This Sitra memorandum focuses on providing building blocks to help the next European Commission address the ecological crisis while maintaining Europe's competitiveness and resilience.

The renewed European Commission will take office in 2024 and must keep up the European Green Deal, ensuring that it centres on nature and mainstreams the circular economy across the EU single market.

The key recommendations include:

• ecosystem accounting
• biodiversity offsets
• circular single market
• leveraging nature as a business opportunity
• using data for the green transition
• addressing Europe's global biodiversity footprint, and
• reforming the common agricultural policy.

Stakeholders are encouraged to contribute to the ongoing debate, ensuring the strategy's success.

Wood is becoming increasingly important: it is key to energy, construction and decarbonisation, as well as raw material security. In addition, a raft of legislative and non-legislative measures are being prepared by the Czech Republic and the EU on the issue of wood processing and forestry.

Analysising the sector is therefore paramount. After eight months of work, the research team (Think Tank) of the Institute of Circular Economy has published a study on Closing the Loop on Wood: Circular Bioeconomy Opportunities in the Value Chain for Forest Products and Wood in Czechia. It explores the material flow of wood in the Czech Republic and the challenges, weaknesses and opportunities for cross-sectoral use.

Hutoepito has been awarded a HUF 197.85 million non-refundable grant by the Hungarian Ministry of Finance to fund research, development and innovation activities under the Upcycling of closed-cell rigid polyurethane foams project.

The widespread use of polyurethane foams in various industrial technologies produces high volumes of rigid PU foam waste. Proper handling of this is essential for environmental, social and economic reasons.

The goal is to produce upcycled polyurethane foam products.

The researchers first identified the upcycling opportunities of closed-cell polyurethane foam materials and purchased the necessary machinery. Later, they started production of upcycled polyurethane foam blocks and sheets, and now they are developing prototypes.

The boating industry in Europe, represented by EBI (European Boating Industry), has developed a roadmap for solving the roadblocks to end-of-life boat recycling. It sets ambitious targets and policy recommendations to reach by 2030. The boating industry also commits to phasing out unsustainable recycling practices.

The roadmap and recommendations were developed by EBI following the work of the Stakeholders’ Group on end-of-life recreational boats. The Group is co-chaired by the European Commission's DG MARE and EBI and includes national authorities of the Member States and key stakeholders (industry, users, academia and related industries).

Follow EBI on Twitter and LinkedIn.

In recent years, plastic waste generation has become a prime concern in the global political arena.

A dedicated strategy on plastics was adopted at EU level, leading to the Single-Use Plastics Directive. Nonetheless, plastic waste management data show that achieving a circular economy for plastics in the EU is still a long way off. Available studies suggest that plastic waste generation may stay high in the future or even increase without ambitious circularity policies.

This report looks at the challenges associated with plastic waste generation and discusses the potential for using chemical recycling technologies as part of an ecosystem of solutions for increasing the circularity of plastics. It is based on evidence collected through desk-research.

Accumulating environmental and climate pressures and impacts are bringing unprecedented sustainability challenges. These problems are largely caused by unsustainable consumption, and require a fundamental shift in production and consumption systems in Europe and beyond.

Pressures and impacts from consumption can be reduced by:

1. consuming differently by shifting to less material-intensive options and using renewable or recycled materials,
2. consuming less through, for example, longer product lifespans or sharing models that can reduce the demand for new products, and
3. scaling up circular product design that enables circular consumption and reduces environmental impact.

Europe and the world face unprecedented sustainability challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion and pollution. These challenges are largely caused by unsustainable consumption as countries strive for economic growth and people pursue well-being.

Environmental and climate pressures and impacts from consumption accumulate over the years, and many ecosystems are now under pressure beyond their regeneration capacity. Scientific evidence suggests that the pressures associated with Europe's consumption are so high that the planet's ability to recover from them is seriously compromised.

Academics are studying the challenge of including the informal recycling sector (IRS) in the circular economy.

This review explores the direct and indirect contributions of the IRS to various circular economy fields, drawing on relevant literature.

1. The modi operandi of different recycling value chains are captured in a typology.
2. Information on reported forms of collaboration, tensions and challenges in urban waste management is summarised in a conceptual framework to facilitate the transition to circular and inclusive wise-waste systems.
3. Important aspects related to circular business models and approaches to the IRS are discussed and avenues for further research proposed.

Biodiversity is both vital for healthy ecosystems and the foundation of our well-being and economy. However, it is under severe threat. The root of the problem is our current unsustainable production and consumption systems. The circular economy is key to transforming these systems.

This briefing explores how the circular economy can reduce the impacts of production and consumption on biodiversity, with a focus on reducing primary resource demand, preventing pollution and biodiversity-friendly sourcing.

This article unpacks the idea of cycles, loops and flows by analysing what socio-ecological cycles are most relevant for sustainability and circularity.

It thus finds a set of seven cycles that are key to better understanding the circular economy and its relation to human and planetary well-being (biogeochemical, ecosystem, resource, power, wealth, knowledge and care cycles).

The article then analyses how and whether dominant circular economy discourses currently address these cycles. It proposes the idea of a circular society as an umbrella concept that can help us better address the critical ecological, social and political implications of a circularity transition.

Moreover, this article develops a set of interrelated strategies to operationalise the circular society concept.