Recycling packaging laminates through a process that separates composite materials
Saperatec is able to reclaim all individual raw materials from composite materials, thus making them available for recycling.
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Quench your thirst with Lowlander’s sustainable IPA made from discarded Christmas trees
Lowlander is a beer brewery from the Netherlands that is passionate about brewing botanical beer. For the Tree to Table initiative, Lowlander has created a tasty, white IPA beer out of hand-picked needles from Christmas trees.
PC4Change – Electronic refurbishing with the best of intentions
PC4Change is a project of the Reware Cooperative - Social Enterprise, specialized since 2013 in the refurbishing of computers dismissed by large companies.
WaysTUP!: Transforming urban waste into valuable products
The WaysTUP! project wishes to demonstrate the establishment of new value chains for urban bio-waste used in the production of high value purpose products, through a multi-stakeholder approach according to circular economy principles.
Donar - Furniture from recycled felt
The Donar company was established in 1989 in Slovenia, as demand for office interior development was growing. Starting as a small business, Donar has developed into one of the key players in design furniture with the highest environmental standards.
ReTuna Återbruksgalleria – the world’s first recycling mall
ReTuna Återbruksgalleria revolutionises shopping by being the world's first recycling mall in Eskilstuna, Sweden. ReTuna takes old items and gives them new life through repair and upcycling. The public can leave items in the recycling containers provided by the mall, and they are then redistributed to the shops.
European project BIOnTop: Promising results in development of new recyclable and compostable packaging
European project BIOnTop obtains promising results in development of new recyclable and compostable packaging. In its first year, BIOnTop has achieved good results in its experimental work on copolymers and compounds with customized biodegradability and multifunctional coating solutions with customized properties.
Swappis: loyalty rewards and community spirit encourage circularity in your wardrobe
Swappis is a clothing retail store in central Budapest that attempts to counteract the linear approach of the fashion industry by introducing a business model that focuses on circularity and the reuse of second-hand clothes. Their membership loyalty mechanism is designed to build a strong relationship with customers by encouraging them to choose sustainable options.
Red Alimenta: volunteers against food waste and social inequity in Toledo
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 Waste management Datacenter by LIPOR monitors waste flows, citizen’s participation and contributes to landfill diversion
LIPOR, the Intermunicipal Waste Management Service of Greater Porto, specializes in the treatment and recovery of municipal waste. Their digital platform, the Waste management Datacenter, optimizes the monitoring waste flows and the recovery of materials, which contributes to the reduction of biodegradable urban waste landfill disposal and the preparation of materials for reuse and recycling.
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EUMEPS op-ed on the ‘Renovation Wave’
EUMEPS op-ed: Thermal insulation improvements in the EU building Renovation Wave also promote the Circular Economy
The European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene (EUMEPS) is the voice of the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) industry. It has published an op-ed welcoming the European Commission’s commitment to a Renovation Wave and the outline of its strategy shared in the roadmap published in May 2020. It believes that this initiative is a great opportunity for scaling-up current renovation rates and EU’s climate and energy efficiency goals.
EUMEPS agrees that increased renovation can be a key contributor to creating jobs and stimulating economic recovery in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It embraces the Commission’s finding that buildings are also critical for making circularity work and its objective to implement the Renovation Wave in line with circular economy principles.
EIB Circular Economy Guide
An EIB Circular Economy Guide on how to support the circular transition
The European Investment Bank's Circular Economy Guide aims to promote a common understanding of circular economy, and raise awareness about and promote circular solutions.
The Guide provides information about EIB’s lending and advisory activities in this field, and communicates the vision of how the EIB can further support the transition to a circular economy. It is a living document that will be updated in response to the evolving understanding of circular economy needs, opportunities and risks, and growing experience with the appraisal and financing of circular economy projects.
