Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe is announcing a one-day event focusing on Circular Healthcare. Their training session to be held in Brussels on 28 November 2023 is aimed at transforming how to approach healthcare practices and implementing principles from the waste hierarchy in the sector.
Its objectives:
Learn how to reduce plastic and its impacts on health and the environment
Discover how to prevent waste and introduce reusable alternatives in healthcare settings
Explore how to eliminate harmful chemicals from healthcare products and processes
Engage in discussions on sustainable procurement and circular business models for healthcare
Network with fellow Circular Healthcare practitioners and innovators from across Europe.
On 29 September - the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization - the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) launched a one-month food waste campaign, together with a new quiz on Evaluate Your Food Waste Practices!
The quiz provides personalised tips encouraging people to take simple steps at home. It's intended to help identify what kind of information they need to reduce the amount of food they waste. Once people have a better understanding of how to reduce food waste, they'll feel empowered to act.
DiCE (Digital Health in the Circular Economy) has been created to bring key stakeholders together to address challenges associated with the growing use of digital healthcare products and increasing demand for raw materials to manufacture new electronic devices and other equipment.
On 27 June 2023, the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform (ZPSP) will host the first in a series of Zero Pollution Talks. The launch event on "Zero Pollution & the European Year of Skills" will be held online on 27 June at 15:00 – 16:00 CEST.
These online events are intended to foster stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange with a view to raising awareness and tackling a wide range of issues related to zero pollution, including circularity. The Talks will bring together a diverse set of stakeholders, including experts and policymakers, for an hour-long, online interactive discussion. The sessions will be recorded to create a zero pollution knowledge base.
The World Circular Economy Forum 2023 will be held in Helsinki from 30 May to 2 June 2023. This global collaboration forum is co-organised by Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and Nordic Innovation, with international partners. It will attract more than 2 000 leading circular economy players in the world to Finland to find circular solutions that can help our economies fit within the boundaries of nature. Part of the programme will also be accessible online.
The European Commission is currently accepting proposals for EU grants to help stakeholders take action against food waste. Fighting against food waste is one of the key action strands laid down in the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy, which aims to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally friendly.
Policies are focusing on halving food waste to help conserve increasingly strained food resources. However, expanding their scope of action to include dietary changes and complement targets with resource footprints has greater potential to save resources while avoiding trade-offs.
This paper shows that in Germany:
Healthy, plant-based diets are more effective at reducing land and biomass use than halving food waste
A combination of more plant-based food consumption and food waste reduction in distribution and consumption is most effective at saving resources
Focusing exclusively on food waste reduction as a policy target can be detrimental to the overarching goal of saving resources because it deflects attention away from more effective alternatives.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having an immense impact on societies across the world. It has caused millions of deaths worldwide and challenged our health systems and economies. The pandemic - and responses to it, involving lockdowns, use of personal protection equipment and stay-at-home measures - has far-reaching health and economic consequences.
This briefing deals with the less visible effects on our environment and climate originating from changed use of single-use plastics due to the pandemic.
CleanBags machines empty and internally disinfect bags used in healthcare facilities. The disinfectant used is chlorhexidine digluconate which has a broad spectrum of action, meaning that it acts on bacteria and viruses, even COVID-19.
Interested in contributing to EU efforts to fight food loss and waste? Don’t miss the opportunity to submit your application!
The Commission is calling for applications from private sector organisations with expertise and proven track record in food waste prevention to re-establish, together with public entities, the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste for its second mandate (2022-2026).