This report follows on from the publication Circular Czechia from July 2018, exploring the circular economy in the Czech Republic.

The report explains how innovation has developed in this field since 2018, and aims to be an inspiration for firms, organisations and authorities on how to implement circular principles. It sets out a wide selection of good practices from the Czech Republic, and includes the retail, wastewater treatment, transport, construction and furniture sectors. 

The report analyses the relationship between resilience and the circular economy.

It presents socio-ecological resilience mechanisms, with particular reference to the impacts of COVID-19.

It explores various relevant topics such as resource efficiency, shared resources, regenerative resources, decentralisation, skills transferability, lifelong learning, flexible labour contracts and the strengthening of the sociological foundation.

It also presents three case studies from the Netherlands, Ecuador and India, showing how local companies enhance resilience and reduce vulnerability in various sectors.

Lastly, it gives recommendations for educating stakeholders in how to improve and implement stronger circular economy strategies. 

This report describes innovation competition as a method of tackling major environmental challenges, specifically how to provide food sustainably and resource-efficiently in the future.

Two teams with expertise in plastics, logistics and sustainability developed solutions focused on a more regional food supply enabling us to reduce the amount of plastic, packaging and transport used. The winning submission is a conversion tool describing the principles of sustainable production and consumption of food.

This report explores the implications of the transition towards the circular economy for the Scottish labour market. It presents a baseline measurement of the number and geographical distribution of jobs currently related to the circular economy in Scotland and explores the types of circular jobs, roles and skills associated with opportunity areas in three value chains: construction, bioeconomy and capital equipment.

Circle Economy and Zero Waste Scotland designed this report to support enterprise agencies, workforce development, governments, universities, employers and other representatives to recognise the potential of the circular economy for the Scottish labour market and the related skills development needs of its workforce as part of a just transition.

This publication sets out the state of play of the circular economy concept in Serbia and identifies the main obstacles that may hamper the shift to the circular economy paradigm. It also includes circular economy initiatives in Serbia and an analysis of linkages between the circular economy concept and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Addressing the circular economy only through waste management shows that the circular economy concept is still in its infancy in Serbia. According to the conclusions, the circular economy goes beyond

• waste management
• SDG12 and
• the environmental sector.
   

This reflection paper explains how materials will enable solutions for a healthy, safe, resilient society and stronger economy to answer citizen demands. It includes strategic research agendas (SRAs), proposals, solutions, and recommendations of Alliance for Materials A4M community towards Horizon Europe in the post-COVID scenario. COVID-19 has affected the development of current strategies to face societal challenges and led to a reflection on a new global economic model where circular economy will play a prominent role.

The paper puts forward proposals for strategic research and innovation activities to the European Commission, Member States, and the European Parliament, taking into account the objectives of the Green Deal Priorities and Recovery Plan.

The Circular Cities Week report presents the outcomes of the global event Circular Cities Week including circular challenges and opportunities for cities. It represents a crowdsourced tool for cities worldwide to implement the circular model.

The report explores the association between municipalities pursuing circular economy policy and investments in circular business that create jobs. It also takes a closer look at how businesses perceive this municipal support for circular economy.

The report summarises the findings of a study by the Circular Economy Club (CEC) and the CEC local chapters. The key learnings are as follows:

1. Role of new technologies
2. Creating new markets
3. Need for clear incentives
4. Policies can promote circulation
5. Role of reverse logistics.

This is the second book published by the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

It is a collection of contributions by different authors focusing on a proposal for indicators to monitor circular economy in Poland. A large part of the work consists in explaining that circular economy is more than just waste management.

The publication is in Polish, but abstracts of the different contributions are available in English at the end of the book (from page 203 onwards).

This European Environmental Agency Report presents an analysis of approaches and identifies trends, similarities and new directions taken by countries in resource efficiency and circular economy (CE). It is based exclusively on data provided by 32 Eionet members.

Its main objective is to stimulate exchange of information and good practice between countries and to support capacity building within Eionet.

Another objective is to contribute to various policy processes, including work carried out by European Commission, European Parliament and International Resource Panel.

The report addresses 6 elements:

• material resource efficiency and CE in the EU
• policy framework
• monitoring and targets
• examples of innovative approaches and good practice
• other resources
• way forward.