Circular fashion and textile producing countries
Ecopreneur.eu: Circular fashion and textile producing countries
Textiles and clothing play an important role in our everyday life. But the global fashion industry model is unsustainable. It uses large amounts of resources and has negative impacts on the environment and people. The global fashion industry, therefore, has to make a transition towards a circular model. In a ‘circular’ fashion economy, clothes, textiles, and fibres are kept at their highest value during use and re-enter the economy to avoid becoming waste.
This research note produced by Ecopreneur.eu is a first inventory of the potential impacts of future EU circular fashion on non-European textile producing countries. It uses existing literature and input from four circular economy experts to analyse the economic, social and environmental impacts.
EuRIC Plastic Recycling Fact Sheet
EuRIC - Plastic Recycling Factsheet
Plastics represent a serious waste-handling problem with only 10% of the plastic waste generated worldwide being recycled. Plastics recycling is instrumental to close the loop of the circular economy by re-introducing into the economy high-quality plastic recyclates incorporated into new products.
The brochure highlights the importance of moving towards a circular economy for plastics in Europe. It identifies the most commonly used types of plastics and describes the current state-of-play, challenges faced by the European mechanical plastics recycling industry and key recommendations for overcoming them. Plastics recycling’s environmental benefits and economic importance are also touched upon.
Civil Society European Strategy for Sustainable Textile, Garments, Leather and Footwear
Civil Society European Strategy for Sustainable Textile, Garments, Leather and Footwear
A broad coalition of social and environmental NGOs has developed a Civil Society European Strategy for Sustainable Textiles, Garments, Leather and Footwear, looking at the social, environmental and governance implications of the textile sector in one forward-looking document ahead of the comprehensive EU Strategy for Textiles, expected in 2021.
The document aims to contribute to the upcoming comprehensive EU Strategy for Textiles, by providing recommendations on what such a Strategy should encompass in order to maintain a high level of ambition. It includes forward-looking proposals on due diligence, product policy framework, waste, unfair trading practices, international trade, support to producing countries, alternative business models and a multi-stakeholder platform.
Syctom Position Paper New Circular Economy Action Plan
Syctom Position Paper on the New Circular Economy Action Plan
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.
The Covid-19 recovery requires a resilient circular economy
The Covid-19 recovery requires a resilient circular economy
The coronavirus crisis has disastrous human and economic consequences, revealing our system's exposure to a variety of risks. As the pandemic forces us to adapt our daily lives in ways we would not have imagined, it is also challenging us to rethink the systems that underpin the economy.
While addressing public health consequences is clearly the priority, before the crisis, momentum had already been increasing around the need for a system reset, and the potential of a circular model.
Far from the pandemic pushing the circular economy agenda to the bottom of the list, this article by Jocelyn Blériot at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation highlights and reiterates that it is now more relevant than ever, and sets out to explore the wider possibilities for recovery.
Scaler Quick Guides – Helping industries increase efficiency through resource sharing
SCALER provides mechanisms to accelerate the journey towards efficient and quick implementation of industrial symbiosis in the European process industry. They do this by developing action plans and adapted solutions to industrial stakeholders and communities.
SCALER works closely with a wide range of stakeholders including industrial networks, consultancies, researchers and policy makers at various geographic and political levels, to deliver practical tools and guidelines for industry actors engaging in resource efficiency, reuse and sharing.
To achieve this goal, SCALER is developing a set of reports and guides. They offer insights into how businesses can start industrial resource synergies with other companies to minimise their waste and create more value from their production.
GLOPACK Position paper: Benefits of home compostable biodegradable materials for a sustainable food chain
GLOPACK investigates the benefits of home compostable biodegradable materials for a sustainable food chain
The GLOPACK (Granting society with LOw environmental impact innovative PACKaging) project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme, investigates food packaging with no environmental footprint and the ability to extend the shelf-life of food products.
The GLOPACK position paper aims at clarifying many debatable points related to bioplastics and biodegradability, especially terminology, and focuses on the benefits of biodegradable (in natural conditions) packaging material that can help the food sector enter the virtuous loop of the circular economy.
