This transversal White Paper by the Interreg MED's Green Growth community displays the horizontal approach towards cooperation on Circular Economy and Green Growth in the Mediterranean as well as challenges, success factors and lessons learned.

PC4Change is a project of the Reware Cooperative - Social Enterprise, specialized since 2013 in the refurbishing of computers dismissed by large companies.

Red Alimenta is an organisation of volunteers that collects surplus food and delivers it to people in need. The network of volunteers in different neighbourhoods of the city collects and distributes surplus prepared food from restaurants, schools or hospitals. 

The Ó Boneco ("rag doll" in Portuguese) project was born out of a desire to design a tailor-made training combining handicrafts and the traditions of the municipality of Valongo in Portugal.

The project reCIRCULARte started in 2017: three unemployed people decided to reuse, recover and restore second-hand material or objects, giving them new life.

Holy-wood is an association of craftsmen who design designer furniture with locally recovered wood in an ethical and holistic approach.

Rue Rangoli is a French social enterprise that supports social organisations involved in upcycling or zero-waste and the design circular economy, based in Europe, Africa and Asia.

In 2018, the City of Antwerp kick-started the Circular South project. The aim is to encourage more efficient use of energy, water, waste and materials by the citizens of the New South district of Antwerp through an innovative community-driven approach.

The WCYCLE Maribor project provides for an innovative urban circular economy system, offering a new business and economic model for the city in the field of efficient resource management.

Made in Moerwijk is a social circular initiative in The Hague that seeks to give new life to waste products.

De Potterij in the Flemish city of Mechelen is set to become a circular economy incubator where young, innovative and creative entrepreneurs can meet up with like-minded people. It will also host a large supporting network for researchers, government and experts to make their circular economy ambitions a reality.

Social Cooperative Humana Nova Čakovec encourages the employment of disabled and other socially excluded persons for the production and sale of quality and innovative textile products made from ecological and recycled fabrics for the local and regional markets.

Rediscover Cycling is a bicycle reuse social enterprise located at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, Dublin.

Rediscover Fashion is a social enterprise that produces 100 % redesigned and repurposed clothing, accessories, and home ware ranges from unwanted textiles, preventing the materials from being sent to landfill.

This social enterprise collects unwanted paint donated at local recycling centres, filters and remixes it to create new paint sold at the Rediscovery Centre’s Eco Store.

Rediscover Furniture is a furniture restoration and upcycling social enterprise housed at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, Dublin.

Nutripeople, a Murcian start-up producing superfoods for the developing world, actively engages Spain's agri-food industry to sell its vegetable surplus as a resource to produce superfood pouches, which are then distributed in areas afflicted by famine.

In September 2018, the Danish inter-municipal waste management company AVV, which serves two Danish municipalities, visited the City of Brussels and its surroundings as part of a study visit on setting up effective repair and reuse systems. The visit was carried out within the framework of the TAIEX Peer-2-Peer EU Programme and with the support of Municipal Waste Europe and Bruxelles Environment.

The Fair Plastic Alliance believes that plastic waste management based on a not-for-private-profit business model is a powerful solution to generate a positive impact on the environment and on the society as a whole, in both developed and developing countries. It is a multi-stakeholder network spreading social responsibility in plastic waste management.

The Super Circular Estate project addresses the challenge of changing housing needs. The Parkstad Limburg region’s population, is estimated to shrink by 27% in the next 30 years, calling for a radical reorientation in housing facilities. The project aims at demolishing vacant outdated high-rise apartment buildings, and reuse their components to establish new social housing units.

The "Polveriera" is an urban regeneration project that converted an ancient military warehouse into a beautiful civic centre hosting several activities: learning and residential centre for disabled people, offices for cooperatives and NGOs, co-working space, auditorium, a shop and a restaurant-cafè. 

Esosport was founded in 2009, by a small group of avid sports people, wanting to find a better use for old sports shoes than simply being thrown away.
Indeed, once they have exhausted their support and performance potential, recycled sport shoes provide a secondary raw material with interesting characteristics for flooring in sports facilities.

By initiating collection and composting practices into a 1500 inhabitants city district, the El Ouidane project aims to combat the desertification and to protect a fragile environment such as oases.

Atelier Extramuros is a social enterprise specialised in upcycling in the furniture sector, using reclaimed material from discarded professional furniture.

'Chants Libres' is a new pilot project aiming at improving recycled material sourcing - with the support of Valdelia - and designing protoypes for the professional furnishing sector.