European Union
The ECESP Coordination Group met for the third time on 17 October 2019 in Brussels to review the Platform's 2019 activities and define its objectives for 2020.
Following a 19 February 2019 workshop on Circular Economy Competences - Making the Case for Lifelong Learning in the European Parliament, ACR+ and Zero Waste Scotland have produced a report detailing how to introduce circular thinking in education, create vocational training programmes to upskill workers in waste management, repair and reuse, and facilitate the circular transition by developing training programs for local authority staff.
ACR+ has consistently advocated to accelerate the circular economy, while also showcasing urban best practice in circular economy throughout 2019 at various events across the European continent.
During Romania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Spring 2019, IRCEM began a project to support the development of a circular economy strategy for Romania until 2030. With support from the Ministry of Environment, Department for Sustainable Development and countless other public authorities, civil society organisations and private businesses, a series of 9 conferences and workshops was held from April to June 2019. A draft strategy will be presented to the Romanian government on the basis of these discussions in Autumn 2019.
WREP (Waste REcycling Project) 2018 was a pilot project by the Italian PVC forum designed to improve the collection and recycling of polyvynil chloride in Venice. This pilot forms part of a wider, 3-year project to increase recycling of post-use PVC, and focused on the demolition and recycling sectors in particular.
Use of recycled plastic material (rPM) in North West Europe is homogeneously low. In packaging and building, the highest plastic-consuming sectors, only 8% of plastic employed is recyclate (Plastics Europe 2016). This is often due to the lack of information on purity and composition of recycled plastics. The Interreg NWE research project Di-Plast develops digital technology to enable complete documentation and quality assurance of recycled plastic material flows.
The Pura Production Group is clearly commited to sustainable production and follows up on this commitment by achieving the maximum attainable sustainability factor with its cleaning products. Pura's flagship Blue Right line for hotels and offices is a circular economy front runner: the floor, interior, sanitary and kitchen cleaners are produced without hazardous chemicals, sold in portion-controlled compostable packaging and lead to zero waste after use.
In the framework of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy, ACR+ co-organised a workshop with its member OVAM, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and Eurocities.
The Climate Pact, which was set up by Luxembourg's Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure in order to enable municipalities wishing to actively tackle climate change to request State support by signing an engagement charter, now includes measures on circular economy.
The Austrian Circular Economy Platform Circular Futures was launched in March 2018 at the House of the European Union in Vienna.
The municipality of Almere aspires to become a waste-free and energy-neutral city by 2022. The administration wants to bring the business community and knowledge institutes’ innovative power together to enable co-creation in the field of waste management and upcycling in the urban context.
With half a million inhabitants, the ‘Eurométropole’ of Strasbourg is a collection of 33 municipalities and represents a centre of activity in the east of France. Deeply committed to energy transition, the Eurométropole adopted a climate plan in 2009 aimed at energy savings, the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and the development of renewable energies.
Lyon Métropole, which includes 59 municipalities and 1.3 million inhabitants, wants to build a sustainable future for its citizens. The Métropole relies on green investments to face environmental challenges. Lyon is also committed to building circular solutions for the region and has been recognised as a ‘zero waste territory’ (territoire zéro déchet, zéro gaspillage) since 2015. In April 2017, Lyon Métropole voted on strategic actions in favour of the circular economy.
Oslo has been developing a waste management system based on circular principles to ensure separate waste collection is maximised and transform waste into secondary raw materials. To do so it has actively engaged with citizens, farmers as well as with its city’s public transportation company.
Facing dramatic deindustrialisation and an uncertain future, the city of Turin implemented processes that paired physical redevelopment with strategic planning to promote citywide revitalisation and economic restructuring in the 1990s. While the transformation has been profound, current challenges call for more circular strategies and an inclusive approach.
In 2015 Amsterdam commissioned an in-depth study on the potential of a circular economy. The project was the first large-scale research study in the world that uses the ‘city circle scan’ methodology. The scan identifies the areas in which the most significant, tangible progress in realising a circular economy can be achieved. This potential impact is significant and can result in more jobs, bring added value to the city’s economy, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions and material use.
Birmingham is Britain’s youngest and fastest growing city, boasting the highest quality of life of any English city outside London. The city also has the strongest economy outside the capital and is one of the first cities to adopt a proactive industrial symbiosis approach to develop a medium and long-term strategy for sustainable economic development. Often described as ‘the circular economy in action’, the projects born from the industrial symbiosis approach are part of Birmingham’s circular economy strategy.
The purpose of the project has been to highlight the possibilities the municipalities and regions have to accommodate a more circular economy in the future.
Skaff Dairy Farm is a small-sized enterprise, which produces around 840 t of dairy products annually for the local market. Skaff Dairy Farm joined the MED TEST II project in order to improve quality and reduce defects, to drive out waste and continuously improve cost efficiency. The main problems the company faced was energy and finished products losses. The company was already ISO 22000:2005 certified at the project start.
The Circular Economy Demonstration Projects programme was launched in 2014 and has been repeated yearly, having developed 36 projects by 2016.
The BAMB project started in September 2015 and will progress for 3 and a half years as an innovation action within the EU funded Horizon 2020 program.
BAMB will enable a systemic shift where dynamically and flexibly designed buildings can be incorporated into a circular economy. Through design and circular value chains, materials in buildings sustain their value – in a sector producing less waste and using less virgin resources.
