The widespread use of polyurethane foams in processing technology leads to high volumes of excess waste. Proper handling of this waste is of paramount importance for environmental, social, and economic reasons.

In order to reduce waste, our project aims to solve the mechanical recycling of closed-cell, rigid, cross-linked polyurethane foams. The rigid foam waste generated in our plant is subjected to a special grinding process. Grinds are mixed with a custom-formulated binder in a ratio of 70-30%, to produce upcycled polyurethane foam sheets.

During the research, we first identified the upcycling opportunities of closed-cell polyurethane foam materials and purchased the necessary machinery. Later, we started the production of polyurethane foam and finally developed the prototypes.

The framework for inclusive circular trade is designed to help guide trade and trade-related circular economy and development policies, practices and agreements to ensure these all work towards a shared goal of an inclusive circular economy.

This paper sets out a framework for inclusive circular trade, intended to enable a pathway in which circular trade helps to promote fair, inclusive and circular societies. The framework was developed through the work of an alliance of organizations spanning Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.

Chatham House does not express opinions of its own. The opinions expressed in this publication are the responsibility of the authors. A Spanish translation of the paper is also available as a PDF.

Are there limits to robustness in our socio-economic metabolism? And is 100% circularity rate in the EU27 theoretically possible? Can we use principles and indicators from regenerative economics to develop (rather than just grow) regenerative circular economies?

These aspects are being discussed together with Dr. Dominika Alexa Teigiserova, assistant prof. Dr. Daan Schraven, prof. Martin de Jong, prof. Xin Tong, and prof. Bob Ulanowicz in the paper entitled: Are there limits to robustness? Exploring tools from regenerative economics for a balanced transition towards a circular EU27.

This peer reviewed paper is open access and published in the special issue "Sustainable Cities in the Context of Economic Transformation and Climate Change" of the Cleaner Production Letters journal.