The brochure "From Linear to Circular in the Textile and Apparel Industries - Let’s make the circular shift together" aims to give a push towards a circular textile industry. Circular economy strategies and business models have the potential to offer solutions for the textile industry:

• use renewable sources
• phase out dangerous substances
• increase utilisation and
• radically improve reuse and recycling.

The brochure highlights Dutch circular frontrunners that make a change - just a fraction of the initiatives, organisations and technologies available. Only the most inspiring examples have been selected, with a potential to be upscaled and implemented in other parts of the world, hoping that they will also inspire and encourage others to collaborate and make a change.

Bio-waste – mainly food and garden waste – is a key waste stream with a high potential for contributing to a more circular economy.

This European Environmental Agency Report provides an overview of bio-waste generation, prevention, collection, and treatment in Europe.

Bio-waste accounts for more than 34 % of the municipal solid waste. Many countries in Europe are far from capturing bio-waste's full potential. Food waste accounts for nearly 60 % of all bio-waste from households and similar sources. Preventing it is felt as an ethical responsibility for society.

Composting (with oxygen) and anaerobic digestion (without) are currently the two most widely applied treatment techniques. The latter generates biogas - renewable energy - and tends to deliver higher environmental benefits.

Many European countries still lack a national strategic roadmap for transposing the European directives at national level.

Some outstanding issues include the need to have clearer operational guidelines for the adoption of circular models and metrics for monitoring the transition towards circular models.

This study has been prepared in collaboration with Enel and with the scientific contribution of Enel Foundation. It unfolds in three main parts:

• State-of-the-art of Circular Economy  in the European Union
• An innovative assessment model for socio-economic and environmental benefits of Circular Economy in the EU, with a focus on Italy, Romania, and Spain
• Policy proposals for successfully managing the transition from a linear to a circular world

This document is the result of the active involvement of the Interreg MED Green Growth community, together with its projects.

To make circular economy (CE) simpler, more efficient and more competitive, it is suggested to take a holistic, integrated and cooperative approach, by considering all phases in which CE is structured, all levels (from local to European) and all stakeholders involved in the implementation of CE models.

The policy recommendations proposed in the document are structured into six main areas:

1. Investments and access to finance
2. Technological infrastructure
3. Labour market and employment
4. Awareness and knowledge
5. Cooperation among stakeholders and technology transfer
6. Cross-cutting issues.

The Capital Region of Denmark is committed to becoming a fossil-free and circular region by 2050. Inter alia, this entails achieving an 80% recycling rate for the region’s waste by 2035, and growing green business activities by 8% by 2025. New forms of cooperation and dialogues between stakeholders are necessary to reach these goals.

Through a three-year public-private partnership, the Region and its partners aim to pave the way for greater collaboration between the waste sector and the business community. Metabolic collaborated with the Region to undertake a material flow analysis and an environmental assessment of the Region’s waste system, and to identify impact hotspots and circular opportunities.

Read the executive summary of the waste analysis, or the full Danish report.

The Circularity Gap Report Norway is an in-depth analysis of how Norway consumes raw materials to fuel its societal needs. Currently, 97.6% of materials consumed each year never make it back into the economy.

Norway also has one of the highest per capita consumption rates in the world (44.3 tonnes per person). At 2.4%, its circularity rate is below the global average (8.6%). Each year Norway consumes 235 million tonnes of materials - metals, fossil fuels, biomass and minerals - to meet its internal needs.

However, the report reveals how Norway could see a 20-fold increase in its circularity by restructuring its businesses and industry through 6 key actions in the following fields:

• construction
• food
• energy
• repair, reuse and recycle
• transport
• forestry and wood products.

The relationship between innovating business model and the circular economy is complex and rapidly evolving. So, how can we turn the focus on the circular economy into a driver for global sustainability?

The report titled "Incremental Circular Economy as a Serious Sustainability Problem" aims to understand the relationship between business model innovation and the circular economy.

It also seeks to guide companies, intrapreneurs in companies, and organisations working towards a circular economy. And, finally, it aims to provide a structure to understand very different approaches and their outcomes.

On average, a European citizen produces half a ton of waste a year. This amounts to 2.5 billion tons yearly for the entire European Union.

The Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE) is a partnership between the EU’s largest national promotional banks and institutions and the European Investment Bank to invest at least €10 billion in the circular economy by 2023.

