Syctom is a French local public authority and a leading European operator in domestic waste management. It processes 2,3 million tonnes of domestic and related waste from around six million inhabitants of the Île-de-France region, including Paris, i.e. almost 9% of the French population. 

Syctom strongly welcomes the New Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) published by the European Commission.

In its position paper, Syctom highlights some elements in order to contribute to future discussions about the development of the new CEAP, in particular:

• strengthening and extending ecodesign,
• waste reduction,
• stimulating the market for secondary raw materials,
• waste-to-energy as a sustainable environmental activity and
• strengthening education to promote prevention.

Le secteur de l’événementiel est plus que jamais concerné par les enjeux de durabilité et de préservation des ressources. Conscients de la nécessité de concilier l’organisation d’événements et l’économie circulaire, les acteurs du secteur doivent se mobiliser davantage afin de mettre en œuvre les leviers d’action existants.

Dans le cadre de la nouvelle loi française, de nombreuses mesures sont pertinentes:

• Des objectifs de réduction des emballages plastiques et la fin du plastique jetable en 2040
• La lutte contre le gaspillage (alimentaire)
• Les mesures favorisant le réemploi et la réutilisation
• La gestion et la valorisation des déchets
• Les dispositions relatives aux filières à responsabilité élargie des producteurs (REP) engageant une réflexion sur la filière événementielle

Cities can play a pivotal role in creating an enabling environment through regulations and incentives, but the private sector needs to collaborate and explore the cross-sectoral synergies required to achieve a circular model. There are immense opportunities for public-private collaboration in achieving goals that might not otherwise be possible for cities to accomplish alone.

Cities are embedding circular thinking in their utility processes, placing the onus on the private sector to come up with new business models that are both economically viable and ecologically sustainable. This could potentially result in a situation whereby circular products and services become the new market standard.

Over the past couple of years, as companies start to understand the opportunities that lie under the concept of circular economy, the circularity conversation has gained significant momentum. At the same time, national and regional governments are developing frameworks and regulations to promote the circular economy.

Effective policymaking is crucial to accelerate and scale up circular actions in the economy. It supports businesses in overcoming hurdles by stimulating innovative projects and long-term investments in circularity, facilitating collaboration and partnerships, and producing tangible results.

Learning from successful policies can help inform future policies to promote wider actions in other sectors and regions over time.

By highlighting some representative pioneers in circular economy policy, exploring key enablers from these policies, describing how other regions could replicate these enablers and providing recommendations, this publication aims to provide insights from the policy perspective and to feed into the ongoing development of other initiatives and policies related to the circular economy globally.

The Ecopreneur.eu landscape review of circular economy policy in the EU Member States aims to inspire these countries to accelerate their circular transition. Combining the EU's Monitoring Framework with other rankings, databases and reports, Ecopreneur presents 28 country profiles using a mix of quantitative data and qualitative information to highlight specific indicators. These range from waste generated per capita to voting behaviour on EU proposals on the circular economy.

The report also describes the current performance, initiatives, most relevant organisations, policies, challenges and examples of good practice for each Member State. The country profiles show 28 unique different trajectories towards the circular economy. Some countries and regions, such as the Netherlands, Scotland, Slovenia, France, Belgium and Finland, are already leading the way. Each country profile concludes with Ecopreneur’s recommendations, with the following overarching key messages for all EU Member States:

1. Start a Green Deal on Circular Procurement
2. Create circular “hubs” to support companies with circular models
3. Create a national circular economy roadmap with concrete targets
4. Improve and extend the extended producer responsibility (EPR) to cover ecomodulation of fees
5. Introduce low VAT rates for repair services, resold goods and transactions with clearly defined social goals
6. Create a “Green New Deal” to shift taxes from labour to resources
7. Shift investment away from municipal waste incineration.