The EU economy uses unsustainably large amounts of materials. In 2021, only 11.7% of these materials came from recycled waste. This share of recycled material is known as the circular material use rate (CMUR) and over the last 20 years it has increased only slightly. The EU’s circular economy action plan aims to double that share by 2030.
This briefing looks at trends in the EU’s circular material use rate and the environmental impacts of material use. It also analyses the EU’s prospects for reaching its 2030 target. Efforts should focus on reducing use and increasing recycling of non-metallic minerals — such as construction materials — as these account for about half of all materials used.
At the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Emily is Senior Policy Officer for Textiles within the Circular Economy team. The EEB is Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens’ organisations with over 180 organisations in more than 40 countries.
Since 2018, Emily has been following the various product policy initiatives being developed for textiles, and the EU’s Textiles Strategy.
Prior to working on textiles at the EEB, Emily worked in various roles, in particular in the EEB’s communication team on agriculture and biodiversity issues, and as a press officer for The Left group in the European Parliament. She has a degree in Journalism from Glasgow Caledonian University.
This webinar on 7 June aims to take stock of the current EU instruments which may be mobilised by insect producers in order to stimulate the EU bioeconomy, and thereby foster the creation of ‘innovative supply chains’ and ‘green jobs’ in European rural areas.
Furthermore, the event explores avenues for developing new EU measures to unleash the potential of the insect sector in stimulating the bioeconomy as well as in diversifying and boosting the domestic production of proteins in Europe.
The EU Green Week 2023 from 3 to 11 June is the annual opportunity to debate, become familiar with, or even celebrate EU environment policy. The main event - the Brussels conference - takes place on 6 and 7 June. The policy debates on "Delivering a Net-Zero World" theme and expert workshops are organised by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment, with invited speakers from the world of politics, business, NGOs, and academia.
The Re-Shoes LIFE project wants to provide an alternative, circular and sustainable solution for footwear end-of-life management. The European Platform for Sport Innovation (EPSI) will organize the Re-Shoes project launch event on 6 June 2023 in the Azores (Portugal), as part of the EPSI Annual Conference 2023.
EU Green Week is the annual opportunity to debate, become familiar with, or even celebrate EU environment policy. This year's edition takes place between Saturday 3 June and Sunday 11 June.
The European Commission has launched the LIFE Programme’s 2023 Calls for project proposals. This year, there are 611 million EUR available for nature conservation, environmental protection, climate action, and clean energy transition projects.
EDANA, the leading global association and voice of the nonwovens and related industries is launching its first Sustainability Forum, which is an evolution of their previous Circular Nonwovens Forum. It will cover all relevant sustainability topics for the nonwoven industry: natural raw materials, consumer expectations, circularity, bio-economy, etc.
The Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission has launched work on a study regarding “Background Data Collection for Future EU End-of-Waste Criteria of Construction and Demolition Waste”.
In this context, the Commission is opening an online stakeholder survey, available until 31 August 2023.
The sixth edition of MeetingPack, the event organised every two years by AIMPLAS and AINIA, will attract members of the entire food packaging value chain on 10-11 April 2024 at the Valencia Conference Centre in Spain.
Through the prism of the circular economy, MeetingPack 2024 will address the challenges and opportunities the sector is expected to face in coming years, as well as the latest innovations and trends in materials and barrier packaging.
