The ReSeaclons project, led by the Marine Institute of the Seaquarium in Grau-du-Roi, France, is committed to bringing together fishermen, seafarers, public authorities, associations, companies, civil society and holiday-makers to help reduce marine pollution.
Tedre Farm, located in Southern Estonia, grows raspberries and produces raspberry juice and other derivatives.
In 2017, in a collaboration with the Estonian University of Life Sciences, it started a project to study technologies for the extraction of oil from raspberry seeds, particularly known for its medicinal properties.
In France, SUEZ has invested EUR 10 million on the construction of a hub to recover waste from local businesses and authorities. Once sorted and recycled, the waste is then sold for reuse.
The Dutch company KarTent has come up with a sustainable solution for the many tents left behind by music festival goers: a cardboard tent, designed to be purchased and transported in bulk to festival sites. After the festival, the company arranges for the tents to be removed and recycled.
Mamukko is an Irish company, founded in 2011, that uses waste nautical materials as a secondary raw material. They promote upcycling by using end-of-life sails, decommissioned life rafts and recycled leather to make bags.
The Circularity Dataset is an initiative by Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Economy and some international industry leaders. It has now developed the “Product Circularity Data Sheet” (PCDS): a data template for standardising data about the circular aspects of products.
Portuguese startup Benefício devels limited edition products, with particular attention to the use of materials local knowledge. By adopting artisanal production methods and respecting fair trade and the environment, the company mostly applies the principles of circular economy, in particular upcycling.
Stop Food Waste is an Irish initiative which aims to prevent food waste through better buying, storage and cooking, as well as through home composting.
Sopköket is a Swedish restaurant and catering company founded in 20215. It prepares meals which partly incorporate rescued and surplus food from supermarkets and other companies. Their goal is to reduce food waste.
ZĪLE is a Latvian fashion brand which develops its clothing while looking at a sustainable future, through the concept of upcycling. The label’s main resource materials are denim trousers, men’s shirts and imagination.
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:
Today, only 8.6% of the resources and materials in the global economy are reused or recycled.
A crucial transition to a circular economy is required to reach the environmental goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to achieve countries’ climate targets as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In this context, it is essential to ensure that the transition to a resource-efficient and circular economic model also delivers on social objectives.
This paper introduces the relevance of the circular economy in the international development SDG context. It also explores how a just transition approach can be successfully applied in the circular economy context.
Despite continuous advances in municipal waste management, there are still several waste streams that offer limited opportunities for material recovery and thus end up in landfills and incineration plants.
One challenging stream is the “bulky waste”, defined by the URBANREC project as “(mixed) waste from households and similar waste from companies that does not fit (because of its size, shape or weight) in the regular receptacles used for household waste collection".
In this context, the URBANREC project aims to develop and implement a comprehensive eco-innovative bulky waste management system (to enhance prevention and reuse, improve logistics and develop new waste treatment methods to obtain high added-value recycled products) and show its effectiveness in different regions.
Research on Remelting and Purification of Si-kerf for PV wafers is part of CABRISS, a European collaboration aimed to develop a circular economy mainly for the photovoltaic but also other industries such as electronics or metallurgy.
During production of silicon wafers out of silicon (Si) ingots and wafers, about 40–50% of the material is lost due to the cutting technique. The research had kerf from slurry based wafer cuttings undergoing several refining steps and being remelted into ingots for PV-application.
Conclusion: With 10% refined material, ingots were still directionally solidified, whereas with 100% refined material, they were not. The presented refining method does not allow for ingots with 100% refined material to be used as PV-material.
The project Recycling of broken Si based structures and solar cells is part of CABRISS, a European collaboration aimed to develop a circular economy mainly for the photovoltaic (PV), but also for other industries such as electronics or metallurgy.
The paper presents some tests in which broken solar cell structures coming from an early stage in the PV production process chain as well as broken finished solar cells have been recycled into new silicon (Si) feedstock through demetallisation, purification and directional solidification.
The paper explores two different routes to remove diffusion layers and anti-reflection coating (ARC) on broken cells. It also presents the characteristics of ingots produced with the Si-feedstock from the two routes by directional solidification.
In a resource-constrained world the future economy will need to be circular.
From a policy perspective, the question is whether averting catastrophic environmental impacts through an accelerated transition to a global circular economy can also deliver sustained growth and jobs.
Multiregional input−output (MRIO) analysis models the interdependencies between industries and within/between countries as well as between intermediate and final goods producers and consumers, thus providing a useful toolbox for assessing social, environmental, and economy-wide impacts of the adoption of the circular economy.
This research paper resorts to this toolbox to compare the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario to an alternative circular economy scenario.
The EU is currently engaged in two transformations that could change our economy and society for the better: circular economy and digital transformation. If managed well, and in unison, they could help the EU address one of its greatest challenges: to build a sustainable, green economy that is competitive on the global stage.
The publication by the European Policy Centre (EPC) builds on the EPC Task Force on the Digital Roadmap for Circular Economy findings to make recommendations for the EU institutions for the next five years.
The TF explored the linkages between digitalisation and the circular economy, the opportunities created by data and digitally-enabled solutions, and the challenges associated with harnessing their full potential for the transition to a circular economy.
Packaging plastics can offer an almost infinite range of options for manufacturers, both in terms of function and design. Their durability and resistance to degradation means that if they ‘leak’ into the environment, they stay there. Leakage has been increasing rapidly and its detrimental impact, especially on the marine environment, has attracted wide public and political concern.