The paper also proposes some recommendations (basic, strategic and tactical interventions) to help all stakeholders in the food packaging sector to align with the common goal of ending plastic pollution.
Circular Aluminium Action Plan: A Strategy for Achieving Aluminium's Full Potential for Circular Economy by 2030
The Circular Aluminium Action Plan is the aluminium sector’s strategy for achieving aluminium’s full potential for a circular economy by 2030. The action plan aims to ensure that all end-of-life aluminium products are collected and recycled efficiently in Europe to maximise the aluminium recycling rates and to keep the material in active use. It builds on the aluminium industry’s Vision 2050 and provides policy recommendations for the sector.
The aluminium industry has the potential to be a key driver in achieving Europe’s ambitions for a climate-neutral and circular economy. Aluminium is by nature circular and fit for multiple recycling: it can be recycled over and over again without losing its original properties (lightness, conductivity, formability, durability, impermeability).
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Circular Conversations
Circular Conversations is a digital parlour created to host an open and critical exchange of ideas on what the next society and economy should look like and how to get there.
By initiating conversations with people of different perspectives, ideas and ideologies, disciplines and backgrounds, this decentralized and independent platform shares theories and practices able to shape the direction and design of the next economy.
To read more conversations like the interview with Rieta Aliredjo, 2019 circular economy stakeholder conference keynote speaker, on empowering kids to be circular starts, visit the blog here.
R-PVC Hub
R-PVC Hub is an innovative web platform, connected to the site of PVC Forum Italia, that offers the possibility for the exchange of recycled PVC, putting in contact offers and demands. The heart of the service is an online platform on which manufacturing companies, processors and recyclers can find new business opportunities.
ENEA Platform for Industrial Symbiosis
Enea has designed the first Italian industrial symbiosis platform, as a tool to facilitate the process.
The ENEA methodology is based on a "horizontal" network approach, with the aim of creating synergies and closing the loop between supply and demand for various resources.
The Platform is based on:
- an expert structure that identifies possible solutions of industrial symbiosis
- a complex information structure, also georeferenced, which describes the territory, its structures, the interlocutors and available resources
- a network that connects different interlocutors
- a web interface.
Among other activities and services, Symbiosis is able to send to to each company individual reports containing information on potential matches of interest. It is also developing operating manuals for industrial symbiosis.
Iberian Circular Economy Foundation (FEC)
The Circular Economy Foundation (FEC) is a private, Iberian ambit foundation working in areas related to circular economy, sustainability, resource use and environment.
FEC has launched PIPEC, a multi-participant Iberian platform (Spain, Portugal and Andorra) whose aim is promoting the Circular Economy and its potential advantages such as sustainable development, eco-competitiveness of companies, new proximity employment, reduction of dependence on raw materials, energy and material efficiency, reduction of the ecological footprint, promotion of local and quality production, prevention and minimization of waste, protection of natural capital, increased ecological resilience and the reduction of carbon emissions.
FEC has launched this platform in order to involve all actors in the life cycle (or value chains), with the aim of discussing the possible orientations and co-build innovative economic initiatives. PIPEC is structured in: "Multiparticipant" Working Groups and Sectorial Platforms.
Circular Economy Club: putting the circular economy on the map, locally and globally
The Circular Economy Club (CEC) is:
- an international network of over 3500 circular economy professionals and organizations from over 100 countries.
- non-for-profit, global and open to anyone willing to join the club for free.
The CEC vision: opening a new era where all cities worldwide function through a circular model, setting the end of an age of waste.
The CEC mission:
- bring the circular economy to cities worldwide by building strong local networks to design and implement circular local strategies; embed the circular economy in the education system; and
- help circular solutions scale.
These goals are achieved through the CEC online platform and three main programs:
- the CEC Organizers program: for circular leaders to bring the circular economy to live in their cities, universities, hubs and companies;
- the CEC Mentors program: for members with expert skills to give free advice to the most promising circular talent; and
- the CEC Global events: for members to ccoperate to the solution of local and global challenges.
