Development Agencies in the Circular Economy
In many industrialised countries recycling is part of the daily routine and waste treatment is not a major problem. At least not at first sight. However, this is not the case in all parts of the wor...
All the Secrets of Cork, Circular by Nature
Forty million cells and only 0.16 grams per cubic centimetre. Around 90% air. These are some of the characteristics that make every single piece of cork unique. A naturally derived material that has...
A Heritage Worth Preserving
Looking at any map of the geographical distribution of cork oak (Quercus Suber L.), what immediately catches the eye is the precise area in which it has spread over time: the Mediterranean basin. Th...
An (Almost) Perfect Circle: Paper Recycling in Italy
Making a virtue of necessity. This has always been the mantra in the Italian paper industry. A Country of “poor” forests that are not particularly productive in terms of biomass, the Ita...
Ecodesign for Aluminium
Thinking circular. It sounds easy but, when dealing with industrial processes, the approach of having a common thread linking products from the cradle to the grave, and considering end-of-life recyc...
What If Karl Polanyi Was Right?
With this sentence, Karl Polanyi outlines the idea that, as of the early 1900s, society was forced to conform to the needs of the market mechanism instead of choosing the more logical approach of ec...
Re-designing the Future
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation “A circular economy is one that is restorative and regenerative by design.” The big challenge for innovators and pioneers is to desi...
Waste + Information = Resource
Circular economy principles rely on a very simple equation, “waste = resource.” However, the reality is somewhat different. For example, converting plastic waste into valuable material i...
For a Circular Europe
After years of delays, the European Parliament in Strasbourg has approved the Circular Economy (CE) Package. However, things have not yet come full circle. “The way for a new develop...
An Important Step Forward
Janez Potocnik – Forum for the Future of Agriculture, Brussels 2016 Adopted by the European Parliament on April 18th 2018 and approved by the European Council on...
The American Way
What is the difference in the way Brussels and Washington D.C. see the circular economy? To get an answer one should have attended the Fourth Circular Economy Summit, organised by the powerful US Ch...
BusinessEurope, Circular Means Business
©BUSINESSEUROPE / Photo: Erik Luntang “Business is fully on board with the circular economy revolution. Not only because it is good business to save resourc...
Circular Economy Package: The Packaging Directive
Packaging has found its place in the European Circular Economy Package, approved last April by the European Parliament. It involves a revision a revision of Special Directive 1994/62/CE on packaging...
The Plastic Route no Longer Leads East
A little girl plays among heaps of packaging and plastic waste coming from every corner of the world. She “fishes” for dead fish in a polluted stream, whilst sheep graze on bubblewrap in...
The Solution is Circular
When Daniel Webb opened his storage room, where for a whole year he had collected his plastic waste, a mountain of 4.490 bags, packaging, wrappings, containers, bottles, cups, cutlery, toothbrushes ...
Plastic Europe
What is the role of plastics today? “If they did not exist, modern society would have to invent them to ensure a sustainable future. The reason plastics are the go to material in so...
Cleaning Our Oceans? No Lack of New Ideas
Over the past few years, a trending environmental issues has been that of marine litter. It is a problem affecting many countries around the world. Contrary to what usually occurs, marine litter is ...
Despite Brussels, the Market for Bioplastics Keeps Growing
We can already find it in shopping bags, in many vehicle components, in toys and in food packaging. It’s bioplastic. Plastic that is not derived from oil but, in different percentages, from or...
The Cemetery of Cannibalised Refrigerators
The picture of a cemetery for refrigerators – cannibalised and discarded in an abandoned industrial site just outside Rome, a stone’s throw from Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli – p...
Bamboo Makes a Comeback
The Anjan Bridge in China is one of the oldest in the world and up until a few decades ago was entirely made of bamboo. Only at the end of last century were the bamboo canes replaced with steel cabl...