EASAC established in 2018 an Expert Group to look at scientific aspects of plastics packaging and the circular economy. This report is the result of an 18-month investigation and reviews the negative consequences of the current linear economy for plastic packaging, the scope for improvement towards a more circular pattern and options for increasing recycling rates and reducing leakage into the environment.
The 2020 Report on the Circular Economy in Italy, developed by CEN (Circular Economy Network) in collaboration with ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) and Fondazione Sviluppo Sostenibile, analyses the state of play of the circular economy in Italy with, this year, a particular focus on the bioeconomy.
The report was presented during the 2nd National Conference on the Circular Economy livestreamed on 19 Marchfrom Rome. It was introduced by Edo Ronchi, President of CEN, and Roberto Morabito, Director of the Department for Sustainability, ENEA, and President of the Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP).
For a slide presentation of the report, click on the speakers Ronchi and Morabito.
This analysis by IEEP and SEI assesses to what extent the actions included in the new Circular Economy Action Plan published by the European Commission on 11 March 2020 may contribute to a more circular European economy within the boundaries of the planet.
The authors conclude that the action plan is a promising continuation of existing efforts, but ask for more concrete measures to address unsustainable resource consumption.
The authors make five recommendations to EU policymakers in this regard and emphasise the importance of EU Member States and the private sector showing leadership and willingness to innovate.
On 17 and 18 February the Lithuanian Innovation Center will hold a webinar on Sustainable Transport and Mobility Solutions with Circular Procurement. It will consist of presentations from public and private sectors including topics like green public procurement, sustainable mobility and transport innovation.
The Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE) organises a webinar on 1 March 2021 on moving towards a more circular model on textiles. Registrations are open!
Join the Finnish innovation Fund Sitra, the European Environment Agency and the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform to discuss how to create a level playing field for circular businesses and how to enable a transition to a circular economy through incentives that promote circularity. Rendez-vous on 25 March (13:00 to 14:30 CET).
How can the choice of the "best offer" enable the development of the circular economy? What is the state of regulation? Which obstacles to be unblocked can still be identified? Follow the webinar on Le mieux-disant au service de l’économie circulaire - i. e. the choice of the "best offer" to the benefit of the circular economy - on 4 February 2021.
The Metropolis of Greater Paris, INEC, ObsAR and Les Canaux are launching their support programme, the Circular and Social Purchases Programme, at a webinar on 3 February 2021 from 10.30 a.m. to 12 noon.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has set out five universal circular economy policy goals that provide a framework for national governments, cities and businesses to create a transition that fosters innovation and decouples growth from finite resource consumption and environmental degradation.
On 26 January 2021 Circle Economy will launch its annual Circularity Gap Report during the Virtual Davos Agenda Week hosted by the World Economic Forum.
The secretariat of the Sustainable, Long-term Investments & Competitive European Industry Intergroup has the pleasure to invite you to its first event of the year, Protecting the competitiveness of low carbon and circular industries in Europe: the case of Aluminium, a webinar on 26 January 2021.
On 28 January C2C will host its digital C2C Summit: Textiles & Supply Chain, focusing on Cradle to Cradle cycles and material health in the textile industry.
On 10 February, ACLIMA, ATI, EASME, DG GROW and ECESP organised the policy seminar on circular economy and advanced technology/digital policies. The panel discussed the ways industrial recovery policies realise a green, climate-resilient economy in the short and long terms, and how digital transformation respects the environment.
In preparation for the Annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in January 2020, PBL Netherlands and Utrecht University, in consultation with PACE, organised an international workshop on targets for a circular economy on 17 January 2020.
The first edition of the Circular Rethinking Academy - a winter school on Circular Economy - took place in Rovereto (Italy) from 3rd February to 5th March 2020.
The Beyond Growth -conference was held in Helsinki in October 2019. The conference report has been published.
Une centaine d’acteurs (décideurs, entreprises, collectivités, associations etc.) se sont réunis le lundi 27 janvier 2020 pour la conférence de l’Institut National de l’Économie Circulaire Loi anti-gaspillage pour une économie circulaire: quels changements pour les entreprises?
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is offering a 100 % online course on Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy.
A new web-portal to help cities become circular: the Circular City Funding Guide was launched 31 January 2020 at the Cities Forum in Porto, Portugal.
Due to the current Corona virus crisis, this year's annual Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference in Brussels has been postponed to a later date.
On the initiative of the ECESP coordination group Members Arthur ten Wolde (Ecopreneur.eu), Jean-Pierre Schweitzer (European Environment Bureau) and Chair Ladeja Godina Košir (Circular Change), an ECESP Breakfast meeting was organized on 29 January 2020 to introduce the Platform to MEPs working on the circular economy: achieving a circular economy through active stakeholder involvement.
Applications to the European Social Innovation Competition 2020 are now open! Under the theme Reimagine Fashion: Changing behaviours for sustainable fashion, the 2020 competition is looking for projects and ideas that will change the ways we produce, buy, use and recycle fashion, moving towards increased global sustainability and changing consumer behaviour at local, national and European levels.
Member of the ECESP Coordination Group Circular Change provides an overview of its activities in 2019. Circular Change is led by Ladeja Godina Košir - chair of the ECESP Coordination Group.
