies to retain and recover that value.

The Circular Industry Coalition, led by Circul’R and CEA ISEC with the support of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, brings together nine major industrial companies to address the growing systemic risks facing European industry. 

After a year of collective work, the coalition has published a report highlighting the limits of the linear model and positioning a strong circular economy as a strategic lever for competitiveness, resilience and industrial sovereignty. 

The report provides a shared assessment of industrial vulnerabilities and an operational roadmap to accelerate circular transformation at scale.

Europe generates considerable post-consumer textile waste (around 25kg per person in 2025), but the system captures and qualifies only a fraction for recycling.

This report, prepared by the Boston Consulting Group, finds that: 

• A viable European textile-to-textile system requires major investment but is not deemed to be profitable.
• Enabling mechanisms coordinating the chain and sharing risk are needed to bridge the economics gap. 
• Textile-to-textile recycled fibres are a new product category answering a planetary need for circularity, but with structurally higher prcessing costs. Under current conditions, they will not be cost-competitive with existing recycled routes.

Electric vehicles are rapidly transforming the transportation landscape. Circularity solutions, namely recycling and second-life applications, are central to addressing environmental impacts and securing access to valuable materials in electric vehicle batteries (EVBs).

Consolidating lessons learnt from the BATRAW project, this report identifies three key enabling conditions for scaling up circularity applications for EVBs in the EU: (i) effective implementation of the EU policy framework underpinned by the Batteries Regulation; (ii) strengthened financial support for scaling up battery circularity applications; and (iii) further harmonisation of the standardisation landscape impacting EVB circularity. 

This study explores how social ties and social impact can be accounted for in circular economy initiatives. 

It examines how a local project managing organic waste and unsold goods fosters social ties in a priority urban neighborhood in France, and how these dynamics can be grasped using an alternative qualitative accounting approach. 

It identifies key creators of social ties within local initiatives, proposes a social balance sheet highlighting factors that stimulate or undermine these ties and introduces a methodological approach for counting or recounting social impact in circular economy projects.

Businesses are key drivers of regional transformation. Support from public authorities and cooperation with research institutions, local administrations and networks is key to overcoming barriers and unlocking the potential of the circular economy.

This publication shows how companies in rural regions can drive the transition towards a circular economy. Drawing on examples from German and European model regions, it highlights how local enterprises implement circular business models, what opportunities arise for regional value creation and resilience, and which policy and governance frameworks can foster this transformation.

The findings show that the circular economy is not only an ecological necessity but also a strategic pathway towards sustainable and resilient regional development.

This report proposes a bold new idea for EU waste policy: an EU-wide cap-and-trade system to cut residual municipal waste – the waste that remains after prevention, reuse and recycling. 

Instead of pushing waste from landfill to incineration, the proposed scheme would put a binding limit on total residuals, creating a strong incentive for waste prevention, reuse, refill and high-quality recycling. 

The report also explains why major mineral and combustion wastes should be treated separately, and outlines how a fair, per-capita system could work in practice across the Member States, supported by robust monitoring and verification.

This report aims to provide a diagnostic to underpin the Clean Industrial Deal and the Single Market Strategy. It responds to calls from businesses to prioritise competitiveness.

The circular economy is identified as one of the keys to making the EU more competitive. The report looks at the barriers to this transition, such the higher cost of secondary raw materials, the difficulty of scaling up and replicating solutions in a fragmented market and diverging national regulatory frameworks which hinder the development of enhanced supply chains and discourage upscaling innovative recycling facilities.

The Critical Raw Materials Act and Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation will enhance conditions for circular business models and the circular transition needs to pick up the pace.

From a circular economy perspective, maintaining most of a building's structure is preferable to building a new one.

Repurposing offices into housing can expand affordable supply in high-demand areas while supporting inclusion and climate objectives.

This report aims to inform policymaking by exploring examples from various EU regions and identifying regulatory, technical, financial and social aspects that enable successful conversions of offices to affordable housing. It also highlights the multiple benefits of repurposing non-residential buildings into housing and provides insights into essential measures for scaling up such initiatives.

Europe’s green and digital transitions are increasing demand for CRMs, just as geopolitical risks and trade tensions are reshaping global supply chains. The EU has been taking steps to secure and diversify supplies by building strategic partnerships with resource-rich countries, which includes recovering CRMs from mine waste and tailings.

The Western Balkans region is a natural partner: they are integrated into EU markets and transport networks and have a legacy of old industrial sites and mine tailings.

This study recommends mapping mining waste, linking local actors more closely to EU instruments and initiatives, and using the EU accession process to advance regulatory and administrative alignment on mining, waste management and water protection with the EU acquis.