Find out about the EU’s circular economy action plan and what additional measures MEPs want to reduce waste and make products more sustainable. If we keep on exploiting resources as we do now, by 2050 we would need the resources of three Earths. Finite resources and climate issues require moving from a ‘take-make-dispose’ society to a […]
LIFE YEAST: Turning brewer’s yeast into new bioproducts
BDI biotechnology’s European LIFE YEAST project uses spent brewer’s yeast to transform it into new bio-products of great value for other sectors, contributing to the circular economy Context Spent brewer’s yeast is a by-product obtained in the brewing process, which is often sold as animal feed, and in many other cases is wasted and managed […]
A New Circular Economy Action Plan for a Cleaner and More Competitive Europe
The new Action Plan announces initiatives for the entire life cycle of products, from design and manufacturing to consumption, repair, reuse, recycling, and bringing resources back into the economy. It introduces legislative and non-legislative measures and targets areas where action at the EU level brings added value. The Action Plan is at the core of […]
The construction sector has the largest waste stream in the EU
At present, many of the material streams from demolition and renovation works are not suitable for reuse or high-grade recycling. This is stalling efforts in shifting to a circular economy. The EEA briefing ‘Construction and demolition waste: challenges and opportunities in a circular economy,’ says more must be done in preventing or recycling the large […]
H2020. Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials: Improving the sorting, separation and recycling of composite and multi-layer materials
Composite or multi-layer materials are increasingly used in different applications. Specific Challenge Products and materials are getting more and more complex, which affects the ability to retain the value of materials in successive uses. While the combination of different materials may provide unique and desirable properties to products, it also brings challenges for the sorting, […]
H2020. Develop and pilot circular systems in plastics, textiles and furniture sectors
In the past, innovation in sectors like plastics, textiles and furniture, often took place in silos, optimising for a specific aspect of the product or material. While these innovations have delivered improvements in one domain, they often weakened value creation or retention in other steps in the value chain, mostly downstream. Specific Challenge Systemic innovation should […]
Interreg Europe: RETRACE: Systemic Design for Circular Policymaking
The priority of the RETRACE project is to give a systemic approach to circular policy formulation within the Interreg Europe programme. RETRACE aims to promote systemic design as a method that allows local and regional policies to move towards a circular economy when waste from one production process is incorporated into another, preventing waste from […]
Circular Economy: Commission welcomes Council final adoption of new rules on single-use plastics to reduce marine plastic litter
The Council of the EU today adopted the ambitious measures proposed by the Commission to tackle marine litter coming from the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on European beaches, as well as abandoned fishing gear and oxo-degradable plastics. The rules on Single-Use Plastics items and fishing gear envisage different measures to apply to different product […]
Commission delivers on Circular Economy Action Plan
All 54 actions under the plan launched in 2015 have now been delivered or are being implemented. This will contribute to boost Europe’s competitiveness, modernise its economy and industry to create jobs, protect the environment and generate sustainable growth. The European Commission published a comprehensive report on the implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan it adopted […]