Cirkelstad
Cirkelstad is a national platform connecting private entrepreneurs and policy-makers who are delivering the transition to a circular economy in pioneering Dutch cities. By facilitating their networking, the platform enables greater impact by spreading best practice.
In addition to a comprehensive database of good practice, research and policy guidelines to inspire practicioners, the Cirkelstad Academie also provides occassional trainings and provides advisory services to aspiring circular projects in Utrecht and Amsterdam.
To learn more about this hands-on network and connect with the 'spinners' coordinating activities in each city, visit the platform here.
Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform
The Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP) is a European joint industry value chain initiative, founded by two plastics industry associations (EuPC and PlasticsEurope) in order to advance the circular economy by increasing the reuse and recycling of polyolefin-based products and the use of recyclates as raw material.
Polyofelins are the most widely used family of plastics. They are present in every day life and are fully recyclable. Their main products are high, low and linear low density polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE) and polypropylene (PP). Polyethylene (PE) and PP represent close to 50% of the total European plastic production and are largely utilized in various plastic applications.
PCEP recognises that a business-as-usual approach will not enable the proposed challenging target of 55% plastic packaging "preparing for re-use and recycling” by 2025, as outlined in the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package, so the platform will be working for a 5-10 year horizon based on effective, science-based solutions. It will initially focus on polyolefin-based packaging as it represents the application segment where highest quantities of valuable recycled raw materials can be generated.
PCEP is developing activities in the following areas of work:
- Development of packaging design guidelines and assessment.
- Innovation to increase the recyclability of flexible and rigid packaging.
- EU-wide quality standards for sorted plastics, harmonisation of test methods for recycled plastic materials and certification of plastic recycling operations.
- Innovation & development of end-use markets to encourage demand for recycled plastics.
- Stimulating innovation to improve mechanical recycling, conversion technologies and reuse.
- Driving the R&D of new technologies to convert non-mechanically recyclable plastics into feedstock for the production of new materials.
gocircularnow - a campaign for consumers
#gocircularnow (GCN) is a consumer-focused campaign to advance the transition to a circular economy. It encourages a more sustainable way of living and consuming that’s realistic, affordable and simple to incorporate.
As part of this movement, GCN provides consumers with the information and means needed to ask their favourite brands to #gocircularnow, while providing clarity on the many different ways in which circularity can be of benefit to their daily lives.
GCN also promotes makers currently operating within the structures of circular production, bringing them to the attention of consumers so they can be seen as viable alternatives to non-circular brands.
Its mix of engaging content and opinion communicates in ways that take the conversation around sustainability out of its current ‘eco-bubble’, connecting with everyday realities to make conscious consumption the new normal.
MaterialDistrict: a unique match-making platform for innovative materials
MaterialDistrict is a unique platform for innovative materials which empowers global innovation by match-making material needs with material solutions in the name of circularity. R&D and design professionals of all industrial sectors use this platform to discover new material solutions daily via MaterialDistrict's independent collection of materials, annually at MaterialDistrict Rotterdam and periodically throughout the year with travelling MaterialDistrict Expo, MaterialDistrict Talks and MaterialDistrict Pop-Up events.
C-SERVEES
C-SERVEES is a network aiming at activating Circular Services in the Electric and Electronic Sector through the development, testing, validation and transfer of new circular economic business models based on systemic eco-innovative services that include:
- eco-leasing of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE),
- product customization,
- improved management of waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE),
- and ICT services to support the other eco-services.
ICT tools (relying on QR codes) will be developed as the driver of the proposed eco-innovative services to take full advantage of the potential and synergies of two major revolutions of our time: the circular economy and the Industry 4.0.
C-SERVEES will contribute to transform the E&E sector into circular and 4.0, raising new opportunities for end-users (such as their involvement in design or the access to a product as a service) and for social and solidarity economy (conducted by NGOs employing people at risk of social exclusion to repair and prepare WEEE for re-use). The techno-economic, environmental and social viability of the new circular economy business models will be validated through demonstrations dealing with four target products: washing machines, toner cartridges, telecom equipment and TVs.
