Multilateral development banks have a key role to play in supporting and financing circular approaches. Recognising this, a group of these banks came together to discuss how to better support the circular economy and promote an exchange of knowledge with the private sector, civil society, and local, regional and national authorities.
This report is a result of their work. It presents 20 case studies from around the world that highlight the kinds of support on offer, such as advisory activities, public-sector lending, private-sector investments and backing for the financial sector. Sharing these experiences is important for identifying and adopting successful approaches that can be replicated and scaled up around the world.
Revivack has set up the world's first system based on blockchain technology that facilitates the individual return of unwanted items to the manufacturer. These items can therefore be recovered in an orderly, transparent and reliable way, contributing to the promotion of the circular economy.
How many plastic bottles actually enter the recycling process?
Theory is one thing and reality tends to be another. The Czech Ministry of the Environment wanted to find out what really happens to plastic bottles after they are thrown into sorted bins for plastic waste. It commissioned Adastra to carry out a project using IoT technology to track the movement of sorted bottles.
The built environment accounts for at least 40% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. For the Alps, it is key to use local resources effectively while upholding EU rules and promoting the adoption of common standards across the building value chain.
The European Interreg Alpine Space project BAUHALPS is endeavouring to meet these challenges by developing and testing a model that combines New European Bauhaus concepts with sustainability measurements and indicators in an innovative way.
This report is part of a larger, collaborative four-year research project. It analyses the fashion value chain from a global and local perspective with an emphasis on India, Spain and the Netherlands, using a novel framework to assess social impact for circular economy called the SIAF-CE.
The report concludes that the Dutch circular ambition in policy is high and a solid ecosystem is in place. The most established circular strategies are resale and recycling, while promising ones are resale-platform-based, rental and repair. However, the social impact of most circular strategies seems to emulate linear value chain working conditions, where women workers hold the most vulnerable jobs, with low pay, short-term contracts and lower collective bargaining.
This analysis report was prepared in connection with the EU-funded Wood2Wood project and explores opportunities to advance the circular economy and overcome challenges to waste wood utilisation through supportive policy.
It outlines recommendations and policy options for improving waste wood utilisation through harmonised multi-criteria waste wood classification, refined and extended targets and obligations, enabling policy and policy which fundamentally reflects the lifecycle perspective. These recommendations and policy options serve as a point of departure to help shape the regulatory environment in support of improved waste wood valorisation.
incommon is a non-profit organisation that encourages people to adopt the circular economy as a way of life. They use a bottom-up approach, working with individuals, schools, businesses, institutions, groups and local authorities.
Their approach ensures that people are informed about circular economy principles and engaged in implementing them, enabling them to make sustainable choices and drive local change.
Renewaball introduced the world’s first fully circular tennis and padel balls, designed with recycled materials sourced from used balls collected across European clubs.
This project embodies eco-friendly design by reusing rubber from old balls and using biodegradable wool felt to replace conventional polyester and nylon, which reduces microplastic pollution.
Businesses in India and around the world are adopting the circular economy as a new production paradigm. However, while the economic and environmental dimensions of the circular economy have been explored, its social impact (decent pay, gender equality, labour conditions) has been overlooked.
By surveying 100 workers and interviewing 40 managers in India, the authors developed an inventory of circular jobs with the respective demographic. They found that circular jobs in India are of low quality due to relatively low wage and job security indicators (especially for female workers). Informal migrant women in resale, repair and recycling are most vulnerable. Resale and rental based on internet platform models have the highest earning quality for men and women.
The apparel value chain is essential for the livelihood of millions of workers around the globe, but working conditions in this sector are far from satisfactory. The circular economy has been used by businesses as a framework for achieving sustainability but there is a lack of knowledge about its social impact.
This paper explores the social impact of the different circular strategies implemented in the Netherlands, Spain and India. It assesses social impacts related to the quality of jobs, workers’ sustainable livelihood and gender equality and inclusion.
It finds that the social ambition of the circular economy is low, and that current circular strategies follow the same feminisation and precariousness of working conditions found in the linear apparel value chain.
