Join us for an international online conference which is an EU Green Week 2021 Partner Event!
Producing clothes takes enormous amounts of chemicals (fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, bleach, dyes, etc), so clothes should stay in use for as long as possible. Second-hand counts! The conference will explore the second-hand sector in the EU and its Member States, with presentations and group discussions.
Commissioned by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), which advises the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and co-authored by Circle Economy and Shifting Paradigms, this report uncovers the range of socio-economic and environmental co-benefits that circular mitigation interventions can bring to GEF countries of operation.
The report supports strategic advice by the STAP to the GEF and its implementing partners, and helps carve out a role for these bodies in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon circular economy. Its findings will be highly relevant to the development of future GEF projects and programmes across its different focal areas.
The European Commission is organising a series of targeted stakeholder workshops to gather input on challenges and gaps as well as opportunities for the textile sector towards sustainability.
The first workshop on 26 May 2021, at 13.30-17.30 CEST, focuses on “management of used textiles”.
The Re-Use conference on 19 May will focus on the shift towards the circular economy in the textile sector. There will be exciting contributions on textiles and the circular economy from speakers such as Dr Willi Haas. The conference will be accompanied by the Theater im Bahnhof. Please note that the conference will be in German!
RE-sign has marketed an app matching up supply and demand for reclaimed construction materials.
Join Recyclers’ Talks #2 on 4 May to discuss what is needed to achieve a true circularity in textiles while lowering the impacts on the environment & climate and find out how different players in the textiles chain can contribute to this goal.
The Croatian project titled "Responsible Business for a Clean World" involves collecting unused soap in hotels and sending it to a soap factory, where it is cleaned, sterilised and recycled into new soap products, which are then offered back to customers at the hotel.
A team of researchers from the research centre CIEPQPF and the CFE of the University of Coimbra has developed an innovative application for recovered waste from walnut fruit: compounds with a “nematocidal” effect have been extracted that can control plant-parasitic nematodes affecting a wide range of species.
SEAclic is a project developed by the German company Storopack, which has created a packaging technology suitable for temperature-sensitive food products, such as fish. The bio-based version of the Storopack SEAclic Box is made from a new, compostable plastic.
The City of Helsinki has coordinated a project on the reuse of excavated soil in construction projects across the city. This project consists of improving coordination of how and where excavated soil is used.
The Danube Goes Circular is a circular economy platform, under the Interreg MOVECO project, which involves sixteen partners from the ten Danube countries. The platform offers a space for collaboration, awareness raising and a market place for reusable materials. Hence, it provides opportunities for trading materials and expanding their circularity.
Moreover, the platform offers information on how to extend a product’s useful life cycle and on legal requirements and business good practices linked to the promotion of circular economy.
Another benefit of the platform is that various stakeholders interested in circular topics can team up, which would ideally encourage the formation of partnerships.
For more information on the strategy named The Danube goes Circular, please click here.
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.
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.
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.
Zona Urbana is a fashion company based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since 2004, it designs and manufactures products with recycled materials, mainly bags or wallets.
Last Minute Market is a social enterprise, founded in 1998 as a research initiative and now a spin-off from the University of Bologna. Today, it is an entrepreneurial society working at the national level in Italy, developing local projects to recover unsold goods and benefit non-profit organisations. Its objective is zero waste.
013Circles is an initiative by the Dutch municipality of Tilburg for the promotion of circular textiles.
The Third Circular Economy Report (2021) by the Circular Economy Network and ENEA, besides providing the updated analysis on circular economy in Italy as compared to the main EU countries, includes a focus on the role of circular economy in the transition towards climate neutrality, as well as an update on the most important measures implemented at the national and European levels.
This report updates the analysis on the state of circular economy in Italy, assessing the results achieved in the areas of production, consumption, circular waste management, as well as investments and employment in recycling, repairing and reuse, with a comparison among the main economies in the EU: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland.
To read the report in full (in Italian), please click here.
Kitchen Dates is an environmentally friendly restaurant located in Lisbon. It has the particularity of operating without generating any waste - so no use for rubbish bins!
Fil&Fab has developed a technique to transform disused end-of-life fishing nets into plastic sheets, which are then used to create a series of new plastic products.
Fairmittlerei works as a connection hub between NGOs and industries for the purchasing of excess non-food products in industries.
BauKarussell is a consortium supported and co-run by industrial actors and the City of Vienna. It seeks to establish circular loops in the city's construction sector, with an emphasis on large-scale demolition. The platform focuses on compliance with new regulations and ensuring that reusable components are dismantled and made available for reuse through partnerships with large property developers.
Green practices are becoming standard practice in the construction sector in Austria, and this initiative is in line with that trend. Workers from social enterprises actually prepare material for reuse. It is estimated that the consortium could create around 9 000 jobs in Austria.
Carlavelorep is a non-profit social bicycle workshop run by Caritas Salzburg.
reWINE LIFE is a Catalonian project, running from 2016 to 2020 and co-financed by the EU's LIFE Programme. It sought to demonstrate the viability of reusing glass bottles in the local wine industry.