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14 Oct 2020
As part of Circular Week 2020, this meeting will highlight how Finland is building a circular economy system and how important a holistic approach to this concept is. We will learn about the latest circular packaging materials presented by representatives of Finnish companies. In the end, a matchmaking session will be held for interested business representatives.
24 Sep 2020
In this series of webinars, We are Circular will present best circular practices and organisations from all over the world in order to distill success formula, investigate business models and meet people behind the concept.
20 Oct 2020
In the EU, waste water and solid waste are separately managed. Syctom and SIAAP, through their project COMETHA, aim to demonstrate the available synergies in institutional and technical cooperation regarding the circular economy principles for carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and the optimisation of renewable energy production. Target: a future with “zero non-recovered sludge and solid waste".
10 Sep 2020
The Benelux Builds Circular Webinar on 10 September is a policy discussion on circular construction from a national, Benelux and EU standpoint.
22 Sep 2020
This transnational event will explore why circular economy approaches are beneficial for the environment and society, and show the financial benefits for the organisations that buy furniture this way.
10 Sep 2020
The CircLean Open Day Event, which will be held in virtual format on 10 September, 2-3.30 pm CET, is an opportunity to learn and discuss about the CircLean network, monitoring and reporting approach, tool and label.
08 Sep 2020
On 8 September 2020 the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Commission (EC) will hold the 16th meeting (online) of the Technical Platform for Cooperation on the Environment, dedicated to "How can local and regional authorities use the circular economy as an enabler of a sustainable recovery?"
07 Sep 2020 to 08 Sep 2020
Les Assises de l’économie circulaire reviennent les 7 et 8 septembre 2020 avec un événement inédit - web et 100% gratuit - pour aborder des sujets de fond, concrets, au bénéfice et à la portée de tous et de chacun.
13 Oct 2020
100 eco-innovative solutions supporting the transition towards CE, an unprecedented detailed mapping of waste flows and wastescapes, a multi-dimensional and multiscalar LCA based sustainable assessment and a transdisciplinary knowledge generation methodology, all developed within innovative co-creational peri-urban living labs (PULL) and an online geodesign decision support environment (GDSE).
22 Sep 2020
An interactive event incorporating a holistic view of the Circular Economy. Come hear how Nordic Values are driving the Circular Economy with both Nordic and international speakers to be announced.
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11 Mar 2020
According to the 7th edition of the International Seminar on Biopolymers and Sustainable Composites organized by AIMPLAS on 4 and 5 March, bioplastic production is expected to increase by 15% by 2024 and is carving out a niche in the construction and automotive sectors.
01 Apr 2020
In March Ecopreneur.eu published the preliminary results of a study on the potential impacts of an EU circular fashion industry on non-EU textile producing countries.
03 Apr 2020
Following the publication of the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) by the European Commission in early March, the members of the Coordination Group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform have issued a joint statement on the CEAP, while also reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world.
31 Mar 2020
The French "Institut National de l'Economie Circulaire" (INEC) and Orée have published a co-authored study to better understand circular economy initiatives dynamics at work in different countries.
26 Mar 2020
At times of Covid-19 quarantine, Belgian startup ASmartWorld who reconditions second-hand smartphones, took the initiative to distribute them free of charge in old people's homes to help guests reconnect with their families.
18 Mar 2020
Check out the Circular Conversation - A Circular Bridge for Europe - with Ladeja Godina Košir, Chair of the Coordination Group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP).
17 Mar 2020
The H&M Group proposes a B2B initiative to help its clients to accelerate sustainable production efficiently. Treadler offers external companies to access the Group’s global supply chain and its extensive circular strategy.
16 Mar 2020
This competition for start-ups less than 5 years and located in Europe, aims at rewarding businesses that are facilitating Circular Economy innovations.
11 Mar 2020
The European Commission today released the plan that sets the course of EU initiatives on the circular economy for the coming years.
10 Mar 2020
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.