The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy fulfils the commitment in the Programme for Irish Government to publish and start implementing a new National Waste Action Plan. This new national waste policy will inform and give direction to waste planning and management in Ireland over the coming years. It will be followed later this year by an All of Government Circular Economy Strategy. The need to embed climate action in all strands of public policy aligns with the goals of the European Green Deal.
The policy document contains over 200 measures across various waste areas including Circular Economy, Municipal Waste, Consumer Protection and Citizen Engagement, Plastics and Packaging, Construction and Demolition, Textiles, Green Public Procurement and Waste Enforcement.
Renewi E-waste collects Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), recycles it and sells the resulting plastic, ferrous and non-ferrous products as secondary raw materials.
Versalis produces plastics, rubbers and chemicals from renewable sources, maintaining plastic products and materials in a closed loop. It has developed the Versalis Revive® range of polymer-based products containing recycled plastics, in collaboration with leading Italian companies in the recovery and recycling of post-consumer plastic at European level.
The European Committee of Manufacturers of Electrical Machines and Power Electronics (CEMEP) supports the development towards a circular economy (CE), thus actively contributing to more sustainable manufacturing and responsible consumption. This industrial sector follows a business-to-business market model, delivering products for a wide number of economic sectors and applications.
Its three main product groups – electric motors, variable speed drives and uninterruptable power systems – show differences and similarities when it comes to material efficiency, hence the need for sector- or product-specific approaches when pursuing CE.
This position paper describes the CE status of the CEMEP industries and the way forward towards more circularity.
Upcycling Scandinavia designs practical objects using upcycled materials such as paper, cardboard and pre-use plastic from industry. Its products are reusable and can be looped back into the manufacturing of new products.
A solvent-free adhesive that is suitable for recycling and also for bonding of recycled plastic films has been developed by Henkel to be used for multilayer packaging.
This report explores different ways to understand the relation between business model innovation and a circular economy. The aim is to provide both guidance for companies, entrepreneurs and organisations working with circular economy and a structure to understand very different approaches and their outcomes.
We need to move away from linear material flows in society towards more circular flows. However, some unsustainable companies and governments are using the incremental interpretation of the concept.
Methods such as take-back systems and exporting plastic waste undermine the idea of circular economy as a meaningful tool for sustainability.
This approach distracts attention from their unsustainable business models and from smaller companies with truly sustainable business models.
The City of Helsinki’s Action Plan for the Circular and Sharing Economy is the updated version of the original roadmap of May 2020.
The Action Plan now extends to 2035. The focus areas are:
construction
procurement
environmental awareness and sustainable consumption.
Circular economy goals and measures are assembled under each focus area. The intention is to achieve the goals gradually.
Progress will be monitored using the Kiertotalousvahti service (Circular Economy Watch), and reported annually in the city’s environmental report and in the annual report of the European Circular Cities Declaration.
European project BIOnTop obtains promising results in development of new recyclable and compostable packaging. In its first year, BIOnTop has achieved good results in its experimental work on copolymers and compounds with customized biodegradability and multifunctional coating solutions with customized properties.
