The COVID-19 may have hit the pause button on tourism, but it also highlighted the need to switch to the circular economy.

This report summarises the findings of a two-year policy dialogue with the city of Granada in Spain, and provides recommendations and a vision to transition to a circular economy. It draws on Granada’s own experience with the transformation of a wastewater treatment plant into a bio factory in 2015, which contributed to increased water reuse and the production of new material from waste. The report argues that the city of Granada can play a role as a promoter, facilitator and enabler of the circular economy. This will require a collective and coordinated approach across all stakeholders and levels of government.

An increasing number of countries consider implementing a deposit return system for single-use beverage containers to address today’s challenges, i.e.:

1. meeting new waste recovery targets,
2. ending littering and
3. moving towards a circular economy.

TOMRA shares lessons learnt from its 45+ years’ experience of innovating and managing deposit return systems globally in a new white paper including:

• outcomes of effective deposit return systems
• 4 key principles and 12 elements of high-performing deposit return systems
• dozens of case studies on real-world implementation of deposit return policy.

The white paper seeks to contribute to an educated discussion on recycling best practice – including what can be learnt from the past and what the future may look like.

This study explores developments in the field of the circular economy in the Arab States of the Gulf region to identify areas where the EU and the GCC countries can strengthen their collaboration. Focusing on two GCC countries with recent policy developments in this area: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the study first examines the current framework conditions that would shape prospects for a circular economy and then explores emerging business opportunities.

The research concludes that there are three main areas where the EU and GCC countries could further collaborate on the circular economy:

1. infrastructure development
2. regulatory enforcement, and
3. funding mechanisms.

The report was first published on the European External Action Service’s website.

ACR+ is launching a publication on the development and implementation of circular bioeconomy strategies in different contexts, focusing on three detailed regional case studies in Navarre, Bayern and Flanders.

Under a cooperation agreement with the French Pays de la Loire region, ACR+ has set up a working group on the circular bioeconomy, with a focus on governance. The working group aims to support the development of local and regional roadmaps for the circular bioeconomy, as public authorities steer and support the development of the circular bioeconomy on their patch.

The publication is the result of activities implemented by ACR+ through the working group.