Over the past decade, the EU has demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to advancing a circular economy, advocating for action at national, regional and local level. However, most economies remain predominantly linear.
This report provides a comprehensive analysis of circular economy practices, challenges and opportunities in cities and regions, building on a survey of 64 cities and regions of the EU, lessons learned from 10 place-based policy dialogues in specific cities and regions, and desk research. It concludes with policy recommendations to accelerate a territorial approach to the circular economy for place-based policies that are aligned with EU-wide goals.
The Horizon Europe project INBUILT aims to bring about a shift in the European construction industry by integrating circular economy and digitalisation. It focuses on scaling up and demonstrating 10 innovative products and systems designed to make building practices more sustainable.
These innovations fall into two key categories: Reused and recycled materials which will reduce waste through the smart repurposing of materials from existing sources, and low-carbon building products developed using bio-based or geo-sourced materials to significantly lower the environmental impact of construction.
This booklet presents a series of factsheets outlining each innovation developed by INBUILT. They will be updated when the project comes to an end.
THE LIFE BIOBEST project aims to guide the mainstreaming of best bio-waste management and recycling practices, with a view to enriching depleted soil with high quality compost.
Its Comprehensive Guidance sets out key policy recommendations to strengthen the EU legal framework for bio-waste management. Drawing from extensive research and stakeholder consultation, it outlines three interconnected areas for improvement: boosting effective models for separate collection and recycling, promoting reliable markets for compost and digestate, and enhancing monitoring and enforcement of bio-waste regulations.
It provides policy measures to help close the gap between current practices and potential capture rates, addressing the fact that only 26% of kitchen waste is collected separately in the EU.
The Circularity Gap Report Finance offers a global overview of known investments in businesses engaging with the circular economy over the six-year period between 2018 and 2023. By creating a clear snapshot of circular economy investment volumes, it aims to improve circular economy financial reporting, support impactful capital allocations to the circular economy and inform impactful investment decisions.
This report is intended primarily for financial market participants, financial sector regulators and policymakers - as well as anyone interested in reading about how the circular economy and finance come together.
While circular economy practices offer substantial environmental and economic benefits along with local job creation, their implementation requires significant adjustments in working conditions and practices.
This briefing dives into two of the circular building pathways identified as having high social impacts in the Circular Buildings Coalition’s 2024 Four Pathways Report: 1) Build with the Right Materials; and 2) Build Nothing.
These pathways are explored, along with their regulatory and market-level drivers, barriers and the measures needed to safeguard workers.
The DEFINITE-CCRI Circularity Tool is designed to enable project leads to evaluate their own ventures, learn the necessary steps to bring it to bankability and understand how best to approach investors for capital deployment.
There is also a guidebook if you prefer a text version to the online tool.
Coffee!UP has adopted a unique cascade recycling system for used coffee grounds which is in line with the zero waste concept. In this way, they support the circular economy and thus mitigate the impact on climate change.
Through this system, Coffee!UP obtains high-quality ingredients by gradually removing the valuable parts of coffee grounds. These are then used in the cosmetics industry and serve as an input material for making plastic products.
The PROMOFER project aims to use low value feedstock (straw, industrial wastewater and starch, mostly) to manufacture valuable biobased compounds. Specifically, it will improve the fermentation processes and downstream purification, solve bottlenecks upstream and downstream, and produce high-value applications.
The annual Circular Economy Insights Series helps shape strategies and informs the development of support for communities of practice across Ireland. It highlights research gaps and will guide work in this area.
The 2025 report is designed to support an evidenced-based approach to public engagement and communications for a circular economy. It integrates best practices, targeted market research, socio-demographic analyses and community initiatives to provide key insights and statistical evidence on the specific trends currently driving circular economy behaviour in Ireland.
It aims to strengthen capacity for high-quality communications and public engagement to ensure that Ireland is informed and enabled to participate in, and benefit from, the circular transition.
The WEEE Forum aimed to formulate recommendations on potential future targets for WEEE collection and on the method for calculating the collection rate which would foster the circular economy.
This study accordingly conducted a comprehensive assessment of current WEEE collection rate calculation methodologies and proposes a new approach for setting WEEE collection targets in the EU. It took a multi-phase approach, including data collection, model development and sensitivity analysis. Interviews with experts and stakeholders were also carried out to validate assumptions and explore new target-setting approaches.
The study concludes that the WEEE generated method is preferable to the current POM (put on the market)-based collection target.