It provides loans, equity investment, guarantees, innovative financing structures and technical assistance.

The initiative will support projects that prevent and eliminate waste, increase resource efficiency and promote circular business models. Eligible projects can be submitted to the respective JICE partners.

This report analyses the scope of the plastic industry for the economy, the planet and society, as well as the policies at European and Spanish context to move towards a new plastic economy. Besides, the trade offs for companies are identified as key challenges.

Finally, the report shows the best practices of eleven companies from different sectors.

The Pop-Machina project is an EU-funded research project exploring the maker movement contributions to cities’ transition to the circular economy.

This 2nd deliverable 'Mapping the maker community ecosystem and the urban metabolism processes' draws a collection of definitions to characterise the circular maker movement. A set of original tools, including a decision tree, a taxonomy, indicators and maps of the circular maker movement are developed to delineate the circular maker movement, with a focus on the Pop-Machina seven pilot cities.

Eventually, pilot story-boards present the current status of the circular maker movement in the city, with the disclosure of the circular maker passports, characterising the movement in each pilot.

Zero Waste Scotland has commissioned a study on Measuring Scotland's progress towards a circular economy, in order to assess the value of existing metrics and identify the most effective ways to drive and track progress on reducing our carbon emissions.

The study has concluded that no single metric could be used to monitor Scotland’s progress on adopting a circular economy. However, a range of metrics could be developed and used collectively.

Two datasets in particular (a Scottish material flows accounts and Scotland’s carbon footprint) will be key to this as the country progresses towards a circular economy

In 2016, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) set up a Symbiosis Users Network (SUN) to boost industrial symbiosis in Italy. The network promotes circular economy models through industrial symbiosis by focusing on operational issues.

SUN's 2019 conference was devoted to Good practices of industrial symbiosis in Italy and the contribution of regional policies as a strategic lever. The event, co-organised by SUN, Ecomondo and ENEA was held in Rimini (IT) on 7 November 2019 at Ecomondo - a leading event in Europe for new circular economy models.

Click on 2017 and 2019 to see the reports on SUN's two conferences.

Reports on ENEA-promoted conferences on industrial symbiosis are available here.

In March 2020, the European Commission published the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). Following of this publication, the French Institut National de l'Economie Circulaire (INEC) has published an analysis of the new action plan, followed by some recommendations:

1. promote the inter-sectoral dimension of circular economy (CE);
2. speed up the integration of the CE dimension into public procurement;
3. introduce a coherent circular-oriented tax system;
4. transition towards a non-financial accounting system;
5. teach people to be circular;
6. start a discussion on "equitable" needs;
7. blockchain, territories and behavioural change.

To read the full report (in FR) click here.

The report from TCO Development, the organization behind the global sustainability certification for IT products TCO Certified, explains how everyone who buys/uses IT products can implement circular practices. It sets out how circular economy (CE) helps solve many pressing sustainability challenges linked to IT products and contains 33 expert tips on circular IT management.

Key findings:

1. Use IT products longer.
2. Circularity helps maximize the value of IT investment.
3. Market demand is key to accelerating the pace of change. 
4. Circularity includes IT management throughout the life cycle. 
5. Improved supply chain responsibility can speed up transition to CE. 
6. Circularity is a team effort.
7. Many circular solutions are already in place - just use them.

The Circular Economy Action Group, the business initiative promoted by Forética in Spain to lead the transition of companies towards a circular economy model, has produced a report entitled "The reality of plastics: myths and truths" [La realidad de los plásticos: Mitos y verdades].

The aim of the report is to ensure a better understanding of plastic waste pollution, thus promoting the foundations of the new plastics economy. It also outlines the actions to be taken in order to improve plastic circularity.

Forética's mission is to promote the integration of social, environmental and good governance aspects in the strategy and management of companies and organisations with one objective: to achieve a sustainable future.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has always been a meeting place for Sweden’s future. It builds bridges between the business community, the public sector, academia and the political sphere.

Its two-year project "Resource Effectiveness and the Circular Economy" was aimed at making Sweden more competitive in a future with finite resources, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, by economising on resources and developing new technologies, services and business models in five areas:

• premises,
• mobility,
• textiles,
• food and
• plastics.

Read the synthesis report, marking the completion of the project, which presents the most important conclusions, recommendations and action plans from the five subprojects.