The final part of the LIFE 2021 call for proposals is open! The deadline for applications is 10 March 2022 at 17:00 CET.
Under the topics Circular Economy & Quality of Life and Nature & Biodiversity, specific projects are financed concerning, amongst others, used textiles/textile waste and high quality compost from collected organic waste.
Atelier Riforma started as a social economy startup with a pioneer marketplace for upcycled garments. Realising that the sorting and cataloguing of textile waste were too labour-intensive for industry standards, founders came up with the idea of developing an AI-based automated solution - called Re4circular - to create a digitized and truly efficient post-consumer clothing supply chain.
Waste prevention is the best waste management policy option, according to the waste hierarchy - the EU's main rule for the environmental ranking of waste management policies. Its main objective is to reduce waste generation, the environmental impacts of waste management and the hazardousness of the waste generated.
To support this objective, the EU and all its Member States have put in place legislation that promotes activities in products' life cycles aimed at reducing the amount of waste generated.
This report aims to assess progress towards the main objective of waste prevention: decoupling (i. e. breaking the link between waste generation and economic growth).
This briefing provides a snapshot of the status of trading non-hazardous, recyclable waste within the EU. Its aim is to provide knowledge and information to support the review of the EU's Waste Shipment Regulation.
The idea is to improve the functioning of secondary material markets by offering insights and potential solutions to help ensure that waste is treated in the best possible way in line with the principles of the waste hierarchy.
On 17 and 18 January 2022, the ECESP Coordination Group will present Europe's pioneering work done by its Leadership groups in the field of the circular economy before a global audience at the Circular Europe Days in Dubai.
Agroamb Prodalt SL is a rural SME working in the primary sector. It provides agricultural services for farmers and organic fertilisers from biodegradable waste generated in the primary and agri-food sectors. Its process sanitises biodegradable waste and animal by-products with lime and produces organic fertilisers (turning these waste materials into resources).
Within the framework of the Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland (CEID) and its three interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral working groups, more than 130 experts from industry, science and civil society have summed up their findings in the Circular Economy (CE) Roadmap for Germany, which consists of a consolidated opinion addressing society as a whole.
This Roadmap, which has focused - right from the beginning - on shaping a consistent and common target vision for a circular economy in 2030, is a scientifically-based framework for action that systemically describes the necessary steps for Germany to transition to a CE and provides decision-makers from politics, industry and science with concrete recommendations for action.
The authors of the study apply ascendency analysis (a systematic method based on information theory for quantifying the efficiency and resilience of natural ecosystems) at EU level and discuss the implications for urban waste management systems, taking the Netherlands as an example.
They argue that ecological principles can be useful for developing human-made systems. The system is made sufficiently robust to be able to cope with shocks by including a diverse set of stakeholders who provide:
In Limbo is a platform (digital website and physical warehouse) facilitating the reuse of materials within the social and cultural sectors and schools in Brussels.
It encourages exchange and mutual aid within these sectors, as well as boosting recycling, reducing landfill costs and enabling organisations with limited resources to obtain reusable materials. Following the principles of circularity and sharing, all partners are invited to give and receive materials for free.
In Limbo is open only to registered partners which must be formal or informal non-profit associations or collectives, specifically social, cultural and artistic organisations, schools and temporary projects in Brussels. However, In Limbo accepts donations from all types of organisations.
Watch a video on In Limbo
Ekofungi is a Serbian company that takes a 100% circular approach to mushroom cultivation. It has pioneered a technology for sustainable cultivation of edible mushrooms using recycled cellulose waste. Each year, Ekofungi grows 130 tons of mushrooms which are either sold fresh or dehydrated and mixed with other vegetables.
In 2020 the EU’s circular material use rate reached 12,8 %, i.e. almost 13 % of material resources used in the EU came from recycled waste materials, according to Eurostat.
The circularity rate - which is part of the EU monitoring framework on the circular economy - is the share of material resources used coming from recycled waste materials, thus saving extractions of primary raw materials.
The mission of Reet Aus is to minimise the ecological footprint of one of the world's most contaminating businesses – the fashion industry. They do it by industrial upcycling. This not-wasteful way of production is based on a scientific methodology called UPMADE® that has been developed by the designer and founder PhD Reet Aus in cooperation with Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Center.
Since 2020 the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Circular Economy Community has been engaging with civil society, EU and international stakeholders as well as the EIT network by supporting actions to strengthen and optimise the transition towards a more circular and innovative future.
Join this webinar on 17 December to find out more about EIT's work on the ground and hear the stories of involved actors working with EIT to increase the uptake of circular innovative solutions. Participants will get the opportunity to interact with the panel of experts and find out more about opportunities coming from the EIT Circular Economy Community programme.
The EROS Project, with the participation of AIMPLAS and ITC, is working to develop new recycling processes to recover composite materials from the aeronautics and wind turbine sectors to manufacture new products for the transport and ceramics industries.
The 11th meeting of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste will be held virtually on 18 November. This is the last meeting of the current Platform before its re-establishment with a new membership, starting 2022.
A webinar series connecting the dots between EU decision-makers and recyclers. It will provide an opportunity to discuss the building blocks required to speed up the transition towards a more circular economy and achieve Europe's climate neutral agenda.
Recyclers’ Talks #6 will focus on the challenges and opportunities for the automotive value chain.
The Spanish project APROEMA Conecta aims to encourage the launch of businesses in the environmental sector through circular economy business tables.
The 2nd International Conference on Strategies towards Green Deal Implementation – Water, Raw Materials & Energy (ICGreenDeal2021) - aims to present the issue of climate change and ways to prevent it with innovative solutions (technological, environmental, economic, and social) that can be implemented under the Green Deal Strategies.
This online conference on 8-10 December 2021 is the continuation of the 1st International Conference on Strategies towards Green Deal Implementation – Water and Raw Materials, a very successful event with almost 500 participants.
