The Danube Goes Circular is a platform set up under the Interreg MOVECO project which ran from December 2016 to August 2019. The platform aims to promote awareness of and engagement in the circular economy, and involves sixteen partners from the ten Danube countries.
There is a marketplace for reusable materials, designed to match up supply and demand for waste and reusable materials and products meet in order to foster eco-innovation in the Danube region.
The platform provides information on how to extend a product’s useful lifecycle as well as on legal requirements and corporate good practices linked to the promotion of the circular economy. The toolbox section includes fact sheets for SMEs.
MarketPlace Circular Labs is an Interreg project in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula (North and Central Portugal and Castilla y León and Galicia in Spain). It aims to give visibility to good practices and circular economy success stories developed by businesses and entrepreneurs in the region.
There is a private area where users can share products and services, along with ideas for projects and synergies. There is also a learning centre, and events and publications are listed in the News space.
The project is funded by the ERDF via the Cooperación Transfronteriza INTERREG V-A España Portugal programme. It aims to incorporate the circular economy into the business culture and to build new ideas into every stage of the value chain.
ACCEZ is a platform which aims to foster circular economy practices in the southern Netherlands.
It pools initiatives by several regional universities and public and private actors in the following fields:
area development
circular agriculture
manufacturing industries
plastic.
The platform bolsters cooperation between partners to develop solutions to knowledge-intensive issues. To do so, they oversee and fund triple-helix research projects. The end-goal of the platform is to enhance the regional knowledge base and networks, with a view to substantially accelerating the transition to a circular economy.
I:CO is an international circular solutions provider for the collection, certified sorting, reuse and recycling of clothing and shoes. They aim to support innovative new recycling technologies which help close the loop of production cycles.
IVA – the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences – set up, in 2016, the project “Resource Efficient Business Models – Greater Competitiveness”, which resulted in a report presenting analyses and conclusions in five sectoral reports:
input goods
infrastructure
capital goods and durables
consumer products and
food.
Among its proposals, it suggests solutions for a sustainable usage of plastic for a more resource-efficient food chain, with an emphasis on circular flows. It also provides perspectives from companies in the infrastructure sector. Moreover, it presents its vision for mapping of resource flows, optimal use of infrastructure and other resource-efficient solutions, including aiming at increased use of recycled materials and the reuse of products.
EU institutions and agencies are increasingly raising awareness about the circular economy agenda. They are encouraging marketplace stakeholders to engage in sustainable production and consumption by reducing, reusing, restoring, refurbishing and recycling resources throughout their value chain.
This research evaluates the latest European environmental policies including the new circular economy plans for a cleaner and more competitive Europe. It then goes on to present a systematic literature review focused on the circular economy in the EU context. The findings suggest that there are a number of opportunities and challenges for the successful planning, organisation, implementation and measurement of circular economy practices.
Circular Pointis a service hub providing circular economy solutions for companies and organisations. It was set up by Geonardo, a company which aims to solve complex societal challenges by providing cutting-edge solutions.
Circular Point aims to make its clients more profitable and efficient, while creating a positive environmental, social and consumer impact.
It offers training sessions for companies during which the company's employees are taught how to apply circular principles to its operations, improving both its environmental and financial performance. The hub also works with institutions, local governments and NGOs, showing them how to go circular and convince their target audience of the merits of this shift, and with individuals.
Holland Circular Hotspot is a private foundation that aims to accelerate the international transition to a circular economy.
It does this by connecting companies, knowledge institutes and (local) authorities, and supporting international collaboration and knowledge exchange on the Dutch circular economy.
HCH:
Offers insights into and access to the network of Dutch circular pioneers;
Develops and exchanges knowledge about international market opportunities for circular economy;
Creates circular opportunities internationally by matching offer and demand;
Supports companies and organisations that want to contribute to the internationalisation of the circular economy;
Stimulates cooperation between the private sector, knowledge institutions, governments and other relevant parties.
